'Very ill' Springwatch star Bill Oddie's health including 'near fatal' ordeal

Springwatch icon Bill Oddie has confessed to struggling with his health in recent years after an "almost fatal" ordeal that left him "very ill". The Goodies star, now 84, was diagnosed with lithium toxicity in 2020 which left him "very confused", admitting he "didn't know" if he would ever return to his former self.

The BBC presenter said in September that year: "Just so you know, I have been very ill most of this summer. Lithium toxicity. Almost fatal! I am still here but very confused about most things! But then aren't many of us. It fuddles my brain. Confusion. Will I return? I really dunno. I hope so. Please wish me luck."

According to the NHS, too much lithium in the blood can cause serious side effects - causing confusion, drowsiness, blackouts and blurred vision. Used as a mood stabiliser, he was prescribed lithium after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Bill plunged into a spiral of depression after being axed from Springwatch in 2008, and attempted suicide twice.

He explained it took "10 years" to get a diagnosis of bipolar disorder after years of mood swings - excessive energy and over-confidence followed by sudden dark periods. He explained: "It happened to me. It's happening to others right now.

"It could be fatal. You don't know what to do except sleep. So you take a couple of sleeping pills, and then you take another until they're all gone," he said in 2017.

The star added: "A producer said, 'People are scared of you. You're abrasive'. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have accepted that I was going through a manic phase.

"When my GP watched [The Goodies] he recognised I was bipolar."

Oddie was "in and out of hospital" in 2009, branding it his "lost year". He was admitted to a private clinic in London - the same one that treated Amy Winehouse - but said it was "like being medicated in a hotel".

He told The Lady: "I really was suicidal. I took too many sleeping pills, twice. I can only say the feeling wasn't, 'I want to kill myself'. It was, 'I want to go to sleep and just blank out'. But I did take risks, a couple of times."

Bill also suffers from musical hallucination, a form of tinnitus where instead of a ringing or buzzing noise, sufferers hear music that isn't really there.

He explained that the music is "only in his right ear", explaining: "At first, I thought it must be outside but when I closed the windows, the volume stayed the same. I started moving from room to room, looking to see if there was a radio on somewhere, but there wasn't. It really was quite confounding."