http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000118613908976&rtmo=VkPlkkjx&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/5/3/nfnm203.html

Thursday 3 May 2001

It's curtains for Phoenix as career in TV and pantomime beckons
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent

PHOENIX, the Charollais calf which survived two attempts by Government vets to kill her, faces another final curtain call - a dozen times a week as a pantomime cow.

The little white calf, credited with putting 10 Downing Street into a spin and altering the course of Government policy on foot and mouth, has been offered a starring part in a six-week run of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Wimbledon Theatre at Christmas.

Qdos, the country's biggest panto production company, has offered to pay her "well above" the Equity minimum rate of £400 a week and is also negotiating to become sole agent for the heifer.

The company says she could earn up to £100,000 in the next few months by cashing in on her fame. Fred Board, Phoenix's delighted owner, admitted yesterday: "It beats farming."

His brother Philip, who is caring for Phoenix on the family farm near Axminster, Devon, said the offer was the best of many received since Phoenix appeared on the front page of The Telegraph.

He said: "We haven't signed anything yet but it's very tempting. The money would solve a lot of things." The family has also been approached with offers to make cuddly Phoenix toys, to put her face on T-shirts and coffee mugs, to display her at agricultural shows and to promote veterinary drugs.

The calf is fortunate to be alive. Born on Friday April 13, she was supposed to have been given a lethal injection by vets last month along with 70 other cattle and 47 sheep on the Boards' farm. But when contractors arrived a few days later to spray the carcasses with disinfectant they found her alive.

A Ministry of Agriculture team returned to kill her but the Boards resisted them. Maff threatened to obtain a court order but Downing Street, horrified by the publicity, stepped in to save her.

Now, her future could be as rosy as the brief showbusiness careers of the Tamworth Two, Butch and Sundance, the pigs that went on the run for eight days in 1998 after escaping from an abattoir in Wiltshire.

They were signed by an agent, were fought over by tabloid newspapers for their "life story", appeared on TV shows and at agricultural shows at £1,500 a day and inspired a clutch of children's books.

Peter Conway, creative director of Qdos, said he had already approached the makers of the TV series Emmerdale and Heartbeat for Phoenix to make guest appearances.

27 April 2001: Why Blair decided to rescue Phoenix
26 April 2001: Phoenix is saved as Blair changes slaughter policy
26 April 2001: Phoenix rises victorious after day of debate
25 April 2001: Phoenix, the calf they couldn't cull, fights on
1 February 1998: Runaway pigs to ham it up on breakfast TV