16 Facts About Pam Ayres

Pamela Ayres MBE was born on 14 March 1947 and is a British poet, comedian, songwriter and presenter of radio and television programmes.

Pam Ayres was born in Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire, the youngest of six children of Stanley and Phyllis Ayres.

Pam Ayres's father worked for 44 years as a linesman for the Southern Electricity Board, having been a sergeant in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War.

Pam Ayres soon left and signed up for the Women's Royal Air Force, where she trained as a Plotter Air Photographer, working at JARIC in a drawing office dealing with operational maps.

Pam Ayres's reading of her poem The Battery Hen was re-broadcast as Pick of the Week on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, leading to a six-month contract with Radio Oxford.

Pam Ayres's recital went on to feature as an item in the BBC's Pick of the Year.

In 1975, Pam Ayres appeared on the television talent show Opportunity Knocks.

Pam Ayres's poetry has a simple style and deals with everyday subject matter.

In 2007, Pam Ayres acted in a radio sitcom, Potting On for Radio 4, co-starring Geoffrey Whitehead.

Pam Ayres wrote and recorded six series of her Radio 4 programme Ayres on the Air, the latest of which was broadcast in 2018.

Since 2002, Pam Ayres has appeared a number of times on Channel 4 in Countdown's Dictionary Corner alongside Susie Dent.

In September 2021, her TV series The Cotswolds with Pam Ayres premiered on Channel 5.

Each episode features a special guest and ends with Pam Ayres reciting a short, uplifting verse summing up her adventures.

Pam Ayres is married to theatre producer Dudley Russell, and they have two sons, William and James.

Pam Ayres is a patron of the British Hen Welfare Trust, Cheltenham Animal Shelter and Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre.

Pam Ayres was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1979 and again in 2018.