Obituary: David Bellamy OBE, botanist and broadcaster who was ‘banned’ from TV

David Bellamy has died at the age of 86. Picture: Carl De Souza/Getty Images

David Bellamy was a prolific broadcaster and respected authority on botany and the natural world when, he believed, his politics and views on climate change led to him being banished from television.

Flying in the face of prevailing orthodoxy, he dismissed global warming as “poppycock” and said there is “no actual proof” human activity was causing a rise in temperatures.

Bellamy, who died on Wednesday at the age of 86, blamed his views on climate change, and standing for election, for the downfall of his TV career and said he became a pariah.

David James Bellamy was born in London in 1933 and was raised in Sutton. He worked in a factory and as a plumber before meeting his future wife Rosemary. The couple had five children.

Bellamy studied and later taught botany at Durham University. He achieved wider recognition following his work on the Torrey Canyon oil spill in 1967.

TV work offers followed, launching his small screen career. Thanks to his distinctive voice and screen presence, Bellamy quickly became a popular presenter on programmes such as Don’t Ask Me.

He also fronted his own shows, including Bellamy On Botany, Bellamy’s Britain, Bellamy’s Europe and Bellamy’s Backyard Safari. In 1979 he won Bafta’s Richard Dimbleby Award.

Bellamy proved an easy target for TV impersonators and was regularly parodied by impressionists, including Sir Lenny Henry. He famously inspired Sir Lenny’s “grapple me grapenuts” catchphrase.

At his peak, he was one of the most respected and sought-after experts in his field. However, his comments on climate change may have ended his TV career.

His later years contrasted starkly with another TV naturalist named David. Sir David Attenborough is passionate and vocal in his belief that climate change is an existential threat to life on Earth.

He enjoys the status of arguably the country’s most beloved national treasure and continues to narrate hugely popular and influential nature programmes.

If Bellamy regretted his comments, he did not admit it.

Asked by The Independent in 2013 if he stood by his “poppycock” missive, he replied: “Absolutely.” However, it is possible that Bellamy’s TV decline began before his tussle with environmental politics.

In 1997 he stood, unsuccessfully, against the sitting prime minister John Major for the Referendum Party in Huntingdon.

Speaking in 2002, Bellamy told the Guardian: “In some ways it was probably the most stupid thing I ever did because I’m sure that if I have been banned from television, that’s why.

“I used to be on Blue Peter and all those things, regularly, and it all, pffffft, stopped.”