Bill Oddie has died. Aged 85.

[Zov]

Sad news... Wildlife presenter and comedian Bill Oddie has died aged 85.
R.I.P. ❤

https://news.sky.com/story/wildlife-presenter-and-comedian-bill-oddie-has-died-13567339

Oh. Sad, thankyou.

Loved him in the goodies back in the 70's. Bloody good actor and wildlife conversationist. Will be missed x

I also enjoyed watching The Goodies @shellyleppard

Remember how exciting it was as a child when The Goodies came on. Ecky Thump.

@Zov it was totally daft fun. Rest in peace Bill 🙏 ❤️

One if those tv personalities that I’ve known all my life, from the Goodies onwards.

All my childhood favourites are disappearing 😭 Loved the Goodies and Bill. RIP

Oh I'm really sorry to hear that, we were just joking about CMFs yesterday. Thanks Bill, for all the laughs and capturing the joy of birding.

So sad, only Graham Garden left on that three-seater tandem ❤️
Loved The Goodies, my children too. Saw Bill Oddie at my dentist once.

An old neighbour of mine knew him from the bird watching and said he was nice but a ‘ a bit odd ‘ !
His house was on through the keyhole and it was very quirky ( years ago )
He was very good in ‘ the goodies’.

Oh, I forgot about the 3 seater tandem! 😆 And ecky thump!

As a pp said, all our childhood favourites are dying. ❤

He had the right name then. 'Oddie!' That was his real surname too!

That's really sad news.

It is sad, isn't it @Gladitsraining? I mean, he was a 'good age' but as has been said, it seems, for many people (born pre 1990s I would say ) we are losing all the celebrities we have grown up with ...

RIP Bill Oddie ❤️

May he rest in peace and thoughts for his family and friends.

Kate Humble’s thoughts and recognition of his mental health illness was a kind tribute.

I used to refer to Springwatch when he was co-presenting as Bill Oddie Watch. Apologies if that was unkind.

The Goodies was classic slapstick surrealism of its day, less arch and pretentious than Monty Python and a lot more energetic, with a strong appeal to children and adolescents. It was especially popular in Australia, where it was often repeated on the ABC.

Bill was the more rebellious and moody of the trio, but always very funny.

Sadly in real life he suffered from severe depression, which often interrupted his career. He shared his troubles occasionally in interviews and campaigned for various mental health charities.

Through all that he lived to 85, a respectable run indeed. 🙂

Sad news. He had a very sad family background. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/27/bill-oddie-my-family-values He only found out on Who Do You Think You Are? that his mother had had two baby daughters before him and tragically neither survived. She then spent most of his childhood in psychiatric hospitals and they never established a proper relationship later in life when she was back in the community. No wonder he had mental health difficulties. It was brave and commendable of him to be very open about that at a time when many similarly afflicted did their best to hide it.

Funny you mention Through the Keyhole, I was only thinking about that episode yesterday, because Bill Oddie’s house was the only time I ever correctly guessed the celebrity!

The goodies also had hit too. The funky gibbon , oh oh oh! It was a strange little show , very surreal.

That episode was what I first thought of when I heard the news too. Bless him.

He was great fun as a guest on one of Ant & Dec’s old programs too, must be over 20 years ago. They made up a silly song about him and he played along wonderfully.

You're right there! This one-minute clip gives a flavour.

RIP Bill Oddie and thanks for all the laughs, I was around 12 when the Goodies was on and absolutely loved it.

Can just see him landing in heaven and yelling
"C'mon everybody it's gibbon time!"

Kitten Kong is a masterpiece. I loved them so so much, yes, Bill had a very tough life. Bless him for making tiny me laugh so much week after week

When the England cricket team won the ashes years ago , Bill appeared on one of the chat shows and was berating people for not dancing in the streets over it all as they would have done for a big football win at a major tournament. He was a real character I can imagine. All three of the goodies seemed quirky and very intelligent too.