William Edgar Oddie (7 July 1941 – 25 July 2026) was an English comedian, conservationist, television presenter and writer. He was a member of the British comedy trio The Goodies.
A birder since his childhood in Quinton, Birmingham, Oddie later established a reputation as a naturalist, conservationist, and television presenter on wildlife issues. Some of his books were illustrated with his own paintings and drawings. His wildlife programmes for the BBC included Springwatch and Autumnwatch, How to Watch Wildlife, Wild in Your Garden, Birding with Bill Oddie, Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie and Bill Oddie Goes Wild.
Early life and education
William Edgar Oddie was born on 7 July 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire, but moved to Birmingham at a young age. He was raised by his father, Harry Oddie, and his grandmother, Emily. His father was assistant chief accountant at the Midlands Electricity Board. His mother, Lilian, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and, for most of his youth, was hospitalised at the Barnsley Hall Hospital psychiatric facility. He was educated at Lapal Primary School, Halesowen Grammar School and King Edward's School, Birmingham, an all-boys direct grant school, where he captained the school's rugby union team. He then studied English literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1963.
Comedy
Whilst at Cambridge University, Oddie appeared in several Footlights productions. One of these, a revue titled A Clump of Plinths, was so successful at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and transferred to the West End in London, then to New Zealand, and to Broadway in September 1964.
From 1964 to 1973, he was a key member of the cast of the BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which was developed from Cambridge Circus. He composed and performed the show's theme tune as Angus Prune and usually performed a comic song which he had composed for each show. Some of his songs were released on the album Distinctly Oddie (Polydor, 1967). He was 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" (released on John Peel's Dandelion Records in 1970 and featured in Peel's special box of most-treasured singles), and singing "Andy Pandy" in the style of a brassy soul number such as Wilson Pickett or Geno Washington might perform.
His other contributions to ISIRTA included impressions of Hughie Green and a regular part as Grimbling, the wrinkled retainer of Lady Constance de Coverlet.
While still at Cambridge, Oddie wrote scripts for and appeared briefly in TV's That Was the Week That Was and appeared in Bernard Braden's television series On the Braden Beat in 1964. Later, he was a co-writer and performer in the comedy series Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Jonathan Lynn. Then he was a co-writer and performer in the comedy series Broaden Your Mind with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, becoming a cast member for the second series.
Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden then co-wrote and appeared in their television comedy series The Goodies (1970–1982). The Goodies also released records, including "Father Christmas Do Not Touch Me"/"The In-Betweenies", "The Funky Gibbon" (co-written by Oddie with Dave MacRae) and "Black Pudding Bertha", which were hit singles in 1974–75. They reformed briefly in 2005 for a successful 13-date tour of Australia.
Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden voiced characters on the 1983 animated children's programme Bananaman.
In the Amnesty International show A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick), Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden sang their hit song "Funky Gibbon". They also appeared on Top of the Pops with the song. Together with Garden (who is a qualified medical doctor), Oddie co-wrote many episodes of the television comedy series Doctor in the House, including most of the first season and all of the second season. He occasionally appeared on the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which Garden and Brooke-Taylor were regular panellists. In 1982, Garden and Oddie wrote, but did not perform in, a six-part science-fiction sitcom called Astronauts for Central and ITV. The show was set in an international space station in the near future.
Natural history
Oddie's first published work was an article about the birdlife of Birmingham's Bartley Reservoir in the West Midland Bird Club's 1962 Annual Report. (He is first credited in the 1956 report, in which reports of his bird observations are tagged with his initials "WEO".) He wrote a number of books about birds and birdwatching as well as articles for many specialist publications including British Birds, Birdwatching Magazine and Birdwatch.
He discussed bird-song recordings with Derek Jones in a 1973 BBC Radio 4 programme called Sounds Natural. Oddie was involved in the successful identification of Britain's first-ever recorded Pallas's reed bunting on Fair Isle in 1976.
One of Oddie's first forays into the world of television natural history was as a guest on Animal Magic in December 1977. Another early natural history radio appearance was in October 1978, as the guest on Radio 4's Through My Window, discussing the birds of Hampstead Heath.
On 30 July 1985, he was the subject of a 50-minute Nature Watch Special: Bill Oddie – Bird Watcher, in which he was interviewed by Julian Pettifer at places where he had spent time birding, including Bartley Reservoir, the Christopher Cadbury Wetland Reserve at Upton Warren, RSPB Titchwell Marsh and Blakeney Point.
Oddie then hosted a number of successful nature programmes for the BBC, many produced by Stephen Moss, including:
The first broadcast, in 2004, of Britain Goes Wild set a record for its timeslot of 8 pm on BBC Two of 3.4 million viewers, one million more than the Channel 4 programme showing at that time. Britain Goes Wild, renamed Springwatch the following year, became a wildlife broadcasting phenomenon, attracting over 4 million viewers.
He became president of the West Midland Bird Club in 1999, having been vice-president since 1991, and was a former member of the council of the RSPB. Oddie was also a President of the League Against Cruel Sports and a vice-president of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. He practised as a bird ringer but allowed his licence to lapse.
In 2003, Oddie set up a half-marathon to raise money for various wildlife charities in his birth town of Rochdale.
In 2011, Oddie featured as an investigator in Snares Uncovered: killers in the countryside.
Music
Oddie wrote original music at the University of Cambridge for the Footlights and later wrote comic songs for I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again. He also wrote a number of comic songs for the Goodies, most of which he also performed.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Oddie released a number of singles and at least one album. One of the former, issued in 1970 on John Peel's Dandelion Records label (Catalogue No: 4786), was "On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at", performed in the style of Joe Cocker's "With a Little Help from My Friends". The B-side, "Harry Krishna", featured the Hare Krishna chant, substituting the names of contemporary famous people called Harry, including Harry Secombe, Harry Worth, Harry Lauder and Harry Corbett, as well as puns such as "Harry [Hurry] along now" and "Harrystotle [Aristotle]" and ending with "Harry-ly [I really] must go now". Both tracks appear on the compilation CD Life Too, Has Surface Noise: The Complete Dandelion Records Singles Collection 1969–1972 (2007). In 1966 he was credited as the vocalist with Spencer's Washboard Kings on "Five Feet Two" (Rayrick LCR1001a). The vocalist on the B-side of this 45 rpm single, "If You Knew Susie", was Jeanne Hart, Oddie's future wife.
He played the drums and saxophone and appeared as Cousin Kevin in a production of the…