Bill Oddie, The Goodies star and wildlife broadcaster, dies at 85

Bill Oddie, the former Goodies star who turned a television comedy career into a second life as a wildlife broadcaster and conservationist, has died aged 85. William Edgar Oddie was born on 7 July 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire, and became one of the most recognisable faces of 1970s British television.

Oddie found fame as the hairy, cynical, anarchist member of The Goodies alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. The BBC comedy trio ran from 1970 to 1982, and its success made Oddie a household name long before he was known for birds, books and environmental campaigning.

He later built a broad career as a wildlife presenter, broadcaster, writer, song-writer, musician and conservationist. A BBC profile said he had been birdwatching since childhood in Birmingham, a detail that helps explain how thoroughly he carried natural history from private enthusiasm into public life. His management biography described him as "the nation’s best known birder," a label that reflected how completely he had crossed from comedy into mainstream wildlife broadcasting.

In September 2020, Oddie said he had suffered from lithium toxicity that was "almost fatal" after telling followers he had been "very ill" during the summer. A year later, he said he was proud of both The Goodies and his nature work, an unusually direct acknowledgement from a performer whose career had stretched across two distinct eras of British television.

His work in conservation also extended beyond the screen. A charity listing named him as an ambassador for the World Land Trust, placing him among the public figures who used television fame to draw attention to wildlife and habitat protection. That combination of comedy, broadcasting and conservation made Oddie a rare figure in modern British public life: a performer who did not simply become famous for wildlife television, but helped give it a national audience.