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Percy Edwards Showdown

David Attenborough celebrates the life of bird impersonator Percy Edwards. With Philippa Forrester and Bill Oddie. From 2009.

David Attenborough stars in a new role: radio quizmaster - in a show all about Percy Edwards, who enjoyed a 70 year career impersonating birds and beasts.

That was a first, and so is this programme - a documentary game-show, combining the strange story of Percy's life, with archive of his impersonations, interviews with those who knew him, and a quiz.

Contestants include: Bill Oddie and Alex Horne.

Sir David will play bird calls for the teams to identify, some of which will be Percy's impressions, so can they tell the difference? They will also be asked to identity circumstances - a cry of distress, alarm or a sexy song?

Woven into the rounds will be snippets about Percy’s life and impact.

Percy discovered his talent for talking like animals aged seven. Eventually he could produce the sound of over 600 birds, and some other beasts (his was the voice of the killer whale in Orca, the alien in Alien and he provided sheep noises for Kate Bush's song The Dreaming).

Percy Edwards died aged 88 in 1996.

Producers: Emma Legg and Julian May

First broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in March 2009.

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Tue 8 Jun 2021 02:30

Broadcasts

  • Wed 4 Mar 2009 21:00
  • Sun 17 May 2009 13:30
  • Fri 7 Aug 2015 06:30
  • Fri 7 Aug 2015 13:30
  • Fri 7 Aug 2015 20:30
  • Sat 8 Aug 2015 01:30
  • Fri 14 Jun 2019 06:30
  • Fri 14 Jun 2019 13:30
  • Fri 14 Jun 2019 20:30
  • Sat 15 Jun 2019 01:30
  • Mon 7 Jun 2021 14:30
  • Tue 8 Jun 2021 02:30

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