Johnny Morris
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- For other persons named Johnny Morris, see Johnny Morris (disambiguation)
Johnny Morris OBE (20 June 1916 Newport, Monmouthshire — 6 May 1999) was a television presenter for the BBC, mostly associated with children's programmes on the topic of zoology. His daughter is the television presenter Juliet Morris.
The son of a postmaster, he attended Hatherleigh School, Newport and worked as a Solicitor's clerk, salesman and farm manager before he was discovered telling stories in a pub. He made his first broadcast in 1946, and soon had a regular radio show, Pass the Salt, made for the BBC's West Region.
He first appeared on television as The Hot Chestnut Man, a short slot in which he was shown sitting in front of his hot chestnut stand. Whilst roasting the chestnuts, he would tell a humorous yarn, often ending with a moral, in a West country accent.
In 1960 he narrated the 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 Canadian river. The show used slowed-down footage of real animals filmed doing humanised things such as driving a car or boat, and living in houses. No animation or puppetry was involved.
In the 1960s Morris also narrated the first few of The Railway Stories, recordings of the Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry.
Morris was best known, however, for Animal Magic (1962-1984, filmed in part at Bristol Zoo Gardens), a programme on which he would carry out a comic dialogue with the animals, whom he also voiced. He presented more than 400 editions. He carried over the technique into other programmes, such as Follow the Rhine, a BBC2 travelogue.
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 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.
