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 Bellamy's Backyard Safari : Down the Garden Path (1981) | Presenter |
David Bellamy
David Bellamy is an English botanist whose distinctive voice and friendly persona have made him one of the most prominent personalities in wildlife broadcasting. Discovering a talent for remembering the Latin name for flowers as a child, David went on to study botany at Durham University, where he subsequently held the post of Senior Lecturer until 1982.
The writer and presenter of some 400 television programmes, David’s career in wildlife television began in 1970 with the BBC production Life in Our Sea. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s he presented a succession of hit, prime-time series including; Bellamy’s Britain (1974), Bellamy’s Backyard Safari (1981), You Can’t See the Wood… (1984) and Blooming Bellamy (1993).
From the start, David’s grinning face and famous muffled lisp endeared him to generations of youngsters and made him one of the country’s most impersonated television personalities. In 1978 he received the BAFTA’s Richard Dimbleby Award for Outstanding Personal Contribution to Factual Television.
In 1982 he founded The Conservation Foundation with David Shreeve, aiming to help collaboration in environmental work and launched the Ford European Conservation Awards.
His environmental work has earned him many honours, including the Dutch Order of the Golden Ark and the United Nations Environmental Program's Global 500 Award. In 1994 he was appointed OBE.
Over his career David has published over 40 books including, Bellamy’s Britain (1984), Half of Paradise (1979), How Green Are You? (1991) and in 2002 he released his autobiography, Jolly Green Giant.
Notoriously outspoken on environmental issues, David was jailed in 1983 for blockading Australia’s Franklin River in protest at a proposed dam. Since the mid-1990s David’s controversial views on environmental situations, including his infamous assertion in the Daily Mail that human-induced global warming is a myth, have overshadowed television work and he has been largely absent from our screens.
