When Fred began his new career as a television star, he arrived at the studios in style, chauffeur-driven in a pale green sportscar with all the home-comforts of his cage transported with him.
Fred plays an important part in the Thames TV serial, Ace of Wands; which is about the adventures of the master magician, Tarot. It is not exactly a speaking part. Fred's job is to look owlish and inscrutable at all times, which he won't find too difficult as he happens to be an own himself - a Brazilian fishing owl.
His greatest difficulty is remembering his stage name, Ozymandias (Ozzie for short). Certainly Fred isn't called upon to emulate that other Ozymandias of Shelley's poem, the "king of kings" reduced to "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" in the desert.
Tarot, however, is a king of kings - in the magical field. He is also a ruthless enemy of evil and a detective who uses his magic to foil master criminals.
Michael Mackenzie plays Tarot and Judy Loe his assistant Lulli in the serial which started last Wednesday. Tarot and Lulli can read each other's minds, a gift which proves of distinct advantages during their hair-raising adventures. Also in their team are the enterprising Sam (played by Tony Selby) and the eccentric but invaluable Mr. Sweet (Donald Layne-Smith) who was a computer brain.
Where magicians are concerned, nothing is straightforward. Even Fred finds it difficult to look inscrutable when Tarot sets to work. What looks like a gun may not be a gun at all, and anyway it may be changed into a dove.
If you see Tarot bound, gagged, hung with lead weights and dropped into a lake, you can be fairly certain that he's in little danger of drowning.
You'll be very confused when you watch Lulli (or what looks like Lulli) suddenly disappearing, and you probably won't be very sure afterwards of Tarot was performing a clever trick - like stage magicians - or whether it was genuine magic.
One of Tarot's baffled enemies is Madame Midnight, the only woman capable of destroying the magician - if anyone can. Her organisation is vast and disciplined, her headquarters guarded by an amazing battery of scientific wonders. She commands a small army of desperate criminals.
But poor Madame Midnight is driven to exclaim: "Tarot? The man is not human!" She may be right. Tarot's origins and the source of his mysterious power are part of the excitement of Ace of Wands. Perhaps not even Ozymandias the Owl can give you a full explanation.
The article was accompanied by a photograph of Fred.