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During Becky Milligan’s more than three decades as a journalist, she still remembers her encounter with a bottlenose dolphin, Freddie, that touched people in the British seaside town of Amble in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Freddie was all people talked about. Crowds waved and cheered from the pier as Freddie took acrobatic leaps and deep dives in the North Sea. Camera crews and reporters would gather to capture the excitement.
“People remember the dolphin, but they don’t know what the outcome was,” Milligan tells Rolling Stone.
In Wondery’s Hooked on Freddie, from the independent podcast company Blanchard House, listeners learn all about the relationship between Freddie and animal-rights activist Alan Cooper that received nationwide attention from locals and tourists alike. After feuding with dolphin trainer Peter Bloom, Cooper faced criminal charges of sexually assaulting Freddie, creating a tabloid frenzy. It’s a strange and unusual story, podcast host Milligan admits, that has stained Cooper’s life.
The wild bottlenose dolphin was beloved by all in Amble but had a special connection to Cooper, who spent hours with Freddie, rain or shine.
As a student journalist, Milligan traveled to Amble in 1987 for an audio documentary that focused on clinical depression and swimming with dolphins. In her early 20s, she slipped into an oversized dry suit and was overcome with fear as she watched Freddie dart toward her. “I did see a fin, and I really thought, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, I don’t want to be here,’” Milligan recalls.
Milligan remembers gasping for air as Freddie carried her through the water with great speed. After she returned to the boat, she questioned Gordon, a lifeboat mechanic, about how Freddie was able to pull her through the sea. He answered in euphemisms; she was swimming with an amorous dolphin, she recalls. In other words: Milligan was whipped through the water by clinging on to Freddie’s erection.
“I caught a glimpse of something, sort of like, ‘Hang on a minute, this is a bit strange,’ and I couldn’t get off it,” Milligan says. “His penis was holding tight onto me and he was having fun whizzing through the water.”
It’s this action that partially inspired the podcast name, Hooked on Freddie, Milligan explains, as well as the town’s attachment to the bottlenose dolphin. After rediscovering bags and bags of cassette tapes, Milligan introduced the idea to Rosie Pye, co-founder and creative director of Blanchard House. Milligan joined Blanchard House as a presenter in 2021.
“It really connected with me immediately,” Pye says. “And I also thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to have a story where part of it is underwater?”
Sound designer Volkan Kiziltug ensured all of the dolphin clicks heard throughout the six-part series originated from non-captive dolphins at the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in Spain. In the podcast, Milligan sat down with a dolphin expert, Amble locals, Bloom, the then owner of the Flamingo Land dolphinarium that Cooper protested, and Cooper, who is able to come to terms with the unusual accusation 30 years later.
“It’s also how one accusation, which as you say, ‘It’s a bit weird, feels a bit strange and uncomfortable in a way,’ but how that can undermine someone,” Milligan says.
The podcast’s turning point comes when a boat of people watch Cooper swim with Freddie and report that Cooper was masturbating the dolphin. In 1991, Cooper heads to trial on sexual assault charges, drawing tabloid attention. After less than an hour in the courtroom, he’s determined to be innocent.
Although Cooper is ultimately acquitted of the charges, Milligan says he found the incident soul-crushing, and she wanted to be empathetic toward Cooper and his story. With episodes of Hooked on Freddie now available on Wondery+, Amazon Music and other platforms, Milligan admits the story is laughable and a little embarrassing, but hopes listeners will recognize that the action is natural behavior for the mammal: “If you just wait to hear what the other side of the story is, it’s quite interesting.”
