Springwatch appreciation!

Yay! Ospreys again tonight!



Hang on...what's happening?



Where've they gone...???? :eek:



Mmmmm Lampreys!

 

Oh Nutty - you've opened the contentious can of worms here....

Bill Oddie certainly seems to polarize opinion about him. I'd say there is an equal 50/50 split of either love or hate!

I fall into the appreciation camp I'm afraid Nuts! I find his enthusiasm for nature and birdlife in particular, infectious. He has been responsible for a great deal of piquing my interest in British Wildlife through his programs and books.

He struggles with clinical depression which has had him hospitalized on a few occasions and yet gets himself out there and still can generate a program, which hitherto we hadn't had a fraction of the access to the true life of birds and animals beforehand, on a live daily basis - live TV is incredibly stressful and he handles it well.

I agree he can be a bit 'full on' and 'overwhelming' in his delivery but I put this down to eagerness. Whatever his perceived social skills, I think he has done nearly as much for wildlife on an accessible basis, as David Attenborough has done on a globally informative basis.

I enjoy the banter between Kate and Bill and often laugh at their observations. Kate makes a great animal program presenter - her work on Animal Park has been top notch. She does manage to reign in Bill when required and does show a serious side when appropriate. She acts as a great foil to Bill when putting the sort of questions we must all be wondering about, to him. His knowledge is immense on the subject - he needs Kate to sometimes direct this info to the audience.

Many people find the inevitable double entendres about certain bird species and reproduction.. a pain, but they give me a smile. Sometimes we are in danger of taking life too seriously.

Simon King is the consummate professional - his segments are a joy - but I wonder does he have the flare to make the program as balanced with humour and wit and chat as the other two - after all, he is basically a cameraman - turned- presenter. Personality wise, he is lovely, but I think needs more of an edge if he were to consider a greater role. Serious wildlife documentaries are more his style of presentation, Springwatch is more of a relaxed style of approach to a more general audience I think.

Frankly, Springwatch would lose an intrinsic quality for me, without Bill.

I suppose that it could be argued that the technology required to observe these animals so closely may have a deleterious effect - but I think the active wren's nest above the presenters studio which is apparently so untroubled should go a little way to testify how minimal this interference may be. Different species may vary but the close proximity of the plovers and oystercatchers to the stone cams and the bird cam families that breed successfully should also be good evidence the upset caused may be negligible. The only other alternative I suppose would be not to have these intimate pictures which have taught us so much about behaviour. BBC Wildlife production teams no doubt take great pains to not cause distress or abandonment of nest sites etc.

There are many threads on the Springwatch message boards of for and against Oddie and has been since Springwatch started. He is still in charge though and that must testify that his popularity remains intact overall.

 

^^^ What Kath said ^^^

 

Sorry Cookie you have not convinced me about Bill Odius I think there's no comparison to Sir David now he really did light my fire at a very young age (and still does) Nigel Marvin does it for me as well probably more of a mans man,swop odius for Chris Packam he wrote a book called "back garden nature reserve"which was humourous and yet practicle and is much more of a "sensible" presenter.

 

walnut, agree regards bill oddie, The man is imensly iritating and not remotely funny. What really gets me is when he talks over kate, he just cant keep himself quiet.

My other criticism is the way they flit about between subjects, imensly iritating.

To be fair to simon king, we never really get to see mutch of him as his bits are heavily cut and snippeted. Kate humble is totally genuine and lives next to one of the propertys I work at, you could go a long way to find a nicer person.

 

Yes Paul she would be better off with someone other than him the other night was the big switch off for me when he was making his purile comments about the birds mating kids love this programme and shouldn't hear this drivel lots of viewers complained.

 

I wonder how many children complained about Bill making jokes about reproduction?? I wonder how many found it very funny??? Come on Nutty - I am not a smutty person but don't find anything Bill says as detrimental to children for goodness sake! I would only think that anyone with a problem regarding nature, sex and reproduction would find this offensive. And that is THEIR problem.

Man made hangups about everyday goings on in the animal world are a difficult one to argue against...:confused:

I don't have children yet, but if I ever did, I would hope that I would be a responsible parent - watching Springwatch would be a MUST for my child - it would give them much more of a balanced, healthy view of the world than a lot of other TV out there.

I thought Mary Whitehouse was long gone... :(

If you ever see Kate, Progard - tell her thanks

 

Well folks, I've been a bit reticent to post this, but buoyed on by my friend O2, I have decided to post this news!

After O2 suggested that I send my photos of the cats into Springwatch, I decided to post them onto the BBC message board. One of the producers for Simon King saw them and emailed me to request if they could use one of them on Monday nights show! :eek:

Of course I agreed, and fingers crossed Zippy and Boobtube may get a millisecond or two of fame!

My reluctance to say 'owt was due to it being a live TV broadcast, it may be subject to change at the last minute due to time constraints etc and it may not happen, but all being well you can see this pic...
tomorrow night.

Sorry I didn't tidy up the living room or Hoover the rug first! :o

Here's hoping!

 

Cookie Congratulations,our very own Cookie Monsters cats might be appearing on the TV fame at last:thumb:

Your photos are brilliant,I love the way they are sitting there glued to the set and the photos have come out so clear {clap}

I love Kate and Simon and Bill in his own way because he is Eccentric like me,I just accept his ways because as an ex Goodie it was his way that made them what they were.

Didn't realise that he hadn't been well though:eek:

Please keep us posted as to how things go for you and the cats:thumb:

PS there are three Osprey chicks now on the link that I put up

 

Thanks for your very kind words Kandy x

BTW Your link is excellent - have you seen all the live webcam images on the Springwatch website? They are wonderful but awfully time consuming.... !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch/ ... and click on the link to "View our live webcams" near to the top of the page.

PS: For anyone else who had difficulty viewing the live osprey feed my problem was that I use Mozilla as my browser and didn't have the updated Windows Media Player 11 plug-in. This plug-in can be downloaded if you go to the Earthcam website help at http://www.earthcam.com/site/player_help.php This site is showing live streaming of Time Square in New York.... nice, but I prefer the ospreys!

 

Bill Oddie and Kate Humble should not work within a mile of each other. I find their style,albeit informed and knowledgeable, very patronising and although Mr Oddie does know more than most why must he explain things as though average Joe knows nothing? This is an interesting and fascinating programme which is,in my opinion, being spoilt by putting these two on the same "couch".

 

Pip :thumb: I did hear that Simon King is going to replace Sir David Attenborough when he retires to do all the serious wildlife documentaries a good move methinks.

 

Great news if true, apart from the wildlife, Simon King is the star of the show and he truely deserves it:thumb: