Bill Oddie

At 83 years old, Bill Oddie has this physical status:

William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English writer, composer, composer, guitarist, painter, birder, conservationist, television presenter, and actor.

He became well-known as one of The Goodies. Oddie, a birder who grew up in Quinton, Birmingham, is best known as a naturalist, conservator, and television presenter on wildlife issues.

Some of his books are illustrated with his own artwork and drawings.

Bill Oddie, Britain Goes Wild, and Bill Oddie Goes Wild are among his wildlife shows on the BBC.

Early life

Oddie was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, but he migrated to Birmingham at a young age; his father served as assistant chief accountant with the Midlands Electricity Board. His mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent the majority of his childhood in a hospital. He was educated at Lapal Primary School (now The Earls High School in Halesowen) and King Edward's School, Birmingham, an all-boys direct grant academy, where he captained the school's rugby union team. He then studied English literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Personal life

Oddie married Jean Hart in 1967, and he has two children from this marriage, one of whom is actress Kate Hardie.

Oddie married Laura Beaumont-Giles in 1983. The pair have worked on a number of children's programs, including film scripts, drama and comedy series, puppet shows, and books. They have a daughter, Rosie, who was born in October 1985 and live in Hampstead, North London. Rosie Oddie is a singer who also goes by Rosie Bones.

Oddie suffered with depression for the majority of his life before being diagnosed with clinical depression in 2001. He was reportedly admitted to a Capio Nightingale psychiatric hospital in Marylebone in March 2009 for care. "Bill is sick every two or three years, and he recovers after being down for about two weeks and recoverings," his then agent, David Foster said. He often goes into hospital, takes a break, or has a change of scenery to recharge his batteries. Oddie's reveals that he had two separate stays in various hospitals, only being discharged "in time for Christmas." He said he was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder, referring to the period as "probably the worst 12 months of my life." Oddie said he was planning to consult with BBC executives to discuss his return to television work.

Oddie did not appear in the Springwatch series in 2009 and 2010, although he made a guest appearance in the latter's penultimate episode. He later announced that he had been barred from Springwatch and that this had triggered the depressive disorder.

On August 10, 2014, Oddie appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Appeal show on behalf of the charity Bipolar UK. He revealed that during one of his depressive episodes, he attempted suicide as a result of his bipolar disorder. Who Do You Think You Are On the UK television show Who Do You Think You Are? He attributed his sadness and bipolar illness as an adult to his young and painful relationship with his mother.

Oddie supports the Green Party. He said he wanted a limit on the number of children that British families can have in October 2014, on BBC's Sunday Morning Live, and that he was "very ashamed" to be British, calling them "a tragic race."

Source

Career

Oddie played in several Footlights Club productions while at Cambridge University. One of these, A Clump of Plinths, was so popular at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and relocated to London's West End, then New Zealand and Broadway in September 1964. Meanwhile, Oddie wrote scripts for and appeared briefly on television's That Was the Week That Was.

In 1964, Bernard Braden's television series On The Braden Beat appeared in him. He was a central participant of the BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, in which many of his musical works were included. Some of them were included on the album Distinctly Oddie (Polydor, 1967). He was one of the first performers to parody a rock song, arranging "On Ilkla Moor Baht'at" in the style of Joe Cocker's hit single "With a Little Help From My Family"), and singing "Andy Pandy" in the style of a brassy soul number such as Wilson Pickett or Geno Washington might appear. In several shows, he would do short portrayals of Hughie Green.

Oddie was co-writer and actor in the comedy series Twice a Fortnight, starring Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Jonathan Lynn on television. He appeared in the comedy series Broaden Your Mind with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, later becoming a cast member for the second series.

Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden co-wrote and appeared in their television comedy film The Goodies (1970–1982). "Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me"/"The In-Betweenies," "The In-Betweenies," "The Funky Gibbon" (co-written by Oddie with Dave MacRae) and "Black Pudding Bertha," which were hit singles in 1974–75, were also available on Goodies' albums. They reformed, briefly, in 2005, during a fruitful 13-date tour of Australia.

On the 1983 animated children's show Bananaman, Oddie, Brooke-Taylor, and Garden voiced characters.

Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden performed their hit song "Funky Gibbon" in the Amnesty International show A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick). They were also on Top of the Pops with their album. Oddie co-wrote many episodes of the television comedy series Doctor in the House of Commons, together with Garden (who is a licensed medical doctor), including the majority of the first season and most of the second season. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which Garden is and Brooke-Taylor was a regular panelist. Garden and Oddie wrote in 1982 but did not appear in, a six-part science-fiction sitcom called Astronauts for Central and ITV. In the near future, the display would be held in an international space station.

In the 1962 Annual Report of the West Midland Bird Club, Oddie's first published work was an article about the birdlife of Birmingham's Bartley Reservoir. (He is first recognized in the 1956 study, in which reports of his bird observations are labeled with the word "WEO" in the first place. Since writing a number of books on birds and birdwatching, as well as articles for numerous trade journals, including British Birds, Birdwatching Magazine, and Birdwatch, he has written several books about birds and birdwatching.

In an August 1973 BBC Radio 4 program called Sounds Natural, Derek Jones talked about bird-song recordings with him.

Oddie was instrumental in the successful recording of Pallas' reed bunting on Fair Isle, Shetland, in the fall of 1976.

In December 1977, one of Oddie's first forays into television natural history was as a guest on Animal Magic. In October, the bird of Hampstead Heath was on display on Radio 4's Through My Window, marking the birds of Hampstead Heath.

Bill Oddie – Bird Watcher – was the subject of a 50-minute Nature Watch Special on July 30, 1985, where he was interviewed by Julian Pettifer at Bartley Reservoir, the Christopher Cadbury Wetland Reserve at Upton Warren, RSPB Titchwell Marshal, and Blakeney Point.

Oddie has since hosted a number of popular nature programs for the BBC, many of which were produced by Stephen Moss, including: "Average" and "British."

On BBC Two of 8 million viewers, one million more than the Channel 4 program on at the time, the first broadcast of Britain Goes Wild in 2004 set a record for its timeslot of 8 p.m., one million more than the Channel 4 show at that time. Springwatch in the United Kingdom became a wildlife television phenomenon, with over 4 million viewers viewing more than 800.

He became president of the West Midland Bird Club in 1999, having served as vice president since 1991, and is a former member of the RSPB's board. Oddie is both a president of the League Against Cruel Sports and vice president of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. He worked as a bird ringer, but gave his permission to lapse.

In 2003, Oddie organized a half-marathon to raise funds for various wildlife charities in his hometown, Rochdale. Ray Mears, Katherine Jenkins, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall were among the celebrities who attended the festival.

Oddie appeared as an investigator in Snares Undiscovered: killers in the countryside in 2011. The film was an investigation into snaring in Scotland and was funded by animal rights group OneKind. Oddie discovered more than 70 snares and several stink pits during his probe.

Oddie wrote original music for the Footlights and then wrote satirical songs for I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again. He also wrote a number of comedies for The Goodies, the majority of which he performed.

Oddie released a number of singles and at least one album in the 1960s and early 1970s. "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at," one of the former, which appeared on John Peel's Dandelion Records label (Catalogue No. 4786), was performed with the style of Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help from My Friends." The Hare Krishna chant on the B-side featured Hare Krishna's name, including Harry Secombe, Harry Worth, Harry Lauder, and Harry Corbett, as well as puns such as "Harry [Hurry]" and "I certainly] must go now," as well as puns such as "Harry [Aristotle] and "Harry Sir [I really] must go now." Both tracks appear on the CD Life Too, Has Surface Noise: The Complete Dandelion Records Singles Collection, 1970-1972 (2007). He was credited with being Spencer's Washboard Kings' "Five Feet Two" in 1966 (Rayrick LCR1001a). "If You Knew Susie," Jean Hart, Oddie's future wife, was the singer on the B-side of this 45rpm single.

In a performance of The Who's rock opera Tommy at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London, he performed the drums and saxophone, as Cousin Kevin. He has also contributed to Criminal Record, a Rick Wakeman album.

He recorded "Superspike" with John Cleese and a group of UK celebrities in order to finance the latter's attendance at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Stephen Shane co-produced the album.

Oddie appeared in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, in which he played the Lord High Executioner, taking over the role from Eric Idle. Oddie, a DJ for London-based jazz radio station 102.2 Jazz FM, appeared on radio stations from the early 1990s.

Oddie appeared on BBC show Play It Again in 2007. In the episode, he tries to realize his ambition of becoming a rock guitarist. Bridget Mermikides, a beginning teacher, continues to educate him using traditional methods, but he rebels: instead, he turns to old friends Albert Lee, Dave Davies (of The Kinks) and Mark Knopfler for guidance and marches out on his own. He succeeds in his attempt to play lead guitar for his daughter Rosie's party at her 21st birthday party, as well as impressing his erstwhile tutor.

He pleaded with the International Primate Protection League's Save the Gibbon Appeal in November 2010 and together with fellow members of The Good Guys to relaunch their 1970s hit "The Funky Gibbon" in November 2010.

In the Eric Sykes' comediest tale The Plank in 1967, Oddie appeared as the hapless window cleaner. During the late 1970s, he also hosted the live children's Saturday morning entertainment show Banana (ITV/Southern Television). He appeared on Fax, a television show about 'truth', in the late 1980s.

He appeared on television1 in 1981 as a Telethon celebrity in New Zealand. In the UK dub of the 1989 animated film Asterix and the Big Fight (an animated interpretation of the books Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and the Soothsayer, also known as Operation Getafix) he plays Asterix.

In 1992, he appeared in Married... with Children, a three-part episode set in England.

As the team excavated a Roman villa site in Turkdean, Gloucestershire, he appeared on the Channel 4 archeologist Time Team from 1997-1998.

He was the compère of a daytime BBC gameshow History Hunt (1996); and he appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Doctor Who and the Pirates. He appeared on the first episode of BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? in which he delves into his roots: he was obviously moved by the series's revelations. He appeared on Art in 2005, the big festival in Trafalgar Square, and he and Lynda Bellingham appeared on the ITV1 show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He also gave his opinion on the 100 best cartoons on Channel 4 this year, including Tom and Jerry and the "Asses of Fire skit" in South Park, which included Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.

Oddie appeared on the BBC show Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2006 and later on the topical quiz show 8 out of ten Cats. He was also the voice behind many B&Q commercials during 2006-2007. Oddie appeared on Ronni Ancona's new comedy sketch show, Ronni Ancona & Co., on May 25, 2007.

Also in 2007, three artists created a portrait of Oddie as part of Rolf Harris' BBC show Portraits. Mark Roscoe, one of the artists, expressed a dissatisfaction with Oddie, claiming to have used obscure terms in his work later.

In 2007, He hosted the genealogy-based documentary My Famous Family, which was broadcast on UKTV History. Oddie appeared on Jamie Oliver's television show Jamie Oliver's Fowl Dinners in 2008, talking about free-range chickens.

He also appeared on Would I Lie To You?

Oddie appeared as the narrator of the sketch Ed Sheeran Watch in February 2015.

In August 2015, he appeared as a contestant on a celebrity version of Fifteen to One.

In a series of one-off shows, An Oldie but a Goodie, Oddie undertook an Australian tour in June 2013 in all of mainland Australia's capital cities, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. During the performances, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden were shown with a video message. During the tour, Oddie appeared on both The Project and Adam Hills Tonight TV shows; he also shot a guest-programming spot for ABC-TV's all-night music video show Rage.

Source