This Is Your Life: Bill Oddie

Bill ODDIE (1941-)

The third subject to refuse to appear on This Is Your Life - although clearly he was eventually persuaded to take part!

THIS IS YOUR LIFE – Bill Oddie, comedian, actor and presenter, was surprised by Michael Aspel while filming the television series Bill Oddie Goes Wild at the Slimbridge Wetland Centre.

Bill began his comedy career while studying English at Cambridge University. He appeared with the university's Footlights Club and contributed to scripts for the satirical television show That Was The Week That Was. He later became a member of the team in the BBC radio series I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and appeared on television in the comedy series Twice a Fortnight and Broaden Your Mind.

He co-wrote and appeared with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden in The Goodies television comedy series, which was consistently top of the ratings for 12 years between 1970 and 1982. As a lifelong keen birdwatcher, Bill has written over 15 books and created a new career as a television wildlife expert, presenting numerous documentaries and becoming part of the highly acclaimed BBC television series Springwatch and Autumnwatch.

"Oh no! It's not! I always said I wouldn't do it and I won't! I'm sorry. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Absolutely not! No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, I won't do it. No, I've always said I won't and I won't!"

programme details...

Edition No: 1091
Subject No: 1066
Broadcast date: Thu 31 Jan 2002
Broadcast time: 8.30-9.00pm
Recorded: Wed 5 Dec 2001
Venue: BBC Television Centre
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 42
Edition: 12
Code name: Hide

on the guest list...

Marian - aunt
Margery - aunt
Laura Beaumont - wife
Rosie - daughter
Bonnie - daughter
Kate - daughter
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Graeme Garden
Andy Lowe
Jonathan Lynn
George Layton
Frank Thornton
Henry McGee
Tony Blackburn
David Stafford
Freddy Marks
Jane Tucker
Chris Packham
Tony Marr
Magnus Magnusson
David Frost
Eric Idle
Michael Palin
Rick Wakeman
Micky Dolenz
David Bellamy

production team...

Researcher: Emma Dooley
Writer: Joe Steeples
Director: John Gorman
Associate Producer: Helen Gordon-Smith
Executive Producer: John Longley
Series Producer: Jack Crawshaw
Producer: Sue Green

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

Presenting Life

celebrating the hosts

A Life Refused

those who said 'No'

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

This Was Your Life!

Press coverage on the uncertain future of This Is Your Life

My Life in Their Hands

The Mirror interviews Michael Aspel

BBC axes This Is Your Life

Press coverage of the BBC's announcement

This Is Your Life Set For TV Comeback

Press coverage of the programme's relaunch

Not on your life, mate!

Daily Mail feature

Screenshots of Bill Oddie This Is Your Life

Daily Mirror 18 January 2003

MY LIFE IN THEIR HANDS

WHEN MICHAEL ASPEL SURPRISES SOMEONE WITH THE BIG RED BOOK ON THIS IS YOUR LIFE

BYLINE: TONY PURNELL

BILL ODDIE JANUARY 2002

Bill had a pact with his mates in The Goodies that they should all decline if asked to appear on the show. I crept up on him when he was doing one of his birdwatching programmes. He gave me a definite refusal. Disappointed, I bade him goodbye and said no hard feelings. Luckily for us, Bill's family told him they would kill him if he didn't appear, so he changed his mind.

BBC Online 5 December 2001

Oddie turns down TV red book

Former Goodies star Bill Oddie has turned away the This Is Your Life crew when they surprised him to tell him he was going to be on the show.

But his family, who had gathered to take part in the celebration of the presenter's life and career, were persuading him to change his mind and programme-makers were hopeful that the programme would be recorded.

Oddie, 60, became only the third person in the show's 46-year history to say "no" after the host pulled the famous red book out of the blue.

He is most famous for his part in madcap comedy group The Goodies but has revealed how he has recently suffered from clinical depression.

"He turned it down, he said no, but has subsequently been persuaded by the family," a spokesman for Thames TV, who make the show, told BBC News Online.

"So we'll see whether the show does indeed get recorded but for the moment we're pretty hopeful."

He did not reveal why Oddie had turned the show down. "It's always a risk," he said.

Family and friends

Subjects of the show do not know they are going to take part until host Michael Aspel sneaks up on them at an unexpected moment while they are working.

They are then taken straight to a TV studio where their lives are picked through by assembled family and friends.

The Thames TV spokesman could not confirm what Oddie was doing when he was approached by Aspel and the show's crew.

Since The Goodies ended in 1982, Oddie has reinvented himself as a wildlife presenter, fronting shows like Bill Oddie Goes Wild and Oddie In Paradise.

'Suicidal'

But he suffered clinical depression at the end of last year and spent eight days in hospital in January.

"My mind wandered in a suicidal direction but, fortunately, I was so paralysed by the depression that I didn't have the energy to do anything about it," he told the Daily Mail newspaper in August.

He also told the newspaper that he had recovered and got control of his negative streak.

The only other personalities to turn down This Is Your Life were footballer Danny Blanchflower in the 1950s and author Richard Gordon in the 1970s - although Gordon was later persuaded to change his mind.

Chortle 6 December 2001

This Is Your Life snub

Oddie turns down the red book

Ex-Goodie Bill Oddie has turned down the This Is Your Life crew when they surprised him with the famous red book.

He refused to go to the studios where friends and family were waiting after host Michael Aspel caught him out.

Oddie is only the third person in the show's 46-year-history to say no to the honour, after footballer Danny Blanchflower in the 1950s and author Richard Gordon in the 1970s.

However, Gordon was later persuaded to change his mind - and it is thought that Oddie's family have now talked him into appearing, too.

A Pearson TV spokesman told the BBC: "We'll see whether the show does indeed get recorded but for the moment we're pretty hopeful. It's always a risk."

Oddie, 60, suffered clinical depression at the end of last year, but has since said that he has recovered and was now in control.

Series 42 subjects