Bill Oddie was one of the world’s most high-profile birdwatchers, a former professional comedy writer turned conservationist whose enthusiasm for nature inspired generations of wildlife lovers.
Bill was born in 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire, but spent most of his childhood in Birmingham where he developed a love of birds as a teenager. A city might seem an unlikely place to foster a passion for nature, but he grew up close to Bartley Green Reservoir, not only the source of much of the residents’ drinking water but also a haven for water birds.
And there were the country parks southwest of the centre, such as the centuries-old Lickey Hills, where wildlife abounded in the late 50s and early 60s. Bill took his hobby seriously even then, carefully filing his sightings with the local West Midlands Bird Club at the age of 15.
At Cambridge University, where he studied English Literature, Bill joined the famous Footlights, the student sketch comedy group, and from there began writing scripts for some of the popular BBC radio and TV comedy and satire shows of the 1960s. This led to a long association with fellow comedy writers, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and the TV series The Goodies, which ran from 1970 to 1982.
Natural history, though, slowly began to take the place of comedy in Bill’s life, bringing him back to his first love – British nature – and a new-found determination to communicate its importance to young people. That communication was done in Bill’s inimitable style, with quirky humour and sharp, knowledgeable observations. His messages, delivered in a genial style, could nevertheless be hard-hitting and serious. He experienced bouts of depression throughout his life, watching wildlife as a way to raise his spirits.
As he said in Bill Oddie’s How to Watch Wildlife book: “Why watch wildlife? This is the kind of question I’m frequently asked, especially when I’m attending a wildlife event… ‘So, Mr Oddie, why is (whatever the thing is) important?’ This may seem like a harmless and, indeed, supportive enquiry, but all too often it is said with a rather challenging inflexion, implying, ‘Come on now, with all the problems in the world today, surely wildlife doesn’t really matter?’ In recent years, I have given up being patient and polite. Instead, I fear my response has a tinge of belligerence bordering on sarcasm. Like a typical politician, I answer the question with another question. ‘Why are sport, entertainment, drama or comedy important? Indeed, why are beauty, kindness, peace, love and understanding important?... I’ll tell you why. Because they are all elements that make our lives richer and more enjoyable. They represent the best achievements and qualities of human beings. That is important.’ And that’s why wildlife is important too.”
Bill wrote many guidebooks to birdwatching and general British wildlife, and contributed innumerable articles to titles including BBC Countryfile Magazine and BBC Wildlife. He took part in podcasts and radio interviews, panel discussions and live wildlife events, an active voice in the field of ornithology, expressing his passion for animals and his messages on species protection and habitat conservation.
He became a household name as a comic in the 1970s but even more so as a passionate presenter of more than 25 nature programmes for the BBC, including Springwatch and Autumnwatch. Through these TV appearances, he conveyed his excitement and huge enjoyment of being outdoors, immersed in nature, to millions of people throughout the 1990s and on for nearly three decades. His idiosyncratic take on the natural world and his encouragement of nature watching as one of the simplest and most enjoyable pleasures in life will live on in the generations of naturalists, botanists and ornithologists he inspired.
