I had been involved with the show from the start. Why did they get rid of me?
TV LEGEND Bill Oddie will be back on our screens on Monday, looking like a man who has never been away. And while he’s thrilled to be doing the job he loves, he reveals it was touch-and-go for a long time.
Bill’s struggles with mental health after the BBC axed him from Springwatch have been well documented. He sank into a deep depression and attempted to take his life twice. Eventually he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Various combinations of antidepressants and therapies were tried, but it wasn’t until he was prescribed the controversial drug lithium that he began to feel like himself again.
“I’ve taken medication in the past but you never know what is working and what isn’t,” says Bill, 78, in a frank and emotional interview.
“I was on the classic standard antidepressants for a bit and then, because I was on a real downer, a doctor put me on lithium. In less than a fortnight I was completely fine.
“Fortunately after various forms of therapy and a number of pills which I still take, then, touch wood, it’s been not bad at all,” reveals the former Goodie.
LITHIUM is often the medication of choice for bipolar disorder, but it is not without its critics. Possible side effects include tremors, drowsiness and nausea.
When former boxing champion Frank Bruno, another bipolar disorder patient, was prescribed lithium after being held in a secure psychiatric unit, he complained it made his life “unbearable”, leaving him physically weak and confused.
But the drug remains an effective long-term treatment for bipolar disorder. It offers protection against depression and mania, and it reduces the risk of suicide.
And certainly Bill attributes it with enabling him to function once more.
“I wouldn’t dream of dropping my lithium,” he says. “It’s the only thing I know does work. I’m going through a decent stretch at the moment, so let’s hope that continues.”
Although he hits our screens next week in a new Channel 5 wildlife series Wild Animal Rescue, Bill admits that the BBC letting him go had a detrimental effect on his own mental health and it’s something he’s never come to terms with.
“It has been more than ten years since Springwatch and Autumnwatch came to an end [for him] and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect me really badly,” says the star, awarded an OBE for his work in wildlife conservation.
“The hard thing was that I had been involved with the show from the start.Why did they get rid of me?
“I had a feeling I was regarded as being a bit too bossy and aggressive.
“Now I know I’m bipolar, it was probably a manic phase I was going through. When I was told to go from the BBC in 2008 I slumped into a terrible depression rather rapidly.
“When they got rid of me, the boss, who probably, bless her, hated having to do it, said, ‘Don’t worry, we will make lots of wonderful programmes with you.’
“But have they? No they haven’t. And every time I tell a little story like that somebody says, ‘Oh God that is just like the BBC’. Certainly the