TV's greatest eccentrics revealed

A magazine has paid tribute to some of television's most eccentric presenters by drawing up a list of the top 40 most flamboyant, strange and downright oddball personalities in TV history.

Included in the list, drawn up by the Radio Times, are the likes of astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, art historian Sister Wendy, and racing pundit John McCririck.

It also includes Jim'll Fix It's Sir Jimmy Savile and the Two Fat Ladies, Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright.

From the world of politics, there is Peter Snow, whose coverage of the 2001 general election made him look like "a giant, bizarrely enthusiastic daddy-longlegs" and "the BBC's large-lugged, constantly waving political editor" Andrew Marr.

There are also a healthy number of eccentric TV chefs in the top 40.

They include Fanny Cradock, the "uberposh first empress of TV cookery", Keith Floyd, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of River Cottage fame, who "looked like he'd just been dragged backwards through a hedge" at a time when "TV chefs were all starting to resemble members of boy bands or soft porn actresses".

Science presenters include Magnus Pyke, "the original mad scientist", Heinz Wolff, who came to prominence by constructing particle accelerators out of detergent bottles, and former Tomorrow's World presenter Bob Symes.

On the history side, there is Adam Hart-Davis, from What the Romans Did For Us, whose eccentric hobbies include being an honorary member of the British Toilet Association.

There is also Fred Dibnah "a myopic steeplejack" who "became Britain's best-loved and most ferocious preserver of our industrial heritage".

Well known names from the world of art and interiors include the flamboyantly dressed Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and "can you see what it is yet?" Rolf Harris.

A fair share of presenters from the world of nature are also on the list, like David Bellamy, "the first TV naturalist who looked wilder than the animals he stalked", and Steve Irwin, who came under attack for carrying his four-week-old son under his arm during one of his live crocodile taunts.

Others from the world of nature are Bill Oddie, and Animal Magic man Johnny Morris.

Men outnumber women when it comes to eccentricity, but TV's female ambassadors include animal trainer Barbara Woodhouse, and Dr Ruth Westheimer, the "tiny German/Jewish grandmother who lit up British TV by discussing sexual peccadilloes".

Other female names are Kim Woodburn, from the show How Clean is Your House?, Nancy Lam, the ex-nurse turned chef who helped launch Channel Five, as well as the buck-toothed art historian and nun Sister Wendy.

The magazine describes an eccentric as "someone who isn't the physical sort normally associated with presentation, but through force of personality, knowledge of their subject and sheer bug-eyed passion, elbows their way onto the screen."
It says: "There are some hard and fast rules. They're rarely youthful. Young people acting strangely aren't eccentric: they're either attention-seekers or irritating twits. The rule is even firmer for women: unless they're past child-bearing age, or have taken holy orders, it's very hard for them to be eccentric."

Peter Bazalgette of Endemol, the TV company behind Big Brother, told the Radio Times that the proliferation of TV channels has squeezed out many eccentrics.
He said: "There are more channels and more airspace, but a great deal of it is filled with good-looking, slim wannabes.

"In the past people just sort of fell into TV by accident; now it's more of a sausage machine."