Omid Djalili fronts a bold new campaign to save Britain’s favourite tree – the mighty oak.
Welcome to OAKTOBER – a month-long celebration of the UK’s most iconic tree. Think Dry January or Movember – but for the tree that literally keeps thousands of species alive.
Kicking off the campaign, Omid will debut a brand-new sketch designed to get people laughing, learning, and loving their local oak. Featuring climate activist and rapper LOUIS VI.
Omid Djalili said “When I lived in London, I’d stroll through Richmond Park all the time, and now in Christchurch Park, Ipswich, always surrounded by these incredible old oak trees. Truth is I never really looked at them and took them for granted. Now I want to change that – give them the proper starring role they deserve. As the video shows, we neglect the oak at our peril!”
LOUIS VI said “Even as a massive nature geek, growing up in London, it’s only recently I clocked just how important Oak trees are to the ecosystem. It took meeting one particular one recently, there’s huge, beautiful 450 year old one mumma Oak near me in Tottenham. 450 years man, she was around before climate change even existed! Australia hadn’t even been colonised. She deserves some serious respect as an elder. The fact they support 2300 species, Oaks are not a tree; they are a Universe.”
The campaign is the brainchild of the Nature and Climate Impact team at the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Climate Basecamp – a global collective of scientists and creatives pushing culture-forward climate action co-founded by US actor Rainn Wilson, comedy writer Chuck Tatham (Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother), advertising executive Steve Walls, and Professor Gail Whiteman.
“People love trees and nature but most of us have no idea of the critical role the oak tree plays in maintaining the world as we know it, and British culture in particular. By speaking science through comedy, we reach a whole new audience,” says Gail Whiteman, the Hoffmann Impact Professor for Accelerating Action on Nature and Climate.
Why the oak? Because it’s not just any tree. With over 170,000 oaks in the UK, each one supports up to 2,300 species – more than any other native tree. From birds and bats to beetles, butterflies, fungi, and lichens, protecting an oak means protecting an entire ecosystem.
Oak trees play a vital role in the fight against climate change, sucking carbon from the air and storing it deep underground. Some are over 1,000 years old.
But our national treasure is under threat.
Land use changes, invasive pests. diseases, and the intensifying impacts of climate change – especially hotter, drier summers – are putting UK oak trees in real danger. If we lose the oak, we risk losing the air that we breathe.
That’s where you come in.
This OAKTOBER, it’s your turn. Pick a tree. Start a conversation. Be part of something bigger. We invite you to make some content and post with #Oaktober and raise awareness. It’s now urgent.
Let’s save the oak – and everything that depends on it – with a laugh, a leaf, and a little bit of love.
