Maggie Hartford talks to a former familiar face of the weather forecast on the BBC

Hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, heatwaves and droughts — Bill Giles has seen it all in his long career as a weatherman.

We have come a long way since the days when he read the BBC forecast with a handful of clouds on magnets, stuck a few over Scotland and then some frost or fog over Benson, before walking to tomorrow’s map for the next display.

Since he retired in 2000, Mr Giles has opted for the calm of Oxfordshire — not the frost-prone Thames Valley but the balmy, quiet village of Chinnor.

“I moved there because the BBC was in West London and I was lucky enough to have a car park space,” he said.

What’s the weather like there?

“It’s pretty good. We are in a bit of a rain shadow from the Chilterns. Of course the temperature drops three degrees for every 1,000 feet you go up. Sometimes, it can be raining in Stokenchurch and sunny here. We don’t get anywhere near as much rain — it’s quite a favourable place.”

Now 75, he first became interested in the weather at school in Devon and joined the Meteorological Office at Exeter in January 1957 on leaving Bristol College of Science and Technology.

“Later that year, I was sent to Christmas Island to observe the immediate meteorological effects of the H-bomb tests. It was tremendously exciting. Our job was to make sure it was safe before they dropped the bombs, that the wind would not blow the dust back over you.

He added: “In those days, a lot of our work was for the military so a lot of the weather records and statistics are out in the sticks rather than in the big towns. That’s partly why you hear about Benson so much on the national forecast.

“There are instruments at the RAF station and it’s one of the coldest parts of the country because when you are in a valley the cold air drops down. Also, there is chalk and that dries out very quickly.”

As a nation, we are still obsessed with the weather, but Mr Giles says that when he is with younger forecasting colleagues, it is him who is recognised in the street.

“In those days there were only three or four faces and so people got to know us. I can walk around with someone who is on TV now and I would be more recognised. With Michael Fish it was his face, I think.”

For younger readers, I should explain that Michael Fish is famous for saying, a few hours before a great storm in 1987 which killed 19 people: “A woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. . . well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t.” Mr Giles was in charge of the BBC forecasting team at the time and says computer modelling has made immense strides since then. “When you do 144 broadcasts a day, there is a lot that can go wrong.”

Since his retirement, he has developed The Weather Show, which he recently took to The Players Theatre in Thame. “It’s a fun show — it’s not teaching about meteorology.”

As well as explaining how Michael Fish missed the hurricane in 1987, and re-enacting other famous mistakes, he tells a few anecdotes about his other old colleagues, including Ian McCaskill, a presenter who was rewarded with his own puppet in the satirical show Spitting Image.

He also runs his own company The Weather People Ltd, with his old BBC colleague John Teather, to train broadcast meteorologists.

“It is no use doing the best forecast (of days or even centuries ahead) if you cannot communicate it to the ordinary person.”

His theatre show only gets serious when he talks about climate change. “Some of my views have been controversial over the years. When I was employed by the Met Office they even tried to gag me. But I have now been proved right.

“It is not in doubt by anyone of note that the Earth is warming up with, globally, the warmest 11 years that we have been able to measure occurring in the last 12 years, in fact there is some justification to say that the last decade could well have been the warmest in the last 500 years or even the last 1,300 years.

“The message has to be kept simple for the journalists who, by and large, only want scare stories and soundbites, and also for the politicians who fund most of the research (although increasing amounts are being funded by the large multi-nationals, some of whom have a vested interest in keeping the status quo).

“We need to push on quickly to train scientists, especially broadcast meteorologists, to get the ever-changing messages across in a sensible and simple way.

“The Earth’s climate continually changes from warm periods to cold and back to warm again so we shouldn’t be surprised that the climate we see ourselves in now is different to that experienced by even our parents and grandparents, but we need to mitigate the likely effects of this rapid change rather than put our heads in the sand, because if it isn’t, by the time we realise it will be far too late.

“We inherited a beautiful lush green planet and if we make a mistake with this one, we will pass on to future generations a brown barren landscape.”

As for the TV weather forecast, he feels sad that it seems a little bland nowadays. “Our philosophy was that it is the story of the day that people want to know. In autumn, for instance, the first frost is very important for gardeners and farmers. If it was likely to be on Thursday, we would lead with it. Now they have a rigid pattern. Ours was much more free.”

However, he says the forecast is much more accurate, particularly for longer-range predictions. And he likes our national obsession with the weather.

“We live on an island in a big ocean, so one day it is very fine and the next day it will rain. We don’t have dramatic weather but it is changeable.

“We are all sometimes a bit shy and I think one of the reasons we are obsessed with it is that it means you can speak to anyone. If you are walking the dog it is good to have a neutral topic and the weather is one of them. It is a wonderful way to introduce yourself.”

So what happens when he walks his dog in Chinnor?

“People do talk to me about the weather, yes. Most people know who I am, certainly in the village.”