''Potting On'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. It stars poet and author Pam Ayres and veteran actor

Geoffrey Whitehead Geoffrey Whitehead (born 1 October 1939) is an English actor. He has appeared in a range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at Shakespeare's Globe, St Martin's Theatre and the Bristol Old Vic. Early life Whitehe ...

as an aging couple running a garden centre with the help of various oddball employees. The supporting cast includes

Trevor Bannister Trevor Gordon Bannister (14 August 193414 April 2011) was an English actor best known for having played the womanising junior salesman Mr Lucas in the sitcom ''Are You Being Served?'' from 1972 to 1979, and for his role as Toby Mulberry Smith i ...

Alex Tregear Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple ...

, and

Karl Theobald Karl Julian Theobald (born 5 August 1969) is an English actor and comedian. He has played 'Landlord' in '' Plebs'' and Martin Dear in Channel 4 sitcom ''Green Wing''. Early life Theobald was born in Great Yarmouth, to Wendy Theobald. He gr ...

. The show is written by Chris Thompson and Peter Reynolds.

Plot

Pam (Pam Ayres) and Gordon (Geoffrey Whitehead) are a long-married couple who run a small garden centre. 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 Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

, while she tries to organize a trip to some exotic location overseas, or at least somewhere other than Swanage. Other employees also appear including teenager Carol, the cashier, who is a modern girl and has an array of boyfriends, naïve deputy manager Dave who has an attraction to Carol, and bizarre elderly gardener Roy who occasionally has a good idea.

Format

Geoffrey Whitehead's role is to set up situations into which Pam Ayres delivers

punchlines ''Punchlines'' was a comedy panel game show that aired on ITV from 3 January 1981 to 22 December 1984 and was hosted by Lennie Bennett. The show itself was based on a failed 1979 American game show pilot of the same name hosted by Bill Cullen, wh ...

in her distinctive brogue. For example, in an episode where Gordon becomes obsessed by an

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...

-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 -

* Carol -

* Dave -

* Roy -

Episodes

Broadcast history

The show was broadcast originally on BBC Radio 4, with repeat broadcasts airing on

BBC Radio 7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...

and

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

External links

*{{BBC programme
British Comedy GuideEpisode listing from epguides.com
BBC Radio comedy programmes 2008 radio programme debuts BBC Radio 4 programmes