David Bellamy, the broadcast giant with unfashionable views on climate change

Bellamy has died at the age of 86.

David Bellamy was a prolific broadcaster and respected authority on botany and the natural world when, he says, his 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 for the downfall of his TV career and said he became a pariah.

David Bellamy, the naturalist and broadcaster, has died at the age of 86 (Newscast/PA)

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.

Torrey Canyon on fire. — The Torrey Canyon sea drama propelled David Bellamy to greater fame (PA)

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.

David Bellamy death — Wildlife presenter David Bellamy was once a respected and sought-after authority on environmental issues (Michael Stephens/PA)

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.

Nature – River Tees Nature Reserve Launch — David Tripper, Minister for the Environment and the Countryside, Sir David Attenborough and Professor David Bellamy at the launch of the 11 million pound nature reserve of 2,500 acres on the River Tees estuary (PA)

However, his 2004 comments on climate change, dismissed as “poppycock”, 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, who said his climate change beliefs left him a pariah, regretted his comments, he did not admit it.

It is possible 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.

ELECTION Bellamy 2 — David Bellamy stood against then prime minister John Major (PA)

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