Telly veteran Bill Oddie has called the BBC “bloody b**stards” over his dismissal from Springwatch...10 years after he got the boot.
The Beeb has also left his feathers ruffled for never showing repeats of his 70s hit sketch show The Goodies.
Comic turned wildlife expert, Oddie, 77, fumed about his departure in December 2008: “I never had a proper explanation.
“I was called in and told: ‘We won’t be asking you to make any more programmes’.
But Oddie, diagnosed in 2010 as bipolar, admitted: “Unfortunately my bipolar element had come into it and I could be very tetchy.”
The BBC did not know at the time he had a conditon, but later issued a statement, saying: “We wish Mr Oddie a speedy recovery”.
He believes they were weasel words, huffing: “They didn’t give a damn”.
Summing up his still simmering anger he called the BBCs “bloody b******ds”.
Oddie has previously revealed how he twice tried to kill himself by overdosing on prescription painkillers in 2009, But But he now admits his bipolar disorder affected him even when filming The Goodies, confessing: “Looking back I was extremely hyperactive and that must have been difficult for everyone.”
Oddie spoke out as he talked of releasing Goodies’ episodes on DVD.
He and fellow comics, Graeme Garden, 75, and Tim Brooke-Taylor, 78, took the step after claiming fans have regularly been told the BBC has no plans to re-air the show, which had a regular audience topping 12 million from 1970 to 1982.
In one classic, giant kitten Twinkle collapses the Post Office Tower.
They are particulalry miffed as Dad’s Army and Morecambe and Wise often re-appear. Although the trio are “slightly embarrassed” by some scenes, Oddie insists only “white liberals” would be offended.
He also insists they earned as much in one year at ITV as in three at the BBC.
Oddie summed up: “I saw the [Monty] Pythons as the Stones, slightly dangerous and slightly naughty, and we were more like The Beatles because we were so family friendly.”