Sparkie Williams

My recent visit to the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle brought me face-to-face with one of Tyneside’s most famous twentieth century residents. As the specimen was stuffed, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to learn that it wasn’t human. It’s this fella:

Sparkie Williams became a national celebrity here in the UK during the late 1950s and early 1960s due to his unusually expansive repertoire of words. This otherwise ordinary-looking budgerigar mastered in excess of 500 of them, including many phrases - some of them innocent nursery rhymes and others a little more colourful!

He was bred and ‘hatched’ in the North-East in 1954, and was owned by Mrs Mattie Williams, who lived in Forest Hall. His aptitude for language being recognised at an early age, he gained his name on account of him being declared a ‘bright spark’ by his owner. In July 1958, when he was 3½, he won the BBC International Cage Word Contest. In fact he was so good that he was banned from taking part again thereafter.

His fame made him a sought-after subject for advertisers, and he famously fronted a campaign by Capern’s bird seed for two years. He featured on BBC Radio, appeared on TV’s BBC Tonight programme alongside Cliff Michelmore, and starred in a best-selling record. He is also said to have had more than £1,000 in his own bank account!

Sparkie died in December 1962 aged eight, and his owner had him stuffed by top taxidermist, Rowland Ward Ltd of London, and mounted on a perch. His rigid form was then taken on a tour of the UK in an exhibition of his life and work, and by 1996 was on permanent display at the Hancock Museum. The institution held a special exhibition of his life and times in 2002-03, at which you could procure specially-produced merchandise.

The famous Geordie squawker (he spoke in a local accent) has since featured in an opera, and is recognised as the world’s most outstanding talking bird of all-time in the Guinness Book of Records.

Oh, and there’s plenty of Sparkie to be found on YouTube if you’re interested.