Animal Magic sidekick Terry Nutkins explains the appeal of the presenter famous for his silly voices in a Radio 4 documentary
When Animal Magic was cancelled in 1983, it was by all accounts a body blow to presenter Johnny Morris. Nevertheless, according to a logic that prevails to this day, the decision to axe the show after two decades was unavoidable. Morris's anthropomorphic shtick, giving silly voices to the animals of Bristol zoo, was dated and naff.
That might be true and yet, for just about any child who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, Morris (1916-99) was the figure who first taught us about the wonders of the natural world. When you're five years old, frankly, you don't much care if it's anachronistic for a monkey to be talking. For this reason alone, doesn't Morris deserve better than being quietly forgotten about? Isn't it time, as a new Radio 4 documentary, Not Just Funny Animal Voices, suggests, that we reevaluated his career?
Terry Nutkins, once co-host of Animal Magic in a sidekick capacity, makes a compelling case for his one-time mentor, a man he regarded as a father figure. Morris, we learn, started out on radio at the comparatively late age of 30 after impressing Desmond Hawkins (a key figure in founding the BBC's Natural History Unit) with the way he could spin yarns down the local pub.
Long-time friend Mirielle Farrow compares Morris to Peter Ustinov and this really isn't such a fanciful comparison as it might first appear. Listening to the archive material in the documentary, there's an immediate sense of being in the company of a natural raconteur. The warmth of Morris's voice carries down the years too, albeit with a folksy quality rooted in 1930s-style light entertainment.
To understand why this combination so appealed to anklebiters, it's instructive to compare Morris with Sir David Attenborough. Yes, it's a daft comparison, but that's the point: where Morris was avuncular, Attenborough has never, ever been anything less than authoritative. A couple of years back, I interviewed Attenborough and it was terrifying, like being in the presence of God. (Attenborough was perfectly charming, I should add, the neurosis here was all mine.)
Not that it would necessarily have been an easy gig interviewing Morris. Although Nutkins' documentary avoids one area of controversy that it should really address, a dispute over Morris's will that cut out his family but favoured Nutkins himself, there's still plenty to suggest the presenter could sometimes be a difficult character ? especially if you tried to steal his limelight.
There are hints of melancholy too. Prior to broadcasts, Morris steadied his nerves with a nip of gin. Then there are the contradictions: an interview with filmmaker Tony Soper reveals that Morris was "a very serious man" who none the less preferred "soppy animals" over the less cute end of nature's spectrum, which perhaps explains why he "couldn't stand kids".
If the latter was true, I never noticed, probably because I was so entranced by Morris the showman and his animals. And if being able to keep a boy's attention so that he still remembers your show decades later seems like a small achievement, then just try to name a children's broadcaster of similarly gentle gravitas working today.
? Not Just Funny Animal Voices is on Radio 4, Friday, 11am
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/feb/17/johnny-morris-radio4-documentary
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