Truly a Grand Master

On Monday we learned that Bill Oddie, giant of 1970s British TV as one third of The Goodies (alongside Graeme Garden and the late Tim Brooke-Taylor) and later the UK’s most beloved television birdwatcher, died on the weekend at the age of 85. Bill was not only the radical heart of the trio, but also its songwriter, responsible for “The Funky Gibbon“, “Black Pudding Bertha” and their other UK chart hits. “Bertha” didn’t feature in the Goodies’ best-known homage to black pudding, which famously led one viewer to laugh himself to death. Nor did “The Funky Gibbon” feature in the episode where Graeme was possessed by a gibbon—that instead featured Bill’s older song “Stuff That Gibbon“. The show was stuffed with so many great Oddie songs that it’s hard to pick a personal favourite, though after its theme songs I might go with “Taking You Back“… oh, wait, it would have to be his jingle for string. So while UK obituaries seem to have focussed more on Oddie’s ornithological outreach on…