A TVNZ true-crime documentary series explores the unusual case of lions reportedly killing a Rotorua poodle - but how true is the story?
Who Killed Lucy The Poodle? goes into the infamous case and tries to uncover the facts and details behind the story.
Director Kent Briggs joined the Afternoons team to discuss further.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
So we've been talking about terrifying encounters with exotic creatures.
On the line now is Kent Briggs. He's the director
of Who Killed Lucy? The Poodle documentary series about the
day three lines managed to escape and run a mock
and wrote to rua Kent afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
To you good ad guys. Here you go very good.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
So there's been a bit of talk about a scorpion
running a mark, but that's nothing on lions. You don't
expect to see lions running around the central plateaus. So
tell us the story, Kent. How did it all happen?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Oh, Cricky dot well Stepan. It was back in the eighties,
a beautiful summer's day.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
It was a sold out Matt made performance of the
Whirling Brothers circus and my brother and I were heading
off there as our first unaccompanied excursion on the school holidays.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And we rocked on down there. Heard on the radio
that morning that the lions someone had fed the bosses
performing circus poodle to the lion, and yeah, Lucy and
an act of sabotage. So we heard us and we
went in with us knowing this, and we sat down
took our seat. The first act was the lions. They
came out and they were kind of back chatting. The
(01:29):
lion tamer, the famous Tiny Ratcliffe. They were playing up,
but he got through the act and they did the
final thing. It was a circular cage and they were
running around the lion tamer in a circle and the
cage is kind of flexing, and then the door just
popped open and out popped three fully grown lions. The
(01:54):
male lion, in spectacular fashion, came out of the cage
across the center of the ring and leapt through the
side of the tent. There were people. There were people
who were looking for free like who'd been looking underneath it.
And then the lionesses came out and they just slowly
(02:16):
sort of stalk under the teared seating. It was. It
was freaky, yeah, and all these circus people sort of
came out with improvised lion taming instruments in a seat
of chairs and sex and whatever they could get. The
lions disappeared. I was left there with my looking to
(02:37):
my ten year old brother. I was seven for guys
I want to do in this situation. And we held
tight and about after about five ten minutes, which seemed
like forever, a voice came over the PA and said,
make your way out of the circus and home and
in orderly fashion, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Feels like the circus was a safer place to be
than making your way home.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, well, you know, my brother, my brother, he nutted up,
as they say, and he said, let's go, and we
took off. We ran back through about three blocks of
to my mum's shop, which was shim Sham the eighties
fashion shot, which is another wild story in itself, but
we expected lions to leap out of every shop doorway
(03:26):
and from behind every car. It was. It was surreal
and bloody awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And how long were the how the because you know,
you got basically lions walking along the through a waterfront.
How long were they? You know, how how long were
they on the lamb? How long were they on the loose?
These lines?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They were at large for a good two and a
half hours.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
It's a good ja.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, sorry, mate, I just said, there's a good John
two and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's a bloody good John. There and look there with
some of these absolute legends that I could not track
down for level money. Who chased them on BMX likes.
They chased a couple of the lions. The one of
the cops crashed into a line. We've to actually crick
down a photo of the cop car crashing it for
the Lion of the Airborne. And yeah, they got they
(04:17):
got the they got the girls in and then Sam Beezy,
who was the dangerous male, ended up crawling under the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital under there, and they sent the circus under.
They set up a cage where the exit was and
the circus sooner jumped in that cage. The guided into
(04:38):
the bigger cage, but he sent his wife Michelle under
the Pody hospital with a sniper on the line and
they managed to get it out. So yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
And so the Lions didn't didn't attack anyone, and their
and their little roll around.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
They well behaved, very polite, very well behaved.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Wow, and what amazing stories. So they weren't in trouble
when they because one of them got hit by a
police car obviously, But apart from that were the lions okay,
And they weren't in trouble. No one, No one was
calling for them to be put down or anything. They
just returned to the circus and circus was told to
maybe tighten their security or something.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I got to say, mate, the more I found out
about the circus, the more it was a circus. Just
another day in the life, mate, And did you quite.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Did you ever get to the bottom of what happened
to Lucy the Dog?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Mate? Look the documentary and some real spectacular characters, and
there were three long there were three really good hard threats,
if you know what I mean. And I'll leave it
at that because it's worth watch.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, where can people see who killed Lucy the Poodle?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Well, it was on TV and Z for a long time,
but it's popped off now. I don't know if there's
some of the music out of a license or something
like that, but I think I might have to chuck
it up on YouTube. If so, one should be up
there on YouTube for people to watch and they'll get
a good taste of what it's all about.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So look it up. Yeah, one amazing one, an amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
The twists and turns involved, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It's bare And I'll tell you the other crazy thing
was that there were no health and safety laws that
got them in trouble. The cop went down the next
day and coincidentally, David longe was in town who was
a friend of the circus owners, and David Longey acted
as his lawyer, and.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Just when it couldn't get stranger, and he said.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm sorry you, you can't do a thing. No one
got hurt. You'll be turning around the march back out.
And the cop was like, well, I can't say no
to the bloody Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So that was that I can smell the poodle on
its breath or something like that. Well, thanks for sharing that, Kent,
and yeah, look up who who killed Loose the Poodle
on YouTube. No, it's a great watch with the great documentary.
And yeah, thanks for talking to us.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Ah, you're very welcome. Jims, you're very welcome. You have
a good day, you two.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Thank you very much. Kent Briggs, the director of their
documentary Who Killed Lucy the Poodle? Go and find out
what a fascinating story meant.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
So we've been talking about terrifying encounters with exotic creatures.
On the line now is Kent Briggs. He's the director
of Who Killed Lucy? The Poodle documentary series about the
day three lines managed to escape and run a mock
and wrote to rua Kent afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
To you good ad guys. Here you go very good.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
So there's been a bit of talk about a scorpion
running a mark, but that's nothing on lions. You don't
expect to see lions running around the central plateaus. So
tell us the story, Kent. How did it all happen?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Oh, Cricky dot well Stepan. It was back in the eighties,
a beautiful summer's day.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
It was a sold out Matt made performance of the
Whirling Brothers circus and my brother and I were heading
off there as our first unaccompanied excursion on the school holidays.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
And we rocked on down there. Heard on the radio
that morning that the lions someone had fed the bosses
performing circus poodle to the lion, and yeah, Lucy and
an act of sabotage. So we heard us and we
went in with us knowing this, and we sat down
took our seat. The first act was the lions. They
came out and they were kind of back chatting. The
(01:29):
lion tamer, the famous Tiny Ratcliffe. They were playing up,
but he got through the act and they did the
final thing. It was a circular cage and they were
running around the lion tamer in a circle and the
cage is kind of flexing, and then the door just
popped open and out popped three fully grown lions. The
(01:54):
male lion, in spectacular fashion, came out of the cage
across the center of the ring and leapt through the
side of the tent. There were people. There were people
who were looking for free like who'd been looking underneath it.
And then the lionesses came out and they just slowly
(02:16):
sort of stalk under the teared seating. It was. It
was freaky, yeah, and all these circus people sort of
came out with improvised lion taming instruments in a seat
of chairs and sex and whatever they could get. The
lions disappeared. I was left there with my looking to
(02:37):
my ten year old brother. I was seven for guys
I want to do in this situation. And we held
tight and about after about five ten minutes, which seemed
like forever, a voice came over the PA and said,
make your way out of the circus and home and
in orderly fashion, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Feels like the circus was a safer place to be
than making your way home.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, well, you know, my brother, my brother, he nutted up,
as they say, and he said, let's go, and we
took off. We ran back through about three blocks of
to my mum's shop, which was shim Sham the eighties
fashion shot, which is another wild story in itself, but
we expected lions to leap out of every shop doorway
(03:26):
and from behind every car. It was. It was surreal
and bloody awesome.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
And how long were the how the because you know,
you got basically lions walking along the through a waterfront.
How long were they? You know, how how long were
they on the lamb? How long were they on the loose?
These lines?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
They were at large for a good two and a
half hours.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
It's a good ja.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, sorry, mate, I just said, there's a good John
two and a half hours.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's a bloody good John. There and look there with
some of these absolute legends that I could not track
down for level money. Who chased them on BMX likes.
They chased a couple of the lions. The one of
the cops crashed into a line. We've to actually crick
down a photo of the cop car crashing it for
the Lion of the Airborne. And yeah, they got they
(04:17):
got the they got the girls in and then Sam Beezy,
who was the dangerous male, ended up crawling under the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital under there, and they sent the circus under.
They set up a cage where the exit was and
the circus sooner jumped in that cage. The guided into
(04:38):
the bigger cage, but he sent his wife Michelle under
the Pody hospital with a sniper on the line and
they managed to get it out. So yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
And so the Lions didn't didn't attack anyone, and their
and their little roll around.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
They well behaved, very polite, very well behaved.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Wow, and what amazing stories. So they weren't in trouble
when they because one of them got hit by a
police car obviously, But apart from that were the lions okay,
And they weren't in trouble. No one, No one was
calling for them to be put down or anything. They
just returned to the circus and circus was told to
maybe tighten their security or something.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I got to say, mate, the more I found out
about the circus, the more it was a circus. Just
another day in the life, mate, And did you quite.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Did you ever get to the bottom of what happened
to Lucy the Dog?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Mate? Look the documentary and some real spectacular characters, and
there were three long there were three really good hard threats,
if you know what I mean. And I'll leave it
at that because it's worth watch.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Yeah, where can people see who killed Lucy the Poodle?
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Well, it was on TV and Z for a long time,
but it's popped off now. I don't know if there's
some of the music out of a license or something
like that, but I think I might have to chuck
it up on YouTube. If so, one should be up
there on YouTube for people to watch and they'll get
a good taste of what it's all about.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
So look it up. Yeah, one amazing one, an amazing thing.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
The twists and turns involved, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It's bare And I'll tell you the other crazy thing
was that there were no health and safety laws that
got them in trouble. The cop went down the next
day and coincidentally, David longe was in town who was
a friend of the circus owners, and David Longey acted
as his lawyer, and.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Just when it couldn't get stranger, and he said.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I'm sorry you, you can't do a thing. No one
got hurt. You'll be turning around the march back out.
And the cop was like, well, I can't say no
to the bloody Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So that was that I can smell the poodle on
its breath or something like that. Well, thanks for sharing that, Kent,
and yeah, look up who who killed Loose the Poodle
on YouTube. No, it's a great watch with the great documentary.
And yeah, thanks for talking to us.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Ah, you're very welcome. Jims, you're very welcome. You have
a good day, you two.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Thank you very much. Kent Briggs, the director of their
documentary Who Killed Lucy the Poodle? Go and find out
what a fascinating story meant.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio,
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