Last updated December 2007
Category:
Factual
& Arts TV
Printable version
Bill Oddie presents Springwatch and Autumnwatch on BBC Two with Kate Humble, and has a new series Bill Oddie's Wild Side coming up on BBC Two in 2008.
Born in Rochdale in 1941, Bill was brought up in Birmingham, before going on to Pembroke College, Cambridge where he gained an MA in English Literature.
Appearance in several Cambridge Footlights productions with cast members including John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Jonathan Lynn led to their production of Cambridge Circus transferring to the West End and Broadway.
Whilst still at university, Bill wrote scripts for That Was The Week That Was (BBC TV) and, on leaving Cambridge, he gave up plans to become an English teacher or the warden of a bird observatory and went into showbusiness, where he has been ever since.
Throughout the Seventies and early Eighties, Bill was best known to television viewers as one-third of The Goodies (BBC TV), an off-beat comedy series that ran for over ten years, claiming many international accolades, including two Silver Roses of Montreux and an Emmy nomination.
Bill also co-wrote the scripts and was responsible for several record albums and half a dozen British top ten hits, including The Funky Gibbon and The Inbetweenies, both of which became silver discs.
His stage appearances have ranged from rock concerts and pantomime to playing Koko in The Mikado for the English National Opera and his one-man show Follow That Bird.
With his lifelong passion for birds, he has written several adult and children's books on the subject.
Other TV credits include Wild Weekends (ITV), The Bird Business and The Big Bird Race (Channel 4), along with Oddie In Paradise, The Great Kenyan Bird Safari, and two series of the immensely popular Bird In The Nest (BBC). He also presented two series of ecological programmes for young people, Ask Oddie (HTV).
Much of Bill's time is taken up with filming his wildlife programmes for the BBC.
After the success of three series of Birding With Bill Oddie came Bill Oddie Goes Wild and in recent years the much-acclaimed and successful Springwatch, Autumnwatch, and Springwatch Christmas Specials.
USA Revisited took him across the Atlantic, while a new series for 2008, the highly individualistic Bill Oddie's Wild Side, explores areas much closer to home.
