lit a candle 7 Sept 2026Funky Gibbon was ridiculous and brilliant. RIP to a man who proved you could be funny and serious about nature at the same time.
Their story
William Edgar Oddie was born on 7 July 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire (Guardian places the birth in nearby Littleborough). He was raised largely in Quinton, Birmingham, by his father Harry (an accountant at the Midlands Electricity Board) and paternal grandmother Emily after his mother Lilian was hospitalised with what was…
William Edgar Oddie was born on 7 July 1941 in Rochdale, Lancashire (Guardian places the birth in nearby Littleborough). He was raised largely in Quinton, Birmingham, by his father Harry (an accountant at the Midlands Electricity Board) and paternal grandmother Emily after his mother Lilian was hospitalised with what was then called schizophrenia. Birdwatching began early at Bartley Reservoir; West Midland Bird Club reports credited teenage observations under the initials WEO. School years ran through Lapal Primary and Halesowen Grammar before King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he captained the rugby side.
He then read English literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1963. Footlights work led to the revue A Clump of Plinths, which became Cambridge Circus and transferred to the West End, New Zealand, and Broadway. Radio fame followed on I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (1964-1973), where he wrote and performed comic songs (including as Angus Prune). Television writing and performing credits included That Was the Week That Was, Twice a Fortnight, Broaden Your Mind, and scripts for Doctor in the House with Graeme Garden. Those Cambridge and radio years fixed him in the generation that carried student revue comedy into national broadcasting.
With Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden he created The Goodies (1970-1982), the slapstick trio who rode a trandem and scored chart hits Oddie co-wrote and sang, notably The Funky Gibbon and The In-Betweenies. Parallel music included Distinctly Oddie (1967), a Joe Cocker-style On Ilkla Moor Baht'at on John Peel's Dandelion label, drums and sax work, and later the Lord High Executioner in ENO's The Mikado (1986). The Goodies also voiced Bananaman. Decades later Reading FC supporters kept his name alive on the terraces with a chant that made him an unlikely football folk figure.
From childhood birding he built a second public life as Britain's best-known popular ornithologist. Series included Birding with Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie Goes Wild, Wild in Your Garden, Britain Goes Wild (2004 ratings hit), then Springwatch and Autumnwatch (2005-2008) with Kate Humble and Simon King. Books such as Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book and his autobiography One Flew into the Cuckoo's Egg reached wide audiences. He served the RSPB council, West Midland Bird Club (president from 1999), League Against Cruel Sports, and related conservation bodies, and received an OBE in 2003 for services to wildlife conservation. In 2005 he took the British Naturalists' Association Peter Scott Memorial Award, presented by David Bellamy.
He married Jeanne Hart in 1966 (two daughters, including actress Kate Hardie and Bonnie; later divorced) and Laura Beaumont in 1983 (daughter Rosie, musician Rosie Bones, born October 1985); the family lived in Hampstead. He spoke publicly about clinical depression and bipolar disorder, hospital stays, his Springwatch departure, and a Radio 4 Appeal for Bipolar UK. He supported the Green Party and opposed cruelty sports and habitat destruction. Who Do You Think You Are? (2004) revisited his mother's illness and the family story behind his Birmingham childhood.
Peers repeatedly stressed that he made birding feel open to beginners without dumbing down the science: Kate Humble said no one could enthuse a stranger about a robin the way he could, and Chris Packham called him a renegade polymath with binoculars and a beard.
Oddie died on 25 July 2026, aged 85. Agent David Foster announced the death; Eric Idle said he had been sick for some time. Exact medical cause and place of death were not made public. A self-described atheist and humanist, he had asked for a humanist celebration and for ashes on Hampstead Heath. On 24 August 2026 family and friends scattered his ashes there in a wildlife-themed send-off (makeshift bird's nest, music including Prince and Spike Jones as he had wished). Tributes came from Kate Humble, Chris Packham, Stephen Moss, Samuel West, Edgar Wright, Reading FC, the BBC, and many birders he inspired.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (Bill Oddie); The Guardian (Anthony Hayward obituary, 2026-07-27; Stephen Moss appreciation); BBC News (Ian Youngs, 2026-07-27); Daily Mail / Express coverage of death and Hampstead Heath as. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“I'm an atheist, so I will have a humanist funeral. I want to come in to Nothing Compares 2 U by Prince and disappear to Cocktails For Two by Spike Jones. My ashes can be scattered on Hampstead Heath. I love it there.”
Daily Mail interview with Rob McGibbon, 2012 (widely republished after his death).
“It is with deep sadness that I announce the passing of Bill Oddie, the country's best-loved birder.”
Agent David Foster statement, 27 July 2026 (BBC).
“No-one could tell a story like Bill. No-one could make me laugh like Bill. No-one could enthuse anyone, whoever they were, to go outside and get excited about a robin.”
Kate Humble, BBC Radio 4 The World At One, 2026-07-27.
“Sadly we've not only lost a goodie, we've lost one of the besties. A renegade polymath with binoculars and a beard...”
Chris Packham social tribute, 2026-07-27.
“I'm very sad Bill Oddie has gone. He was sick for some time and I wrote to him... He was a very fine songwriter and I learned a lot from him. I miss him.”
Eric Idle on X, 2026-07-27.
“Bill Oddie wore a great learning lightly, but he could never hide his enthusiasm.”
Samuel West on X, quoted by BBC, 2026-07-27.
Photos
3Bill Oddie, 5 February 2007
Feb 2007 · by People Forever
Bill Oddie live at the Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia, 27 June 2013
Jun 2013 · by People Forever
Bill Oddie sticking out the tongue of concentration
by People Forever
He had that effect on people. A real spark.