Wdytya bill oddie biography

Bill Oddie

• 'Dark satanic mills'
• The family roots of Bill Oddie - recorded as William Edgar Oddie on his birth certificate of 1941 - shed an interesting new light on an intriguing era in working class history.

  For Bill's 19th-century ancestors worked and weaved in the 'dark satanic mills' of Rochdale, toiling in harsh conditions in an environment that seems as distant to us now as the moon.

Oddie grew up in Birmingham, the only surviving child of Lilian - said to be mentally ill - and Harry, his distant father.

He was brought up by his grandmother, Emily.

Wdytya bill oddie biography

His mother's illness cast a shadow over the family, as did the deaths of the two previous children of the family. One of them was stillborn, the other choked to death within months of being born.

Whether these tragedies were a factor in triggering his mother's illness is a subject of debate, though surviving members of Oddie's family, such as his Aunt Margery, cast doubt on Lilian's diagnosis.

Marjorie remembers one doctor s