Bill Oddie: comedy legend tragically underrated by the BBC | Bill Oddie

Bill oddie, who died at the age of 85he had two separate, prominent roles on TV – as a comedian and as a magician. Both roles brought him fame and pain. A career highlight was 76 episodes from 1970-82 of The Goodies, which he co-wrote with Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor. They played three researchers and designers who rode a three-seater bicycle called “trandem”.

As a bird watcher, his first TV show was Springwatch, which he first co-hosted with Kate Humble, from 2005. It started the BBC Two Natural history franchise showing the changing seasons, its success leading to winter, autumn and summer seasons. Binoculars were lowered to show surprised or curious eyes, and Oddie signed a birdwatcher on TV.

Born in Rochdale, he came early to comedy and ornithology. He was a teenager when his appearance first appeared in the annual report of the West Midland Bird Club. In the early 20s, he appeared in the West End and on Broadway in a revival of Cambridge University where he began working professionally with Brooke-Taylor and Garden, now the only survivor of the trio. Oddie wrote revue songs and then The Goodies, who released five consecutive singles in 1974-75, after a combined 38 weeks on the charts, with Funky Gibbon, an anthropomorphic jungle dance number, reaching four in the Top 10.

All of Oddie’s music on TV, however, was overshadowed by sadness. In the case of Springwatch, it was personal. Bad experiences especially with the bipolar disorder that he experienced throughout his life caused him to miss several episodes. He returned to the program, but his departure in 2008 – which he made clear was not voluntary – was preceded, by his account, by another major crisis.

In the case of The Goodies, there was anger Brooke-Taylor and Garden shared about the show’s support by the BBC. The series attracted 12 million viewers at its peak in the mid-70s – the highest ever for a BBC Two show – and won the Silver Rose of Montreux, the second prize at Europe’s biggest TV festival. The gong was for Kitten Kong, a movie inspired by the movie in which the giant moggy is tormenting London using special events at the time.

However, The Goodies was never welcomed by many industry executives who – due to the number of slapsticks, puns and animal-looking villains – called it a “children’s show”, which was considered an insult and taken as such by two of its creators. Due to what turned out to be a final, the trio moved on to London Weekend Television.

Unlike many shows of its time, The Goodies was not regularly repeated on national TV, being rebroadcast by the BBC mainly in archives. This angered and disappointed Oddie, Brooke-Taylor and Garden. At the time of home video and DVD, where it sometimes seemed that the BBC was systematically releasing all the material that was shown, the three discussed the release of the box and commercial clothes, which did something to end the neglect.

A few other shows from that time were also rejected for reruns and airing because they contained language or ideas that are now considered objectionable. Uncredited BBC writers sometimes claim that this is why The Goodies has been difficult to watch or buy. There is a time when these three men started using blackface, but it happened in the year 1975 called South Africa. It begins with the Goodies creating an advertising campaign to attract Britons to South Africa and ends in Britain with Black Enoch Powell leading the anti-apartheid government.

While there’s some silly humor — at one point, the “tall” rule requires the short Oddie to be a slave to his taller friends — the progressive politics and complexities of the story make “kids’ TV” seem like a no-brainer. Indeed, stupidity is an appropriate label for South Africa and many other writings.

In The Goodies, the writer-actors played exaggerated versions of their characters: Garden (a proper doctor) professorial and unassuming, Brooke-Taylor dignified and patriotic, and Oddie sulky and scrappy. Those characteristics meant that some of his colleagues found him difficult to work with – which may have contributed to his departure from Springwatch – but some such behavior was explained, if not excused, by his mental problems.

Oddie was right, however, to be outraged by the lack of BBC and TV coverage of The Goodies, a memory that would make viewers smile amidst the sadness at his death. The admirers will also hope that every afterlife has a bird’s song.