Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Potting On

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Genre
  
Sitcom

Country
  
United Kingdom

Home station
  
BBC Radio 4

Running time
  
30 minutes

Language(s)
  
English

Starring
  
Pam Ayres Geoffrey Whitehead

Potting On is a radio situation comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It stars poet and author Pam Ayres and veteran actor Geoffrey Whitehead as an aging couple running a garden centre with the help of various oddball employees. The supporting cast includes Trevor Bannister, Alex Tregear, and Karl Theobald. The show is written by Chris Thompson and Peter Reynolds.

Pam and Gordon (Ayres and Whitehead) are a long-married couple. Gordon is a creature of habit while Pam longs to break out of her humdrum routine. The humour revolves around her efforts to persuade him to try something new, or at least stop holding her back. For instance, for their annual holiday, Gordon is content to return to their caravan which has been parked for years in Swanage, while she tries to organize a trip to some exotic location overseas, or at least somewhere other than Swanage.

Geoffrey Whitehead's role is to set up situations into which Pam Ayres delivers punchlines in her distinctive brogue. For example, in an episode where Gordon becomes obsessed by an Indiana Jones-style computer game and stays up till the early hours of the morning, there is the following exchange:

Gordon: I'm trying to find the hidden treasures of Nefertiti! Pam: Well come to bed then, I'll make sure you get yer 'ands on 'em!

The same actors portray Pam and Gordon in sketches on the comedy and poetry show Ayres on the Air.

Cast

  • Pam Grant - Pam Ayres
  • Gordon Grant - Geoffrey Whitehead
  • Carol the cashier, assistant and modern girl-about-town - Alex Tregear
  • Dave, dim but well-meaning dogsbody - Karl Theobald
  • Roy the gardener, a classic bumpkin - Trevor Bannister
  • References

    Potting On Wikipedia