Bill Oddie, who has died aged 85, was a multi-talented performer who found his greatest comedy success on television with his fellow Cambridge University Footlights members Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden in The Goodies, a sketch show that combined the anarchic elements of Monty Python’s Flying Circus with “silly” sight gags.
Oddie’s self-taught musical skills steered the trio into the charts with his compositions – pastiche rock’n’roll songs such as The Funky Gibbon and Nappy Love. And when that was all over, he carved out a new career as the small screen’s most famous birdwatcher, credited with encouraging new generations to become enthusiasts for the natural world.
