Bill Oddie

William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE, MA (Cantab.) (born on July 7, 1941 in Rochdale (then in Lancashire)) is a comedy writer and performer, author, composer and musician. A birdwatcher since his childhood in Birmingham, Oddie has now established a reputation for himself as an ornithologist, conservationist and television presenter on wildlife issues. Some of his books are illustrated with his own paintings and drawings.

Early life

On a 2004 episode of the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are?, Oddie was invited to investigate his family history. The programme revealed that Oddie was raised primarily by his father after his mother was placed into long term psychiatric care suffering with bipolar disorder; and that his mother had had one miscarriage and then lost another child, a girl, after five days. It was suggested that Oddie's grandmother had prevented his mother from attending to the girl, who was crying. His mother subsequently found the child dead. Oddie speculated that his mother would have felt that his grandmother (whom she lived with) was to blame for the death of her daughter and that this psychological trauma may well have contributed to her mental ill health. For Oddie, who had previously believed that his mother had abandoned him in childhood, "it undemonised her".

Comedy and music

After attending King Edward's School, Birmingham, Oddie studied English Literature at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he appeared in several Cambridge University Footlights Club productions, one of which, A Clump of Plinths, was so successful during its run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that the revue was renamed as Cambridge Circus, and transferred the revue to the West End in London, and then later took the revue to New Zealand and Broadway. While still at Cambridge Oddie wrote scripts for TV's That Was The Week That Was.

His first televison appearance was in Bernard Braden's Braden Beat in 1964. Subsequently, he was a key member of the performers in the cult BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (ISIRTA; 1965), where many of his compositions were featured. Some of these were released on the album Distinctly Oddie (Polydor, 1967). He was possibly one of the first performers to parody a rock song, arranging the traditional Yorkshire folk song "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at" in the style of Joe Cocker's hit rendition of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", and singing "Andy Pandy" in the style of a brassy soul number such as Wilson Pickett or Geno Washington might perform. In many shows he would do short impressions of Hughie Green.

In one song on I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, Oddie performed "What a Wonderful World" with a voice fully reminiscent of Louis Armstrong. During the course of the song, the rest of the cast attributed the gravelly quality of his voice to a bad cold. In the background, during the rest of the song, it is possible to hear the cast call for a doctor, the arrival of the doctor and his decision that Oddie should go into hospital, the trip to hospital in an ambulance, and the operation extracting his tonsils. After this, the sound of his voice changed to a sound closer to that of Harry Secombe. He thanked the cast for curing him.

On television Oddie was co-writer and performer in the comedy series Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Jonathan Lynn. Later, he was co-writer and performer in the comedy series Broaden Your Mind with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, for which Oddie became a cast member for the second series).

Oddie co-wrote many of the episodes of the television comedy series Doctor in the House with Graeme Garden. He also appeared as the hapless window cleaner in one of the two films made of Eric Sykes' comedy story The Plank.

Oddie was a member of 1970s BBC TV trio The Goodies, in which he starred with ISIRTA colleagues Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor (also veterans of Cambridge Footlights). He portrayed the rebel, to Brooke-Taylor's conservative and Garden's boffin, with long hair and a poster of Che Guevara in his corner. The Goodies also released records, including "Funky Gibbon", a chart hit single in 1975. They reformed, briefly, in 2005, for a successful 13-date tour of Australia. The three have worked together since the demise of the Goodies, including the 1983 animated television series, Bananaman, that parodied comic super-hero adventures. Oddie voiced the characters of "Crow", "Chief O'Reilly", "Doctor Gloom", "Eric" and "the Weatherman".

He was the compere of a daytime BBC gameshow, "History Hunt" (2003); and has featured in a Doctor Who audio drama.

He plays the drums and saxophone and appeared as Cousin Kevin in a production of The Who's rock opera Tommy at the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London on 9 December 1972. He has also contributed vocals to a Rick Wakeman album, "Criminal Record".

Conservation and birdwatching

Oddie's first published work was an article about Birmingham's Bartley Reservoir in the West Midland Bird Club's 1962 Annual Report. He has since written a number of books about birds and bird watching, as well as articles for many specialist publications including British Birds, Birdwatching Magazine and Birdwatch. He became president of the West Midland Bird Club in 1999, having been Vice-President since 1991 and is a former member of the council of the RSPB.

He has hosted a number of very successful nature programs for the BBC, many produced by Stephen Moss, including:

The Great Kenyan Bird Safari
Favourite Walks
Wild Weekends
The Bird Business
Flight to Eilat
The Big Bird Race
Oddie in Paradise (1993)
Bird in the Nest (two series)
Birding with Bill Oddie (three series, 1997, 1998 and 2000)
Bill Oddie Goes Wild (three series, 2001, 2002 and 2003)
Wild In Your Garden (2003)
Britain Goes Wild (2004)
Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife (2005)
The London episode of Seven Natural Wonders (2005)
Springwatch with Bill Oddie (2005)
The Truth about Killer Dinosaurs (2005; also on DVD)

On its first evening of broadcast, Britain Goes Wild set a record for its timeslot of 8pm on BBC Two of 3.4 million viewers, one million more than the Channel 4 programme showing at that time. It also created a run on nest boxes for wild birds and bumble bees, bird baths and bird feed from suppliers, likened to the Delia power phenomenon created when Delia Smith mentioned the tools and ingredients she was using on her cooking programme Delia's How to Cook. Oddie presented an update later in 2004.

Most of the recent series have been produced by Stephen Moss.

Marriage and children

Oddie is married to Laura Beaumont, with whom he has worked on a variety of projects for children, including film scripts, drama and comedy series, puppet shows and books. They have a daughter, Rosie, and live in London. He has two daughters from his first marriage (to Jean Hart), Bonnie and the actress Kate Hardie, and a grandson, Lyle.

Recognition

In 2001, Oddie became only the third person to turn down the "red book" and decline to appear on This Is Your Life. He relented some time later.

On 16 October 2003, Oddie was made an OBE for his service to Wildlife Conservation in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. He played down the event, choosing to wear a camouflage shirt and crumpled jacket to receive his medal.

In June 2004, Oddie and Johnny Morris were jointly profiled in the first of a three part BBC Two series, The Way We Went Wild, about television wildlife presenters.

In May 2005, he received the British Naturalists' Association's Peter Scott Memorial Award, from BNA president David Bellamy, "in recognition of his great contribution to our understanding of natural history and conservation".

Other performances

Bill Oddie took part in the English National Opera production of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, in which he appeared in the role of the "Lord High Executioner", taking over the role from Eric Idle.

Bibliography

(incomplete list)

Bill Oddie's Colouring Guide to Birds (Piccolo, 1991)
Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book
Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book (paperback with additional material)
Bill Oddie's Gone Birding
The Big Bird Race (with David Tomlinson; Collins, 1983)
Follow That Bird!
Gripping Yarns
Bird in the Nest
Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife

Bill Oddie also co-wrote the following books with the other members of The Goodies

The Goodies File
The Goodies Book of Criminal Records
The Goodies Disaster Movie

Contributions

Blokes and Birds, Stephen Moss; New Holland Publishers . ISBN 1843304848 (foreword)
The New Birds of the West Midlands, Graham and Janet Harrison ([1]; West Midland Bird Club, 2005). (foreword)

External links