KATE HUMBLE has paid an emotional tribute to her former Springwatch co-host Bill Oddie, remembering a man who could make her laugh, inspire audiences to discover nature and, at times, drive his colleagues to distraction.

Oddie, who died aged 85 on Saturday, July 25, was one of the most recognisable figures in British wildlife broadcasting.

His career stretched from the anarchic comedy of *The Goodies* to decades spent encouraging the public to look more closely at the natural world.

For Tintern-based Humble, who worked alongside Oddie and Simon King when *Springwatch* first launched in 2005, he was a uniquely talented broadcaster.

She described Oddie as one of the “first and bravest people” to speak openly about mental health, something she regarded as an important part of his legacy.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's *The World at One*, Humble described Oddie as “brilliant, wonderful, maddening, clever, and infuriating” — a combination which, she suggested, was very much part of what made him Bill.

“No-one could tell a story like Bill,” she said. “No-one could make me laugh like Bill.”

But it was Oddie’s ability to communicate his passion for wildlife that Humble believes will be remembered most.

She recalled how he could get virtually anyone excited about something as apparently ordinary as seeing a robin, describing his ability to make “the natural world everybody’s world”.

That gift helped transform the way wildlife was presented on television.

Oddie was not simply a traditional naturalist explaining facts to an audience. He brought humour, enthusiasm and a very personal sense of wonder to his programmes, making birds and other wildlife accessible to viewers who might never have considered themselves birdwatchers.

His partnership with Humble and King became an important part of the success of *Springwatch*, which went on to become one of the BBC’s best-known wildlife series.

But Oddie's talents extended far beyond wildlife.

He first became famous as part of the comedy trio *The Goodies*, alongside Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The series, which ran from 1970 to 1982, established him as a comic performer, writer and musician before his television career increasingly focused on his lifelong passion for birds and conservation.

Humble remembered that breadth of interests: “He was so interested in so many things,” she said, rejecting the idea that Oddie could easily be put into one category.

“He was not simply a “nerdy birder”, she said, nor merely a comedian or musician — he was all of those things.

Their working relationship, however, was not always straightforward.

Humble was candid about Oddie’s sometimes difficult temperament, recalling that he could be “fantastically grumpy” and that there were mornings when he was the last person she wanted to see.

But there were other times, she said, when he was “the best company in the world”.

His death marks the passing of a distinctive voice in British television — a comedian, musician, writer, broadcaster and passionate conservationist.