Friday Funnies 12: Bill Oddie

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As it has been four months since I last shared some Friday Funnies I had been thinking about doing another, and then the sad news broke earlier this week of the passing last Saturday of Bill Oddie, at the age of 85. I have a feeling that most non-British readers will be asking ‘who?’ at this point, but Bill was a huge part of my formative years, so I felt it right to share some of that with you.

Bill was born in July 1941, and was a comedian, conservationist, television presenter and writer. A birder since his childhood in Quinton, Birmingham, he 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. Amongst several honours for his conservation work he received an OBE in October 2003. If you want to know more about him, his Wikipedia page is very detailed.

It is his comedy work that I’m focusing on today, though. Bill studied English Literature at Cambridge University, graduating in 1963, and while he was there he joined the famous Footlights Club, and among his contemporaries were several of those who went on to be part of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, like John Cleese, Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman, as well as Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, with whom Bill formed The Goodies. I first knew of him from his role in the anarchic radio show I’m Sorry I’ll Read that Again, known as ISIRTA, which was required listening in my youth: miss it, and you had no idea what everyone was talking about at school the next day! Seeking clips from the show to give you an idea of it has been a real trip down Memory Lane, and it hasn’t been easy to find something to share: some of them are outdated, and in modern day terms not very PC, but I have found a couple. This first is a brief sketch from 1966, in which Bill plays a patient visiting his doctor, played by John Cleese:

One of Bill’s roles in the show was to provide the music. He wrote and performed the theme tune, known as The Angus Prune Tune, and there was always one of his tunes somewhere in the programme. This one is a favourite, also with a slightly medical theme:

ISIRTA ran until the end of 1973, by which time The Goodies had been on tv for three years. The Goodies was a big success and ran until 1980, being shown in many countries around the world, including N America and the Antipodes. Again, it reflects values of its time, so I’ve had to be a bit careful about what I play, but some of the slapstick scenes are still funny today. This is typical:

Bill takes the lead part in this next clip. Tasteless? Perhaps. Funny? Yes:

How about a bit of fake violence:

And on a (vaguely) related theme:

You will no doubt have noticed Bill singing the story to that one. His musical contributions were a vital part of the show, so much so that they started recording his songs, and even had some hit records with them. This was their biggest. Believe it or not, this one reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart in spring 1975:

Heaven knows who bought that, but as the clip showed those were the days of the Bay City Rollers, so musical crap seems to have been the order of the day!

A bit more slapstick for you now:

For The Goodies contemporary tv shows were a source of some inspiration. Do you remember the kids’ show The Magic Roundabout? This is what they did with it:

Maybe I was beyond the target age group for the show by then, but for me that improved The Magic Roundabout no end!

I hope I’ve given you a taste of the enjoyment Bill Oddie’s comedy has given me down the years. To close, I’ll leave you with the BBC news report announcing his death:

RIP, Bill, thanks for all the laughs, and for so much more.

29 thoughts on “Friday Funnies 12: Bill Oddie”

  3. Absolute genius! Laughed out loud so many times, particularly in ‘the gym’ and Magic Roundabout lingers long in the memory which, if it serves me correctly, also tells me they had several hit records – all written by Bill – the one that lingers most in my mind being Black Pudding Bertha. I seem to remember an entire episode made up of their songs. The Goodies were a huge part of my youth and Bill, of course, was a large part of The Goodies. RIP Bill, very sadly missed.

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  5. I always watched The Goodies, and really enjoyed the show. (Though not so much the ‘novelty songs’) I only discovered recently that Bill had a long history of mental health problems, and was sad to hear that he had died. A very fitting tribute, Clive.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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    • Thank you, Pete, I’m glad you enjoyed them too, even if some of the songs weren’t so good! Bill inherited those problems from his mother, who was sectioned for much of his childhood. A sad loss.

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  8. For a lot of people who only really knew him from his conservation work and Winterwatch they would be surprised possibly from his comedy work, but I loved the Goodies when I was growing up – though they didn’t particularly help me mature! And he did come off sometimes a bit of a grump. But I remember watching a documentary on him a few years ago and he was a big deal in America for a while and was quite close to joining Monty Python. Well done on finding all these clips!

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    • He had two careers, really, didn’t he. I loved the early comedy, and had a lot of laughs while I put this together. There are loads of full ISIRTA episodes on YouTube, but too long to share in a blog post.

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  10. I remember Bill Oddie from his days with “I’m sorry I’ll read that again”. When was that? The late ’60s or early 70s. It was a time when many British radio shows were broadcast in NZ often during the overnight program. I remember him appearing as a celebrity guest on Telethon – an annual 24-hour charity event hosted on New Zealand television. That must have been in the late ’70s or early ’80s.

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    • I don’t recall him on the Telethon, but there were a lot of good hearted people who cycled through the Telethons over the years.
      I do remember listening to ISIRTA on replay on Sunday afternoons on , I thiiiink, 3YA. Not a bad way to fritter away a perfectly good Sunday afternoon, despite my Ma telling me to ‘get outside and play, don’t lounge around and get under my feet you lazy monkey.’ I’d say “Ma, its ‘funky gibbon’ not ‘monkey.” She didn’t appreciate me talking back.

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