Comedy Whilst at Cambridge University Oddie appeared in several
Footlights Club productions. One of these, a
revue called
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. Meanwhile, still at Cambridge, Oddie wrote scripts for and appeared briefly in TV's
That Was the Week That Was. He appeared in
Bernard Braden's television series
On The Braden Beat in 1964. Subsequently, he was a key member of the performers in the
BBC radio series ''
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, where many of his musical compositions were featured. Some 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. In many shows he would do short impressions of
Hughie Green. On television Oddie was co-writer and performer in the comedy series
Twice a Fortnight with
Graeme Garden,
Terry Jones,
Michael Palin and
Jonathan Lynn. Later he was co-writer and performer in the comedy series
Broaden Your Mind with
Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, for which he became 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 has occasionally appeared on the BBC Radio 4 panel game ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which Garden is and Brooke-Taylor was a regular panellist. 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 has since written 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 an August 1973
BBC Radio 4 programme called
Sounds Natural. In the autumn of 1976, Oddie was involved in the successful identification of Britain's first-ever recorded
Pallas's reed bunting on
Fair Isle, Shetland. 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. •
The Great Bird Race (1983; Channel 4) •
The Great Kenyan Bird Safari (BBC) •
Favourite Walks: "A Bird Walk" (1985; BBC; filmed on
Fair Isle) •
Worldwise: "The Bird Business" (1985; Channel 4) •
Oddie in Paradise (1985; BBC) •
Wild Weekends (TV AM) •
Flight to Eilat (Channel 4) •
Bird in the Nest (two series, 1994 and 1995) •
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 (2004) •
Bill Oddie in Tiger Country (2004) • ''
Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife'' (two series, 2005 and 2006; also on DVD) •
Seven Natural Wonders (London edition) (2005) •
The Truth About Killer Dinosaurs (2005; also on DVD) •
Springwatch (2005–2008) •
Autumnwatch (2006–2008) •
Bill Oddie Back in the USA (2007) • ''Bill Oddie's Top Ten Birds'' (2007; BBC Four) •
100 Years of Wildlife (2007) • ''
Bill Oddie's Wild Side'' (2008) • ''
Bill Oddie's Top 10'' (2008) 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 a vice-president of the
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. He practised as a
bird ringer but allowed his licence to lapse. In 2011, Oddie featured as an investigator in
Snares Uncovered: killers in the countryside. The film was an exposé of snaring in Scotland and was commissioned by the animal protection charity
OneKind.
Music Oddie wrote original music at
Cambridge University 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 Jean Hart, Oddie's future wife. He played the drums and saxophone and appeared as Cousin Kevin in a production of
The Who's rock opera
Tommy by
London Symphonic Orchestra and
English Chamber Choir at the
Rainbow Theatre,
Finsbury Park, London, on 13 and 14 December 1973. He has also contributed vocals to a
Rick Wakeman album,
Criminal Record. He recorded a single, "Superspike", with
John Cleese and a group of UK athletes, billed the "Superspike Squad", to fund the latter's attendance at the
1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He co-produced the record with Stephen Shane. In 1986 Oddie took part in the
English National Opera production of the
Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, in which he appeared in the role of the Lord High Executioner, taking over the role from
Eric Idle. During the early 1990s Oddie was a DJ for London-based
jazz radio station
102.2 Jazz FM. In 2007, Oddie appeared on the BBC series
Play It Again. In the episode he attempts to realise his dream of becoming a
rock guitarist. Initially teacher
Bridget Mermikides tries to teach him using traditional methods but he rebels: instead he turns to old friends
Albert Lee,
Dave Davies (of
The Kinks) and
Mark Knopfler for advice and strikes out on his own. He succeeds in the target of playing lead guitar for his daughter Rosie's band at her 21st birthday party and even manages to impress his erstwhile teacher. In November 2010, he agreed, along with fellow members of
The Goodies, to rerelease their 1970s hit "The Funky Gibbon" to raise funds for the
International Primate Protection League's Save the Gibbon appeal.
Other television and voice work Oddie appeared as the hapless window cleaner in the
Eric Sykes' comedy story
The Plank in 1967. He also presented the live children's Saturday morning entertainment show
Saturday Banana (
ITV/
Southern Television) during the late 1970s. In the late 1980s he was a presenter of the BBC TV show
Fax (a show about 'facts'). In 1981, he appeared as a
Telethon celebrity in New Zealand, hosted by
TV1. He voices
Asterix in the UK dub of the 1989 animated film
Asterix and the Big Fight (an animated adaptation of the books
Asterix and the Big Fight and
Asterix and the Soothsayer, novelized as
Operation Getafix). In 1992, he was a guest star in the US comedy television series
Married... with Children for a three-part episode set in England. He voiced the chimney sweep in the 1996 film
The Willows in Winter. In 1997 and 1998, he appeared on the
Channel 4 archaeological programme
Time Team, as the team excavated a Roman villa site in
Turkdean, Gloucestershire. He was the compère of a daytime BBC gameshow
History Hunt (in 2003); and has appeared in the
Doctor Who audio drama
Doctor Who and the Pirates. In 2004, he appeared on the first ever episode of the BBC series
Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he looked into his ancestry: he was visibly moved by its revelations. In 2005, he took part in
Rolf on Art – the big event at Trafalgar Square and in September that year was also a celebrity guest along with
Lynda Bellingham on the
ITV1 programme
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He also gave opinions on 100 greatest cartoons on Channel 4 that year, talking about
Tom and Jerry and cartoon incidents such as the "Asses of Fire skit" in
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. In 2006, Oddie appeared in the BBC show
Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and also appeared on the topical quiz show
8 out of 10 Cats. He was also the voice behind many
B&Q adverts throughout 2006/2007. On 25 May 2007, Oddie made a
cameo appearance on
Ronni Ancona's new comedy
sketch show,
Ronni Ancona & Co. Also in 2007, three artists each painted a portrait of Oddie, as part of the BBC programme
Star Portraits with Rolf Harris. One of the artists,
Mark Roscoe, later revealed a dislike of Oddie, claiming to have included hidden insults in his work. He hosted the
genealogy-based series
My Famous Family, broadcast on
UKTV History in 2007. In 2008, Oddie was a guest on
Jamie Oliver's television special ''Jamie's Fowl Dinners'', talking about free-range chickens. He also appeared on
Would I Lie To You? in 2011, where he revealed that he was saved from drowning by
Freddy from popular children's series
Rainbow and
Rod, Jane and Freddy while on holiday in the
Seychelles. , 2013 In February 2015, Oddie appeared in
The Keith Lemon Sketch Show as the narrator of the sketch
Ed Sheeran Watch. He appeared as a contestant on a celebrity edition of
Fifteen to One in August 2015 and the following month he appeared on
Through the Keyhole. He has appeared three times on the programme
Pointless Celebrities, the most recent appearance being in 2016. In 2017, he appeared in three episodes of
The Real Marigold Hotel. In 2018, he featured on the programme
The Two Ronnies: In Their Own Words. In 2019, he appeared on the show
The Inbetweeners: Fwends Reunited. In 2020, Oddie appeared in the documentary
Celebrity Britain by Barge: Then & Now.
2013 Australian tour Oddie undertook an Australian tour during June 2013 in all of the mainland states capital cities –
Brisbane,
Sydney,
Melbourne,
Adelaide and
Perth – in a series of one-off shows,
An Oldie but a Goodie. A video message from Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden was shown during the performances. Oddie appeared on both
The Project and
Adam Hills Tonight TV shows during the tour; he also filmed a guest-programming spot for the ABC-TV's all-night music video show
Rage. ==Personal life==