Phil Drabble
| Phil Drabble | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Philip Percy Cooper Drabble 13 May 1914 |
| Died | 29 July 2007 (aged 93) Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, England |
| Occupation | Author, television presenter |
| Awards | OBE |
Philip Percy Cooper Drabble OBE (13 May 1914 – 29 July 2007) was an English , author and television presenter. Brought up in the Black Country, he later lived in – and wrote mostly about – the countryside of north Worcestershire and at Abbots Bromley in East Staffordshire, where he created a nature reserve.
Drabble was an only child, whose mother died when he was young. His father was a GP and they lived in a terraced house in Bloxwich. He began work as a factory lad and rose to the board of Salters and membership of the management board of the Midland Engineering Employers Association.
In 1947, he made his first radio broadcast, and in 1952 his first television appearance. At the age of 47 he became a full-time writer, and he and his wife Jess purchased a derelict folly-styled cottage and 90 acres (360,000 m²) of neglected ancient woodland in Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, a remnant of the Needwood Forest.
Drabble was best known as presenter of the long-running TV series One Man and His Dog, in which he commentated on sheepdog trials for 17 years from 1976 to 1993. At its peak the BBC programme attracted more than 8 million viewers and even the Queen was a fan, asking Drabble for advice after her liberty budgies were attacked by hawks at Windsor. Declared Midlander of the Year in 1992, and made OBE in the year he retired from the programme, he announced in 1993 that it had become "a bit boring watching dogs chase stroppy sheep round a field."
A pub very near Drabble's former home in Bloxwich is named "One Man and His Dog" in his honour.
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