Bill Oddie, the revered nature presenter who has died at the age of 85, was identified for a lot of issues: appearing, birding, portray and comedy amongst them.
For followers of Steve Coogan’s comedian character Alan Partridge, nevertheless, Oddie can be remembered as a perennial level of reference for the fictional Norfolk media presenter.
Oddie was name-checked in each episode of the primary season of I’m Alan Partridge, typically framed as a celeb good friend of Partridge, and would go on to be talked about in lots of later initiatives, together with Partridge’s mock memoir Nomad and the later TV sequence Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters.
The late Springwatch presenter took Coogan’s fascination in good humour, joking to The Independent in 2013: “Anything I can do to discredit the idea that I have even heard of Mr Partridge, let alone befriended him, is most welcome.”
Asked what it’s wish to be framed as a thorn within the facet of Coogan’s comedy creation, he responded: “Do you recognize, a superb quantity of individuals have requested the exact same factor! But why ought to I be upset about it? Some have instructed he’s setting me up, however I do not suppose he’s, truly.
“And even if he were, well, it’s a compliment. Partridge is a good act.”
Oddie revealed that he had penned a letter to Coogan asking him about his motivations (“twice, in fact”), however had by no means heard again.
“There wasn’t [a response]!” he mentioned. “Bloody typical, eh? When you call his bluff, Alan is not there to respond. I suppose he thinks he’s staying in character…”
The references to Oddie throughout Coogan’s work have ranged from benign mentions – as in a single episode of I’m Alan Partridge when a telephone message from a B Oddie is misidentified as a prank name on account of its similarity with the phrase “body” – to a kind of morbid whimsey.
In an episode of Mid-Morning Matters, Partridge quizzes a Special Forces knowledgeable on what he would do if Oddie spearheaded a terrorist assault by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), likening the presenter to “a bearded Catherine wheel scything through the crowd”.
Writing as Partridge in The Guardian in 2016, Coogan described an incident during which Oddie “pinned [Springwatch successor] Chris Packham to a wall”, solely to understand, as soon as placing on his glasses, that he was as a substitute accosting Sue Barker.
Elsewhere, in his memoir, Partridge claimed that Oddie taught him “the best way to stay nonetheless for lengthy durations of time and go fully undetected in undergrowth and shrubbery” – utilising the lesson to spy on his spouse Carol’s infidelities.
It could also be no shock that Oddie was capable of take the Alan Partridge affiliation in his stride, given his background in comedy: the TV star began out within the Cambridge Footlights comedy organisation, earlier than writing for and starring in programmes together with Sorry I’ll Read That Again and That Was the Week That Was.
Alongside Graeme Garden and the late Tim Brooke-Taylor, Oddie was half of the profitable comedy trio The Goodies between 1970 and 1982, throughout which period they fronted their very own TV present.
In an announcement saying Oddie’s dying earlier as we speak (27 July), good friend and agent David Foster mentioned: “It is with deep unhappiness that I announce the passing of Bill Oddie, the nation’s best-loved birder.
“Bill was a multi-talented celeb – wildlife presenter, broadcaster, comic, author, songwriter, musician and conservationist. Yet it was by no means fame that he valued. Instead he inspired us to respect and defend the surroundings.
“He taught us the wonder of it. He protested, lobbied and campaigned for it. He led the way and people of all ages and backgrounds responded to his call. And such a massive contribution to conservation will never be forgotten.”
