A new documentary has revealed the strange story of a couple who raised a grizzly bear 'like a child' and turned him into an international celebrity.
Back in the 1970s, professional Scottish wrestler Andy Robin and his wife Maggie ended up purchasing a nine-month-old bear from a wildlife park for just £50 (around $66).
The couple, who had no children of their own, resided on a ranch in the Scottish hills where they raised the grizzly bear, Hercules, as their own son, and fed him a 'human diet', including coffee and the occasional alcoholic tipple. They also tamed and taught him how to wrestle, took him around the world and, in turn, shot to fame for their extraordinarily unusual 'family' dynamic.
Now, a documentary about their inseparable bond is being told decades later in a new BBC documentary, Hercules the Bear: A Love Story, featuring some never-before-seen home video footage and interviews.
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Maggie, now 74, recalls in the documentary how she and her late husband fell in love with the animal they dedicated every day to, up until Hercules' tragic death in February, 2000, when the grizzly was 26.
"It was a love story. Between the three of us, it was a definite love story.
"Nobody's ever lived like that with a bear before and never will probably," Maggie says.
A snippet of the documentary shows Herc, who measured up 8ft tall and almost 65 stone (910lbs), could give his 'mom' a cuddle and would chow down on a mountainous breakfast of eggs, sausages, beans, bread, followed by a cup of coffee, every day.
Part of his daily routine involved running or swimming with Andy for hours on end as they trained for wrestling events together, and then popping by the local bar, where Herc glugged down a shandy.
Maggie confessed the bear had become 'tipsy' a few times on his favorite tipple, Babycham, which turned him into a 'big, stumbly, fur coat'.
"He was a very spoiled bear," she added, as she cooked from morning till night to satiate his humungous appetite.
Meanwhile, Andy called the domesticated predator his 'son' and his 'boy' in the doc - and a 'fussy eater'.
The wrestler's fascination with bears sparked when he was challenged to take on Terrible Ted, a black bear, in the ring in 1965. The unusual situation inspired him to remarkably train and tame his own.
The former show jumper attributed the close bond between the trio to one of mutual trust.
"Hercules gave us his trust," Maggie said. "That's what really happened. And we gave him ours."
The show also told the story of how Maggie met Andy, who was 16 years her senior, when she was just 21.
Captivated by his performance in the ring, the young woman became besotted by the 37-year-old. The pair's relationship became the talk of the town, which didn't exactly die down when they purchased a bear cub that moved into their home in August, 1975.
As Hercules grew in size, so did his reputation, initially emerging as a local celeb in Scotland as he wrestled with Andy at local shows and made appearances on TV.
However, he shot to international fame overnight in 1980 when after recording for an ad for Kleenex, he slipped out of his collar and wandered off into the Outer Hebrides, sparking a widespread bear-hunt with police, soldiers, and helicopters deployed to scour the vast hills in a desperate search.
Though the Robins called for calm, believing their beloved 'wee boy' wouldn't hurt a fly, it wasn't until three weeks later that Hercules was finally found - emaciated, with a 15-stone weight loss which the pair said proved their gentle giant was incapable of causing harm since he disliked the taste of raw flesh.
The dramatic moment he was scooped up in a net from an aircraft and lowered into a truck made global headlines.
After that, Herc's diary was booked out, from US talk show appearances, children's shows, worldwide book tours, a Disney documentary, and an abundance of photoshoots to splash on front covers across the globe.
He was also crowned Personality of the Year by the Scottish Tourist Board in 1980, met UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, received a presidential telegram from Ronald Reagan, and made his movie debut when he landed a role with Roger Moore in the 1993 James Bond film, Octopussy.
Eventually, tragedy struck the Robins when Hercules suffered a back injury followed by sepsis and he passed away.
Maggie recalls how Andy never truly recovered from the loss, and when his time on Earth came to an end in December 2019 after battling cancer, his widow knew the 84-year-old needed to be laid to rest beside his 'big fella'.
Hercules the Bear: A Love Story will be available to watch and stream on BBC Two as of 6pm on December 30.
Topics: Animals, BBC, Scotland, World News
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