Last updated 09:19, Friday, 10 October 2008

Pam Ayres, Buccleuch Centre, LangholmMirror, mirror on the wall, who is the funniest of them all? At the Buccleuch Centre last week ‘People’s Poet’ Pam Ayres had us laughing within seconds and the hilarity bounced around the hall all night.

It’s more than 30 years since Pam Ayres won Opportunity Knocks and her sharp observations of family life in all its conditions have entertained millions around the world ever since.

What other wife and mother could turn the trials and tribulations of raising a family into tears of laughter we can all share?

She laughed along with us as she told her stories and recited her poems with all the lyrical deftness that we have come to expect from a true professional.

Her rise to fame began with recording a TV advert for Eden Vale cream cheese for which she was paid £600, a huge sum of money then.

Her inspiration for her well-loved poems comes from her love for her family. The tales she told of growing up with her brothers and sisters and their holidays on a caravan site at Weston-Super-Mare had the audience rolling about with laughter, while her experiences of the Wonderbra rendered us helpless.

Preparing for a cycling holiday in France, she learned completely useless French phrases on a computer programme, something that no doubt many others could well relate to.

Pam’s passion for life was infectious and we all went home with a smile on our faces.

RACHEL NORRIS