Bill Oddie, the former ‘Goodie’ who’s reinvented himself as an amateur ornthologist on the BBC 2’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch, is stepping down.
This means there’ll be no more bickering between Oddie, 67, and the rather younger co-presenter Kate Humble, the reason many people watch the show.
Oddie merely says, “It feels like the right time to take a breather.” Rather than, say, I’m fed up with that bloody woman getting all the publicity. But his fans will certainly miss him.
Like a lot of comic butts (his two Goodies partners Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor always affected to be clever than him) Oddie can take himself a tad seriously when taking centre stage, a bit like former Baldrick from Blackadder actor Tony Robinson who now presents Timewatch (no relation) and other history programmes.
But Springwatch and Autumnwatch are live programmes so Bill probably just got fed up crawling around in the undergrowth for hours on end.