Today, I'm in Birmingham, in the English Midlands,
to meet a writer, comedian, musician, conservationist and birdwatcher.
He's one of the English performers that changed comedy forever.
He's the hairy one from The Goodies. It's the wonderful Bill Oddie.
Bill!
Hi. Birmingham's under construction!
(LAUGHS) What's going on?
Listen, Julia, it's been under construction ever since I knew it,
and I moved to Birmingham about six, a very long time ago,
and everybody was saying, "It'll be really lovely when it's finished."
You know what I mean? Well, they still haven't finished yet.
That's pretty obvious.
Let's go somewhere where we can be heard, shall we?
Well, alright. I don't mind. I'm not gonna say anything interesting.
Doesn't matter. (LAUGHS)
(CAR STARTS)
This was not my car but my dad's car.
And it is the first car he'd ever had.
Oh... (GASPS) Oh, jeez!
I'm in a Goodies sketch with Bill Oddie in a dangerous car.
A dangerous car?
You mean a dangerous driver, you mean.
Well... (LAUGHS)
♪ Jump in my car
♪ I want to take you home... ♪ (LAUGHS)
♪ Jump in my car... ♪ Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee!
♪ It's too far to walk on your own. ♪
(BOTH LAUGH)
♪ Goodies
♪ Goody, goody, yum, yum... ♪
JULIA: A generation of us grew up on the anarchic comedy The Goodies,
starring Bill, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Bill Oddie emerged from the Cambridge University Footlights,
performing and writing with Terry Jones,
Michael Palin and John Cleese among others.
After The Goodies, Bill pursued his interest
in natural history and birdwatching
on TV and radio.
Springwatch was a phenomenon,
attracting 5 million viewers to the BBC.
So, you lived in a little cul-de-sac? BILL: Yeah.
What's striking me now, and I haven't been here
for, God, how many, 40, 50 years, whatever,
but my dad and I and mother and granny were...
..we were... we lived in Rochdale, in the north, in Lancashire,
which was pretty grotty, and all the houses squeezed up, you know,
and this represents my dad climbing the ladder of success.
(LAUGHS) You know. It's a luxury abode.
A luxury abode. Yeah.
And this, by the way, missy... Yes.
..was... was the cricket pitch.
See, the... the wickets were on the end of that wall there,
and you bowled from something that isn't there anymore.
Aw! There was a lamppost on that corner.
I once scored 400...
(BOTH LAUGH)
..in a game - there was about three of us playing.
I... I don't think I've got a key. (LAUGHS)
I used to have. There you go.
I'll tell you something.
It's a bloody sight... everything would... would be neater...
Neater. ..than... than when I was here.
But it hasn't changed. The actual layout hasn't changed. Here is...
We... we had a peculiar set-up, 'cause my mother barely came here.
She was committed to a... a mental home, or whatever we call it,
and only appeared once or twice.
You know, after a while, they had to keep her in and that was it.
And, so, but, and my granny, who was a pottery little thing,
but she insisted on doing all the housework and everything else,
but she couldn't - she was 90-something -
so... and my dad was off to work all the time,
which left me, and I would never do anything
quite so constructive as that, so I buggered off on my bike....bike
and went birdwatching.
This is the kitchen. I feel like I'm selling it or something.
I know! You might buy it.
Lovely, isn't it, but...
This is... main interest for me in the old days.
That was the garden.
I used to use this as a sort of observation point for birds,
'cause the grass down there was never mowed.
My... my dad couldn't bring himself to do it.
I couldn't bring myself to do it.
And my granny said, "That grass is far too long, far too long.
"One of you lads ought to be mowing that."
And we... we, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Gran."
And I came home one day from school and looked out there at the lawn
and the grass was much longer, but it was kind of
moving and waving, you know, like elephant grass does,
and there's a creature going through,
and I peered over, and there was my granny on hands and knees
with a pair of scissors cutting the lawn.
(GASPS) And see how well it's lasted.
Now...
I think that's right.
That was my room.
God! It's quite little, really.
Yes, it was. It just had a bed.
Can you describe yourself as a kid here? What kind of kid were you?
I... I mean, it'd be silly for me to say I WASN'T a loner,
but I didn't think of it that much,
but if you were interested in birds or another kind of wildlife,
probably the best thing to be is on your own...
Mmm. ..most of the time.
Were you a deep thinker as a kid? No.
Were you reflective? No. I think...
Funny enough, my headmaster, who called himself the chief master,
which gives you an idea that he had sort of delusions of...
Mmm. Mmm. ..grandeur.
But I remember in his last report of me, he... it was something like,
"He seems to find it very difficult to be serious about anything."
You know, "His natural tendency is to frivolity."
I suppose this must have been Dad's room.
He wasn't a very tactile person, but he was very protective,
and he was very proud of anything I did,
so he would come along to cricket matches and rugby matches,
which is great, you know, a parent who really supports you like that.
He would never not support me.
Down here, where that little bush is...
Mmm. ..that was where the shed was.
There was a little shed, and I'd set up a trap,
which is not as nasty as it sounds, made out of wire,
and you put it down, you put some bait in,
and you ran a piece of string, hide,
wait for a bird to jump in and get something
and then pull the string and it goes "Boom!" like that.
It didn't hurt them and I used to catch them and ring them,
put a little coloured ring on,
and that was my first ringing station, was down that side.
So, what was your dad, Harry, like?
Was he a funny guy? Was he a funny man?
I think he was funnier than I knew.
He could be very witty. Mmm.
I know that, but it... it wasn't part of life, really,
and he always had such a hard time going on with my mother
and I just used to feel sorry for him a lot of the time.
Although he didn't feel sorry for himself.
Tell me about Lillian, your mum. What... what happened to her?
Well, literally what happened... I mean, she...
It... it's a long story in a way.
I'll try and abbreviate as much as I can.
There were signs, I think, before I was even born
that she had some mental instabilities,
and I've put certain amount of this together afterwards.
She, in fact, lost a baby, and then there was a... a stillborn baby
and then me, and then she... too late to swap me by then,
and I think that had huge effects on her.
Mmm.
But, basically, she began to behave quite dangerously.
I went back to the hospital where she'd been treated,
which was still... still there, near Bromsgrove, not far from here,
and there were a couple of ladies who were about 80, 90
and been nurses there, and they remembered my mother,
and I said to them, "What do you really think was wrong with her?"
And almost as a chorus, they said, "Well,
"I think it's what we would nowadays call bipolar."
Mmm.
And many, many years ago after that,
I too had been diagnosed as being bipolar.
So, was Mum around much here at all? Did you...
No. No?
My mother was...
..called in occasionally,
and, frankly, I was quite fright... frightened of it.
Yeah.
And we don't know where she was some of the time.
She'd be in hospital and then she'd be off.
I think she had a mother I never met or anything.
And then one day, I remember coming back
and my mother was in the bathroom, she was in the bath, actually,
and, I mean, what a... what a sock... shock
for a young lad to discover and he comes home.
"Oh, my God," you know.
And why did you feel frightened to see your mum?
I thought she might hit me. Mmm.
Or something like that, or worse. Very traumatic, yeah. And...
I don't know whether it was, you know, 'cause people have said,
"It must have made a big difference,"
and all that sort of thing, but I... I... I don't know.
I didn't THINK it was different.
That's the point, you know. Mmm.
That was my life. Mmm...
And so, I would have said, "Well, that's the way it is.
"It's not different to me.
"Everybody's mother's beating up their dad."
Actually, the most dramatic incident was back in Rochdale.
Came back from school, as usual, said, "Anybody in?"
You know. "Dad?" No. "Gran?" No.
And I went into the kitchen,
and there was broken crockery all over the place
and blood spattered and that sort of thing, and...
..so, once you've got that image in your mind, you think,
"I don't think I want to be on the end of this," you know.
Mmm. Do you think your dad was still in love with your mum?
No.
My theory, and I suppose now that they're all gone, I can say it,
'cause I never really have before,
I think he might have been attracted to a slightly quirky person,
which is possible, of course, you know,
and almost, knowing him, it's a challenge, you know.
Mmm.
"She's a bit damaged, but I'll do it," you know, "I'll sort it out."
But he tried to get a divorce.
I think he did eventually. Right.
Because, you know, he said, "This is impossible. Impossible."
Mmm. As you've gotten older, when you reflect on that time...
Wish you hadn't said that.
As now, at this beautiful ripe old age that you're at, Bill...
Grr.
..do you feel more empathetic towards what your mum went through?
That's a very good question. You're very ob... yeah.
La-la-la-la-la.
And I suppose I do, but, the thing is,
if you've never seen anybody...
..at their best, being normal...
You see, I never... Mmm.
..ever have any memory of my mum actually being my parent as such.
And the only times I do remember it, you know, it was a bit hairy
and I knew there was a fight coming or something like that, you know.
Mmm.
And, obviously, one would be sorry or sympathetic
to anybody who has mental problems of any kind, really, so...
..I'm afraid I basically would have been more... more sorry for my dad.
Yeah. 'Cause I... I saw him.
I saw what he was doing.
I thought the potential's huge for him to marry again, etc, etc, etc.
Instead, he killed himself smoking cigarettes.
I don't mean literally. Mmm.
But he smoked himself to death. He was about 50-something, you know.
Really young. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.
But school too ended up being such a big part of your life.
Oh, totally. You had somewhere to escape to.
Totally. Totally.
The... the most wonderful thing of it was,
a lot of people go on their first day to a new school,
and quite a high-powered one, and they're, "Ugh! What's going on?"
Mmm! But I loved it instantly.
Shall we go to the school?
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm dying to go to the school.
They might even let you in now, you see. They didn't have girls.
I'm very non-blokey, I think, about things which move... (LAUGHS)
..and that sort of thing.
But I think that's what people saw and loved about you, Bill,
that there was a softness in you, I think,
that women loved on The Goodies.
Oh! We knew you were the one that...
Now you tell me. Yeah.
You would be the one that we'd go, "Yeah.
"He'll be lovely to go and have a drink with."
Gorblimey. I'm glad I came. (BOTH LAUGH)
Ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee!
Boomph!
Yep. Right.
Julia. So...
What is this school called? It is called the King Edward School.
And it is the school that you came to for your senior high school years.
"Senior high school"? That sounds like something out of Grease.
(BOTH LAUGH) It does a bit, doesn't it?
This seems very beautiful... Yeah.
..and very...
..gorgeous.
But... (BOTH LAUGH)
Did you have to pass an exam to get into this school?
Yes, and I know I had to take an exam.
In fact, I think I came to school when I was 12 or 13.
Around 1953. Yeah.
And there was a limited number of places,
but it wasn't a fee-paying thing.
It's not like a public school...
Right. ..like Eton or somewhere like that.
I'm happy to say. (BOTH LAUGH)
I can't deny it, it was a pretty high-powered school,
because it did a lot of things very well.
It's as simple as that. Mmm. Mmm.
So this is a list of people who graduated to Cambridge?
Yes. Cambridge. I should be on that there.
19... Where are you?
Oh, they've had me exp...
No, there we are. There you are.
1959. There you go.
'Pemb' meaning 'Pembroke College'.
Was Cambridge in your sights at all? Was it... were you...
No. Not me. It was in my dad's sights.
As you're probably gathering, I mean,
I feel a great affection for this place.
I really do. Yes. Yeah.
I think it... as they say, put me where I am, this place, you know.
And I shouldn't be in here. Yeah. I shouldn't be in here.
This was one of those privileged things
that schools sometimes go in for.
It was called the Carlton Club.
Who the dickens was the Carlton, I don't know.
And, the thing is, you were kind of voted on to it.
A mixture, I think, of boys and teachers.
And I can't pretend, I was quite hurt really, that I wasn't voted on,
and this is because I'd...
..I'd had a bit of a run-in with the head teacher.
What happened?
I didn't hurt him or anything like that. No, he didn't like me.
He didn't like me because I...
..you know, I didn't speak nice and I didn't know my Latin.
I hated him, frankly.
Everything I stood for... Mmm.
..and enjoyed, like sport and...
..and music and that sort of thing, he wouldn't have wanted.
He was... he was an opera and ballet man, you know...
Right. ..and church man.
Right.
Which is never good with me.
At school, were you a bit of a smart-arse?
You're just drawing that conclusion.
This is like a... some sort of awful session.
Well, yes. (LAUGHS)
Yes, I think I was. Do you think?
I think I was. I'd... I'd... I have to admit that. I think in...
It wasn't... I don't know whether it's smart-arse,
but I... I would... I wouldn't sh... I tended not to shut up,
and I'd tend to put in a bit of frivolity sometimes,
and quite a lot of teachers seemed to go along with some of that.
Yeah, of course. You know.
Well, let's go down to the hall,
where other school productions eventuated.
Not this club, that you weren't even a part of.
No, I wasn't part of this. I feel like trashing it.
Ah!
This... Oh!
..is big school.
Big school! Yes.
You can't call it large school, main hall, something like that,
but big school.
(GASPS) And...
This!
..we are surrounded by some of the venerable chief masters.
Wow!
And did you do shows here? Yes. I did a school revue here.
That was my main contribution.
And, oh, whatever year it was, 19 blah-blah-blah,
I wrote the end-of-term show,
and that was the first thing I really wrote with an intention.
You know, I wrote all the music.
Power-mad. There's no question about it.
That... that... that particular show, it gave me...
..big thing was it gave me confidence to carry on doing stuff.
Yes.
And when I went to Cambridge, I started doing similar things,
writing sketches and songs and things like that,
joining up with John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor,
and the rest is history.
Shall we have a little sit-down and have a chat?
What did you want to do when you left here?
I had no idea, none whatsoever. In terms of work, no idea.
I don't think any of us...
When I say 'us', I mean that group,
Cleese and Tim Brooke-Taylor and so on and so forth.
We got our degree. That was point one.
But, fortunately, perhaps, we then got this offer
from an impresario called Michael White,
who's, sadly, not with us anymore, but did lots of good work,
and he kind of spotted us at Cambridge
and put us back together as a team,
and he put us on in London.
We were there for, I don't know, nine months or something, and...
..then it really started taking off, 'cause we... we went to New Zealand.
So that's you and John Cleese and... Tim Brooke-Taylor. Graeme Chapman.
..Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Graeme Chapman? Yeah.
And you were touring, doing, like, a sk... like, a show, a sketch show?
Yes. It was a sketch show, that was.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! (HONKING)
Where have you been, then?
The international chess championships!
And what a final!
How about Grabovski, eh? Did you see the way he took that last pawn?
Fantastic! BOTH: Grabovski! Grabovski!
The crowd went mad! There were a lot there, were there?
No. Just us. (LAUGHTER)
Do you ever watch episodes of The Goodies?
No. Not willingly.
How do you think the comedy would stand up today?
Some do, perfectly well. Mmm.
More than we think sometime.
I can't remember why, but we were sorting through
with a production company not too long ago and I kept thinking,
"Where's the bad ones?
"Let's have a look at one of those, see how bad it was."
And it wasn't THAT bad. (LAUGHS)
You made so many episodes of The Goodies.
Yeah.
It must have been a roller-coaster of a time.
I suppose it was.
I mean, there was a period where Graeme and I as writers
were writing other things as well.
We used to write Doctor in the House and Doctor at Large
and all that sort of thing.
So there was a period when we were
working on three shows at the same time.
So you enjoyed pushing yourself really hard?
I suppose I do.
I've never been very good at knowing what's bad for you.
And I mean that particularly in sort of psychical or psychological terms.
And throughout my life, I've had quite a few bad patches.
You know, mainly sort of depression and that sort of thing.
And I... but I'm very bad at thinking, "What caused that?"
Self-preservation is not my... (LAUGHS) ..not my forte.
At the height of it, did you enjoy the attention?
Yes! And I still do. Mmm.
Elderly lady wrote to me saying, "I'm," 80-odd or something.
"I can barely get out.
"But I watched one of your shows the other night,
"and it wasn't a Goodies one, it was a wildlife show," and said...
..she said, "You took me for a walk, and it was so enjoyable. Thank you."
You know, you... God, you just want to burst into tears and say,
"Well, Christ, that must be worth it," you know.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Let's go to where your other big love, conservation, thrives.
Yeah. Yes, indeed. Yes.
Where the hell are we, Bill? (LAUGHS)
I was gonna say the same thing, actually,
'cause I genuinely didn't recognise it.
'Cause I... I said, "We've got to go to Upton Warren..."
Mmm. ..and we have.
I can't see where the birds might be.
It's a standard nature reserve now. Mmm.
Insofar as they've got some cover around.
There's about two or three ponds through there
and a little area called The Flashes.
I know one thing, and that is that a lot of work has been put into this.
Ah! Sorry. No, please.
I'm pretty slow.
Oh, blimey! (GASPS)
You didn't expect that, did you? Neither did I.
This sight. Oh! Look!
Crikey!
(BIRDS CALL)
So, there are a lot of Canada geese here.
There's, generally speaking, a lot of coots, masses of coots.
Ooh! That's a little egret.
Back in the days when we first come here,
that would have been a major rarity.
And it's almost certainly one of the effects of global warming,
is that quite a lot of birds which, really,
we used to think of as
round the Mediterranean
and warm areas
are proliferating here.
One thing that occurs to me as we sit here,
it is actually a very, very peaceful activity.
Are you at peace when you come and birdwatch like this?
Yes.
But you would prefer to go walking
rather than be in a... a hide, necessarily.
I like a hide when I need it. (BOTH LAUGH)
I don't bloody know what it is. What's that one?
As a creative person... as a creative person...
Who's that? You. You know.
You've done lots of different creative things.
Yeah. And... and I'm a creative person too.
We put ourselves on the line. We put ourselves out there as performers.
Everybody does in a way.
But go on, yeah. Mmm.
Has having a mental illness been a professional risk?
Oh, blimey. Um...
I didn't know I had one until very late in my life.
How late was that? Oh, 60-odd.
Mmm! Mmm. Something like that.
And it was only then that I'd...
..first clue was I had a just massive depression.
You know, they would have called it a nervous breakdown in the old days.
And I didn't know why, but that's what happened,
and then that made me look back
and I could recognise that there were examples
of what one would have to call bipolar-type behaviour,
you know, when I would lose my cool, lose my temper or be...
..be working too quickly, that was one of the things,
'cause it's generally accepted, you know, bipolar, you...
..once you're in the... the up mood, you can get an awful lot done.
But it didn't half intimidate people, you know.
"Come on, for heaven's sake! Keep up."
And how has the mental health stuff affected those around you,
your closer family?
Um, it's been very...
They've all been brilliant, I would say that, right in start.
But my wife, Laura, has had to put up with quite a lot.
Although she keeps saying, she said, "Well,
"when you're really down, you're in a depression,
"you spend most of your time lying in bed,
"so you're not in my way really."
I think it must have frightened my kids a bit.
Mmm.
'Cause they're thinking, "What the hell's going on?"
But they never showed anything like that.
But it ain't gonna do a f... it isn't gonna do a family
or a relationship a lot of good, you know.
It's a tough thing to... to deal with. It really is.
Wasn't there a GP once who was able to diagnose you
just from watching Goodies episodes?
I gave a talk to a whole room full of GPs
about the things that people should notice
if you've got somebody in the family,
the first... first thing being, for God's sake, you know,
just because a person says, "No, I'm fine,"
that doesn't mean they're not having problems.
Don't just accept that.
Get to the doctor and say, "Look, he says he's alright,
"but I'll tell you, I live with him and he ain't."
Mmm. Mmm. You know.
And so that's valuable.
And, as I say, this one bloke, he said... he said, "Well, I...
"and after watching The Goodies a couple of times,
"anybody could tell you're bipolar."
(LAUGHS) "Oh."
What are you most proud of?
Whoa. Whoa.
God, that's good. I'm most proud... It's terrible, and kill me for this.
But I'm... I'm... I suppose I would say Rosie, really, I just, and...
..she lives in Los Angeles now and she's got a band
and it's doing pretty well.
And this is your daughter with Laura? Yeah.
And that gives me great deal of pride,
because she's excelling at an area
which I've kind of dabbled in to a certain extent,
but I could never take myself seriously.
But her music is... it's serious, but witty, and it's...
..it's... it's pretty loud.
You've got so many skills - musician, writer, comedian, conservation.
I never say comedian, by the way. And thank you for saying the word.
I never use that as a word. Really?
Yeah. No. I... I'm not a comedian.
I mean, OK, so, how would you describe yourself, then?
If you wouldn't say a comedian, how would you describe yourself?
(LAUGHS)
At the moment, this is going to seem so arch and pathetic, but...
..very considerably lacking in confidence.
Really? Yeah.
Oh. It's just over the past few months.
And that's partially effect of age and things I can't manage anymore,
and so on and so forth, and because I haven't had that much work,
I sort of think, "Well," you know, "what have I done?"
Mmm. You know.
"Why aren't I working more?"
So, yeah, and I get very down about it. Yep.
Well, let's assume that you are a comedian in my eyes.
(LAUGHS)
Comedian, writer, musician, conservationist.
Which of those would you keep?
Well, I... I... I, very... again, righteously,
I suppose I would have, I would say, the conservationist side of things.
I can never find enough to do. You know, I can support things.
But you think, "I wish there was something," you know.
Mmm. Climb the Eiffel Tower or something.
Almost go and do something irresponsible too, but...
and... and... but... but otherwise, my...
..I think the thing I enjoy most is music,
is writing music and silly songs and that sort of thing.
That's great fun, yeah.
(BIRDS CALL)
What advice would you give the 12-year-old you?
(SIGHS)
"Keep at it. You're doing OK."
(LAUGHS) Yeah?
That's a good answer. Yeah.
It's probably true. I think, yeah. Yeah. That's probably true.
I think we should get back to the birds, don't you?
If there are any. Let's do a slow spin.
Yep. (GROANS) Like a slow spin. Oh!
Just a quiet old spin around. Oh, yeah.
That's one of the things I can't do anymore, Julia.
Oh...
And thank you, Bill. Thank you so much for today.
It's a pleasure. It really was a great pleasure.
Been interesting to look at things again.
Mmm.
Sometimes you say, "Yeah, just the same as it ever was."
(LAUGHS) "Same as it ever was."
(LAUGHS)
Come on, everybody! It's gibbon time!
(FUNKY MUSIC)
♪ We're The Goodies How do you do?
♪ We've just been out to the zoo
♪ We saw a monkey in a cage
♪ Doing a dance that could be the rage
♪ It's not hard
♪ So let's all do the funky gibbon Ooh-ooh-ooh
♪ Do, do, do the funky gibbon
♪ Funky gibbon
♪ We are here to show you how... ♪