Let’s all salute Pam Ayres
By Tony Watts - Editor - 31/12/2007
“Let's all salute the Wonderbra,
The Wonderbra, the Wonderbra,
Let's all salute the Wonderbra
For fourteen ninety-nine!”
Who else but Pam Ayres could have penned those immortal lines – and delivered them with that innocent rural accent and wry smile?
For something over 30 years now Pam has been amusing not only us Brits with her wit and wisdom, but nations right around the world as well – including Ireland, the Middle East, Hong Kong, France, Kenya, Canada, New Zealand and Australia: her recent sell-out appearance at The Sydney Opera House marked her 16th tour down under.
When we talk, she is half way through a lengthy tour of UK theatres doing what she does best: making people laugh. In fact very much what she was doing when we last met, some 15 years ago, in the Theatre Royal Bristol. But as she explains, her act has moved from the early days when she was best known as a poet. “These days it’s more stand up,” she says, “with my observations on life thrown in and some sketches.” In fact very much the format of her hugely funny Radio 4 programme “Ayres on Air” – one of the few radio “comedy” shows that has managed to penetrate my funny bone in recent years.
Is it me, or is radio not as humourous as it was, with the noble exceptions of “Just A Minute”, “The News Quiz” and “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue”?
“There’s very little on radio I enjoy,” Pam agrees. “And not much I watch on TV either – although I did love ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. Apart from The Bill and The News I haven’t got a lot of time for what’s on these days. Perhaps I’m just getting older!”
But if she’s not being amused herself, at least she’s playing her part in entertaining the public. She recently finished making another series called “Potting On”, which stars Pam opposite her “husband” Geoffery Whitehead; between them they are trying to run a garden centre. A lot of the humour derives from the clash between Pam’s energy and her husband’s desire for the quiet life as he feels the onset of middle age. Equally there is a generation gap between the couple and their two young workers. With two sons now in their early twenties, Pam will have a keen awareness of how inter-generational misunderstandings can arise!
So does Pam feel that same gap in real life? “I feel quite sorry for young people growing up in today’s world,” she says. “We were driving through a city late at night recently and I automatically put the locks on – it really wasn’t very nice out there and many of the youngsters looked really vulnerable.
“I understand that many older people feel afraid of youngsters, when they see them hanging about on street corners, but most of the ones I know are lovely.”
Perhaps Pam’s enduring popularity is explained not just by the way she has continued to be genuinely amusing in her observations on life, but because she got where she is today literally through public support: her Opportunity Knocks performances, the X-Factor of its day, endeared her to the nation. She has also, as she agrees, “grown up” with her audiences – ageing with them and turning the spotlight on that ageing process as a source of a lot of her humour.
As she agrees, there’s a lot one could get depressed about when you think about getting older: laughing at one’s foibles and weaknesses is a great way of dealing with it. “Everyone has grown up and moved on,” she observes, “so I can talk about the human condition.”
She has also perfected the art of being a 60-second raconteur: the essential skill for survival on “Just A Minute”… well that, and a very thick skin. “They can pick on you mercilessly,” she reveals. “It’s also not as easy to record as you might think sometimes. We were up in Hay on Wye this year and recorded that programme in the middle of a monsoon. It was only the Dunkirk spirit that kept us going!”
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that in a poll taken several years ago she was fifth best-selling poet following Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy, and Sylvia Plath. More serious poets might balk at being measured against a humorous poet – but it’s often easier to make a very serious point when you’re also making a person smile. And that is what Pam Ayres does so brilliantly.
Pam’s latest CDs, DVDs and books are all available through her website which is linked below, or through most good bookshops.