Johnny Morris
Encyclopedia
Ernest John "Johnny" Morris OBE
(20 June 1916 – 6 May 1999) ) was a Welsh television presenter. He is best known for narrating the imported, Canadian-produced Tales of the Riverbank
series of stories about Hammy the Hamster, Roderick the Rat, GP the Guinea Pig, and their assorted animal friends along a riverbank and children's programmes for the BBC
on the topic of zoology
, most notably Animal Magic.
, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of a postmaster
. He learned to play the violin as a child and toured the valleys of South Wales, performing with his cello-playing father. Morris attended Hatherleigh School, Newport and worked as a solicitor's clerk, a timekeeper on a building site, a salesman and managing a 2000 acres (8.1 km²) farm in Wiltshire for thirteen years,.
West Regional producer Desmond Hawkins
. Morris made his radio debut in 1946, and featured in a number of Regional series throughout the 1950s often employed on light and entertainment programs as a storyteller, such as in Pass the Salt, or as a commentator on local events.
A natural mimic
and impersonator
, Morris first appeared on television as The Hot Chestnut Man, a short slot in which he was shown sitting roasting the chestnut
s, he would tell a humorous yarn in a West Country accent, often ending with a moral
.
In 1960 he narrated the imported, Canadian-produced Tales of the Riverbank
series of stories about Hammy the Hamster, Roderick the Rat, GP the Guinea Pig, and their assorted animal friends along a riverbank. The show used slowed-down footage of real animals filmed doing humanised things such as driving a car or boat, and living in houses. In the 1960s Morris also narrated books 1 - 11 of The Railway Stories
, recordings of the Railway Series
books by the Rev. W. Awdry
. The recordings of the first eight books were rereleased in LP format in the '70s but the other three sets of recordings were never reissued and in the end rerecorded by Willie Rushton
.
Morris's ability to create a world which children could relate to through his mimicry led to his best-known role, that of the presenter, narrator and 'zoo keeper
' for Animal Magic. For more than 400 editions, from 1962 until 1983, and with inserts shot at Bristol Zoo Gardens
, Morris would carry out a comic
dialogue with the animal
s, whom he also voiced. His regular companion on the show was Dotty the Ring-tailed Lemur
. When the idea of imposing human qualities and voices upon animals fell out of favour the series was discontinued.
Morris carried over his comedic commentary technique into other programmes, such as Follow the Rhine, a BBC2 travelogue which included a witty Morris commentary featuring his companion Tubby Foster – actually his producer Brian Patten. Follow the Rhine was based on Morris' earlier BBC Radio 4
series Johnny's Jaunts. These series chronicled not only the Rhine journey but other worldwide journeys and were broadcast between 1957 and 1976. Included in this series were tales based upon his visits to such places as Austria (a skiing misadventure!), Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South America, South Sea Islands, France; and even a cruise on the River Thames.
Morris was also Vice President of the Bluebell Railway
in Sussex from its early days in the 1960s until the late 1980s, attending several anniversaries and landmark events over the first few decades of the railway's existence. He also made two promotional LP's for the Railway in the 1970s.
In the 1970s, Morris read children's bedtime stories for the Post Office to be heard via the telephone. Children could dial 150 and hear a different story over the telephone each week. He was also a presenter on BBC School Radio's Singing Together and wrote and read stories on BBC School Radio's A Service for Schools which was later renamed Together.
In a nod to his role with Animal Magic, Morris also added his voice to the award-winning Creature Comforts
series of electricity advertisements, created by Aardman Animations
. These advertisements featured animated claymation animals speaking about their life and conditions in a way comparable to the dialogues that Morris has created in the earlier television show.
Although latterly criticised in the 1990s for his anthropomorphic technique of introducing television viewers to animals, Morris was active in environmentalism
, and in his eighties demonstrated against the building of the Newbury Bypass
near his home. In June 2004, Morris and Bill Oddie
were jointly profiled in the first of a three part BBC Two
series, The Way We Went Wild
, about television wildlife presenters.
Moris was awarded the OBE in 1984. His autobiography, There's Lovely, was first published in 1989.
, Berkshire
in March 1999 when he was about to star in new animal series Wild Thing on ITV
. Admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon
for tests, he was discharged to a nursing home in the Devizes and Marlborough district, where he died on 6 May 1999. His wife, Eileen, had died ten years previously, but he had two stepsons. He bequeathed his house to his co-host on Animal Magic, Terry Nutkins
, and cut his family out of his will. Morris also left a large sum of cash to his housekeeper, Rita Offer, and smaller sums to his gardener and his builder. He left nothing to his stepsons, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(20 June 1916 – 6 May 1999) ) was a Welsh television presenter. He is best known for narrating the imported, Canadian-produced Tales of the Riverbank
Tales of the Riverbank
Tales of the Riverbank, sometimes called Hammy Hamster, is a Canadian children's television show starring Hammy Hamster and other animals....
series of stories about Hammy the Hamster, Roderick the Rat, GP the Guinea Pig, and their assorted animal friends along a riverbank and children's programmes for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on the topic of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, most notably Animal Magic.
Early life
Morris was born in NewportNewport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of a postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
. He learned to play the violin as a child and toured the valleys of South Wales, performing with his cello-playing father. Morris attended Hatherleigh School, Newport and worked as a solicitor's clerk, a timekeeper on a building site, a salesman and managing a 2000 acres (8.1 km²) farm in Wiltshire for thirteen years,.
Radio and television career
Morris was discovered telling stories in a pub by the then BBC Home ServiceBBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
West Regional producer Desmond Hawkins
Desmond Hawkins
Desmond Hawkins , born in East Sheen, Surrey, was an author, editor and radio personality.-Career:The political and artistic upheavals of the 1930s meant a proliferation of serious magazines. Desmond wrote for Purpose, The Listener, Time & Tide and the New Statesman. He became literary editor of...
. Morris made his radio debut in 1946, and featured in a number of Regional series throughout the 1950s often employed on light and entertainment programs as a storyteller, such as in Pass the Salt, or as a commentator on local events.
A natural mimic
Mimic
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is the similarity of one species to another which protects one or both. This similarity can be in appearance, behaviour, sound, scent and even location, with the mimics found in similar places to their models....
and impersonator
Impersonator
An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for someone to be an impersonator, some common ones being as follows:...
, Morris first appeared on television as The Hot Chestnut Man, a short slot in which he was shown sitting roasting the chestnut
Chestnut
Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...
s, he would tell a humorous yarn in a West Country accent, often ending with a moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
.
In 1960 he narrated the imported, Canadian-produced Tales of the Riverbank
Tales of the Riverbank
Tales of the Riverbank, sometimes called Hammy Hamster, is a Canadian children's television show starring Hammy Hamster and other animals....
series of stories about Hammy the Hamster, Roderick the Rat, GP the Guinea Pig, and their assorted animal friends along a riverbank. The show used slowed-down footage of real animals filmed doing humanised things such as driving a car or boat, and living in houses. In the 1960s Morris also narrated books 1 - 11 of The Railway Stories
The Railway Stories
The Railway Stories are a series of audio adaptations of The Railway Series books by the Rev. W Awdry and his son Christopher.Nearly all of the 41 books in the series have been recorded by one of five different narrators: Johnny Morris, William Rushton, Ted Robbins, Michael Angelis, and even the...
, recordings of the Railway Series
The Railway Series
The Railway Series is a set of story books about a railway system located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first being published in 1945. Twenty-six were written by the Rev. W. Awdry, up to 1972. A further 16 were written by his son, Christopher Awdry; 14...
books by the Rev. W. Awdry
W.V. Awdry
Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE , was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, better known as the Reverend W. Awdry and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.-Life:Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire in 1911...
. The recordings of the first eight books were rereleased in LP format in the '70s but the other three sets of recordings were never reissued and in the end rerecorded by Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
.
Morris's ability to create a world which children could relate to through his mimicry led to his best-known role, that of the presenter, narrator and 'zoo keeper
Zoo Keeper
Zoo Keeper is an online puzzle game developed by Robot Communications that was later ported to the Nintendo DS by Japanese video game publisher Success...
' for Animal Magic. For more than 400 editions, from 1962 until 1983, and with inserts shot at Bristol Zoo Gardens
Bristol Zoo
Bristol Zoo is a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission is "Bristol Zoo Gardens maintains and defends biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider understanding of the natural...
, Morris would carry out a comic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
dialogue with the animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s, whom he also voiced. His regular companion on the show was Dotty the Ring-tailed Lemur
Ring-tailed Lemur
The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families. It is the only member of the Lemur genus. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar...
. When the idea of imposing human qualities and voices upon animals fell out of favour the series was discontinued.
Morris carried over his comedic commentary technique into other programmes, such as Follow the Rhine, a BBC2 travelogue which included a witty Morris commentary featuring his companion Tubby Foster – actually his producer Brian Patten. Follow the Rhine was based on Morris' earlier BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
series Johnny's Jaunts. These series chronicled not only the Rhine journey but other worldwide journeys and were broadcast between 1957 and 1976. Included in this series were tales based upon his visits to such places as Austria (a skiing misadventure!), Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South America, South Sea Islands, France; and even a cruise on the River Thames.
Morris was also Vice President of the Bluebell Railway
Bluebell Railway
The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for nine miles along the border between East and West Sussex, England. Steam trains are operated between and , with an intermediate station at .The railway is managed and run largely by volunteers...
in Sussex from its early days in the 1960s until the late 1980s, attending several anniversaries and landmark events over the first few decades of the railway's existence. He also made two promotional LP's for the Railway in the 1970s.
In the 1970s, Morris read children's bedtime stories for the Post Office to be heard via the telephone. Children could dial 150 and hear a different story over the telephone each week. He was also a presenter on BBC School Radio's Singing Together and wrote and read stories on BBC School Radio's A Service for Schools which was later renamed Together.
In a nod to his role with Animal Magic, Morris also added his voice to the award-winning Creature Comforts
Creature Comforts
Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 British humorous animated short film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, featuring the voices of the British public "spoken" by the animals. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations...
series of electricity advertisements, created by Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...
. These advertisements featured animated claymation animals speaking about their life and conditions in a way comparable to the dialogues that Morris has created in the earlier television show.
Although latterly criticised in the 1990s for his anthropomorphic technique of introducing television viewers to animals, Morris was active in environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, and in his eighties demonstrated against the building of the Newbury Bypass
Newbury bypass
The Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road , is a stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England...
near his home. In June 2004, Morris and Bill Oddie
Bill Oddie
William "Bill" Edgar Oddie OBE is an English author, actor, comedian, artist, naturalist and musician, who became famous as one of The Goodies....
were jointly profiled in the first of a three part BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
series, The Way We Went Wild
The Way We Went Wild
The Way We Went Wild is a three-part BBC TV series, first shown on BBC Two, about British wildlife presenters. It was narratted by Josette Simon.-Episode 2:Episode 2, screened on 20 June 2004, featured Sir Peter Scott and Sir David Attenborough.-Episode 3:...
, about television wildlife presenters.
Moris was awarded the OBE in 1984. His autobiography, There's Lovely, was first published in 1989.
Death
A diabetic, Morris collapsed at his home in HungerfordHungerford
Hungerford is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, 9 miles west of Newbury. It covers an area of and, according to the 2001 census, has a population of 5,559 .- Geography :...
, Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
in March 1999 when he was about to star in new animal series Wild Thing on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. Admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
for tests, he was discharged to a nursing home in the Devizes and Marlborough district, where he died on 6 May 1999. His wife, Eileen, had died ten years previously, but he had two stepsons. He bequeathed his house to his co-host on Animal Magic, Terry Nutkins
Terry Nutkins
Terence P. Nutkins is an English naturalist, television presenter and author. He is known for his television appearances, notably in the UK children's programmes Animal Magic, The Really Wild Show, Brilliant Creatures and Growing Up Wild.-Biography:Terry Nutkins was born in Marylebone, London, and...
, and cut his family out of his will. Morris also left a large sum of cash to his housekeeper, Rita Offer, and smaller sums to his gardener and his builder. He left nothing to his stepsons, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.