Bill Oddie, wildlife presenter and star of British comedy series The Goodies, dies at 85

UK television personality Bill Oddie, best known for his role in the television comedy series The Goodies and presenter of nature programmes, has died aged 85, his agent said on Monday.

“Bill was a multitalented celebrity – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comedian, writer, songwriter, musician and conservationist,” Oddie’s agent David Foster said in a statement.

“Yet it was never fame that he valued. Instead he encouraged us to respect and protect the environment.

“He taught us the wonder of it. He protested, lobbied and campaigned for it,” Foster added, hailing Oddie as “the country’s best-loved birder”.

Oddie, who grew up in Birmingham, came to fame as one of the trio in The Goodies, starring with Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor in the comedy sketch show which ran from 1970 to 1982.

The three met as students at Cambridge University, and joined the Footlights Club, where their contemporaries included British comedians John Cleese and Eric Idle, who were later to create Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Several of the songs written for The Goodies were UK chart hits, including The Funky Gibbon in 1975.