TV STAR DEAD David Bellamy death—TV nature presenter and environmental campaigner who ‘inspired a generation’ passes away aged 86 (thesun.co.uk).
The larger-than-life environmental campaigner—famed for his wild grey hair and beard—presented more than 400 programmes and wrote 45 books.
Becoming a household name in the 70s, 80s and early 90s but with work drying up after he became a “pariah” as he termed himself for climate change skepticism and as a proto-Brexiteer attempting to turn his hand to politics standing against the Maastricht Treaty signing then-Prime Minister John Major in 1997 for the Euroskeptic, precursor to UKIP Referendum party with much gruff denouncing of a “federal Germany”:
In 2004, the killer blow came when he branded climate change “poppycock”.
Bellamy said at the time: “From that moment, I really wasn’t welcome at the BBC. They froze me out because I don’t believe in global warming.”
But with tributes “flooding in” from the world of TV and from a generation his eccentric presentation inspired.
Comedy writer and fellow broadcaster Danny Baker called him a "truly brilliant and canny broadcaster".
While Great Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan said: "RIP David Bellamy, 86. A brilliant naturalist, broadcaster & character."
#RIPDavidBellamy (Instagram).
Trivia: As with fellow naturalist Chris Packham, Bellamy believed he had Asperger syndrome, a high functioning form of autism with significant difficulties with social interaction but with boundless dedication and enthusiasm to specific special interests, although his was not officially diagnosed just mentioned his belief in his autobigraphy (theguardian.com, Sept. 2002) unlike Packham who got a psychiatric diagnosis made in his 40s and was the subject of a BBC documentary a couple a years back (telegraph.co.uk, Oct. 2017).
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