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William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, Order of the British
Empire|OBE, Master's degree#MAs in Oxford,
Cambridge and Dublin|MA (Cantab.) (born July 7,
1941 in Rochdale, United Kingdom) is a British
comedy|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
Ornithology|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 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 hospital|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.  "It undemonised her", he
later added.

==Comedy and music==
After attending King Edward's School, Birmingham,
Oddie studied English Literature at Pembroke
College, Cambridge|Pembroke College at The
University of Cambridge, where he appeared in
several Cambridge 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
(comedy)|Cambridge Circus, and transferred the
revue to the West End Theatre|West End in London,
and then later took the revue to New Zealand and
Broadway Theatre|Broadway. While still at
Cambridge Bill 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.

Bill Oddie co-wrote many of the episodes of the
television comedy series Doctor In The House (TV
series)|Doctor in the House with Graeme Garden.

Bill Oddie 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 
animation|animated television series, Bananaman,
that parodied comic super-hero adventures. Bill
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
(Magazine)|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, 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 with Bill Oddie|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)

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 List of
British birds: passerines|wild birds and
bee|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 Order of the
British Empire|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.

==Further Reading==

Further information about Bill Oddie can be found
in the following books:

*From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a
Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' - Roger
Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980.

*Footlights! - 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge
Comedy' - Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd,
1983.

==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
(journalist)|David Tomlinson; Collins, 1983)
*Follow That Bird!
*Gripping Yarns
*Bird in the Nest
*Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife

===Contributions===
*Blokes and Birds, Moss, S; New Holland Publishers
. ISBN 1843304848 (foreword)
*The New Birds of the West Midlands, Harrison, G &
J
(http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/biblio/NBotWM.
htm; West Midland Bird Club, 2005). (foreword)

== External links ==
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory/wdytya
_celeb_gallery_01.shtml Bill Oddie's family
history at the BBC website for the programme Who
Do You Think You Are?
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/who/bill_o
ddie.shtml Biography on BBC's nature website
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/bill_od
die Bill Oddie Goes Wild - on BBC's Science and
Nature website
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/monday/
BBC7's Listen Again series featuring "I'm Sorry
I'll Read That Again"
*http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/archive/bartle
y-62.htm Bartley Reservoir article from West
Midlands Bird Club's archive
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/st
ories/2004/06_june/23/wild.shtml BBC Press release
reviewing Britain Goes Wild
*http://prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=14482
3 Bill Oddie to receive Peter Scott Memorial Award
*imdb name|id=0643919|name=Bill Oddie
*http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/billoddie/
mailing list for Oddie fans
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/a
rts/2005/04/28/ftoddie28.xml In-depth interview,
The Telegraph, 28 April 2005
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4099820.stm
BBC 'Face of the week' article
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/o/oddie_
bill.shtml Oddie in the BBC Guide to Comedy
*http://www.nyt.co.uk/bill-oddie.htm Oddie as a
celebrity speaker
*http://www.gigrin.co.uk/bill-oddie.html Gigrin
Farm chapter from Gripping Yarns
*http://www.loadofold.com/boots/oddie.html Oddie's
actor profile
*http://www.uktv.co.uk/?uktv=standarditem.index&aI
D=528034 Oddie on UKTV
*http://www.tmcentertainment.co.uk/speaker-index.h
tml?speakerid=225 Bill Oddie at the TMC
Entertainment
*http://greentourism.org.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-008
new00a.ReftLocID-008015003.Lang-EN.htm New
Wildlife Website Takes off with Bill Oddie
*http://firstpersonquiz.com/oddie_bill.html First
Person Quiz
*http://www.clanfork.co.uk/Trev/B/BillOddie.htm
Bill Oddie's Great Bird Race Game
*http://www.rathergood.com/bill/ humorous flash
presentation