While an undergraduate at Christ's College, Cambridge, he illustrated Granta and formed part of the late 1950s talented set which included those later to become household names, such as Peter Cook and Ian McKellen.
He later became more widely known for his appearances on the BBC's That Was The Week That Was, doing cartoons live in the studio with an ink-marker on paper.
[4] Birdsall's cartoons satirised the Profumo scandal, besides the Church of England and rearguard Britain's faulty attempts to emerge into the 'swinging Sixties'.
Michael Frayn and Bamber Gascoigne organised a posthumous exhibition of his works at the William Ware Gallery in London.
[5] His book illustrations include The Theatres of London (1961) by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, The Party Givers' Book (1959) by Mary Gallati, The World In My House (1960) by Joan Harborne, Really Nurse (1960) and Wake Up Nurse (1963) by Roger Brook, The Day Of The Dog (1962) by Michael Frayn, and France on Ten Words a Day (1963) by H. McCarty-Lee.