Pam Ayres is back on the radio for another series of her "Ayres on the Air", which features her, Geoffrey Whitehead and Felicity Montagu trying to muddle through life. The first two episodes focus on aging and the home, and tend to have a rather comfortable approach.
This series, and Ayres herself are really all about comfort. There's nothing in this that particularly challenges or asks difficult questions, but that's not really the aim. This is holding a gentle mirror up to life for an audience who want a few quiet chuckles and not to feel alone with their problems.
And it does that rather well. Ayres has always had a "home-spun" charm, and that shines here through the sketches, short autobiographical "pieces to camera" and the various poems. Her poetry is usually in the form of little ditties, that don't really play with the form, but do tend to end well on either a punchline or a nice bit of pathos.
It does seem a bit of a shame however, that my favourite parts of these are consistently the sketches, which tend to be written by other people. Still, they've got Geoffrey Whitehead delivering his excellent dry humour with that touch of delicate cruelty he does so well. Worth the price of admission for that alone.
In keeping with the form, my summary:
I heard that Pam Ayres upon the wireless
And about my opinion I'd best be shyer, les'
All those who on my site do click,
Will think that I'm a complete scoundrel.
Tagged: Radio Comedy Cast Stand-up Autobiographical