'˜If someone tells me I can't do something '“ I'll give it my best shot'

Pamela Ballantine points the toe of one Christian Louboutin heeled foot towards the end of her comfy duck egg blue sofa and laughs wickedly.

“There’s a Ballantine bum shaped mark on this sofa!” she says, adding that her favourite piece of furniture is deliberately positioned right in the middle of her two TVs.

“I can operate the Sky Plus from there,” she goes on, pointing to one set. “And watch it there,” she adds, indicating the flat screen elevated on the wall of her spacious kitchen.

“I love TV. I’ve been a TV addict all my life. I went into a complete panic at the weekend because there was only three per cent left on the Sky Plus.”

She may be sitting in heels and skinny jeans, but they’re only for the purposes of our photo shoot, and she may be one of the most loved and best-known faces on local television herself, but her declaration of passion for the box is far from fictitious.

It’s the first time I’ve met the diminutive 57-year-old in the (tiny) flesh, and after 10 minutes I can just imagine sitting on this very settee with her on a Saturday night, shoes off, having a giggle.

The UTV Life presenter’s down-to-earth demeanour and ‘have a go attitude’ towards life in general is central to her popularity and place in our hearts; she’s certainly been one of the most recognisable voices on TV and radio since I was a child, and I can’t deny that I’m a little tongue-tied on being invited into her home, which is set in the leafy suburbs of Stormont, just a few miles from south Belfast, where she grew up.

I’m struck by her petite frame as she welcomes us into her abode (she’s lost an incredible stone and a half following a lifestyle change she embarked on two years ago) and she kindly obliges my request to see her famous collection of ‘Loubys’, as she affectionately calls them.

But it’s not just all about glamour with Pamela; she’s equally proud of her more ‘masculine’ efforts to make her home a home.

“I built those stools, hung those pictures – do you see how they’re all centred?” she says with a twinkle.

“I am a woman with power tools. I have my drill and my work box under the stairs, and my spirit level and a tape measure.”

Living alone probably accounts for much of her fierce independence (she has been with partner Alan Graham for eight years, but they have their own houses), as must, I conclude after we chat about the subject, her finishing school education.

The concept might conjure up images of well turned out young ladies learning how to hem trousers or walking with books balanced on their heads, but Pamela reveals the skills she learnt at Evendine Court College of Home Economics for Young Ladies were much wider reaching than that.

“I have to say it was the making of me, because I was desperately shy as a kid. I went to the same school from the age of four to the age of 17, and had my own wee circle of friends. I’d be the one sitting in the corner at parties.

“But I remember the first night at Evendine. I was sharing a room with two other girls, I remember telling myself, right, this can go either one of two ways. You stay away from everyone and do your own thing, or else you go down there and you force yourself to talk to people.”

The young Pamela Rolston chose the latter, and to her delight, made some lifelong friends.

She also learnt the art of flower arranging, childcare, public speaking, woodwork, car maintenance, self defence, cookery, dressmaking and typing, and describes the whole experience as “absolutely brilliant”.

Nonetheless, when she left she “hadn’t a baldy notion what she wanted to do”, and so was hauled back to Irish shores by her parents.

She recalls: “I sort of had a notion for becoming a nanny, but I think that was because at the time friends of mine were, and it looked like a glamorous lifestyle where you got to look after kids and travel the world.

“My mum and dad said, right, you’re coming back to Belfast, and I was a proper little madam about it. I really didn’t want to. They said I needed to find something to do with my life.”

Pamela secured a place on the private secretaries course at the College of Business Studies, which she says was “another brilliant learning curve and very good grounding”.

She had her first interview at Downtown Radio when the station was just three years old; however, whilst impressing the bosses, they warned her that she didn’t know enough about the company.

However, a couple of weeks later another job came up, this time as secretary to the head of programmes and DJs, and after studying the inner workings of the station in the depth, Pamela landed the job.

The rest is well documented history.

“At that time, they didn’t really have any designated news readers, the journalists did it. Then there was one day when they were all out on stories and they didn’t have anyone. So someone said what about that new secretary, she can speak a bit. So I was put in front of a microphone and I read a minute long news bulletin in 30 seconds!

“And then they got me to do more and more.”

Pamela was promoted to features assistant, and as well as holding the fort for the presenters, she was editing tapes, sorting interviews, and generally doing whatever was needed, as well as carrying out her secretarial duties.

With her natural flair for interacting with people, she went on to have a long and successful career in broadcasting, working for Radio Ulster and UTV.

Yet unbelievably, she still gets nervous whenever she has to walk into a room full of people and present an awards ceremony or function.

“I still gird my loins – I take a deep breath and scour around to see who I know, who I can attach myself to.

“Standing up on stage, I love the lights shining down on me, because I can’t see anybody out there. I was trained to speak into a microphone, then at UTV I talked into a camera, so audiences freak me out! I have a couple of big award ceremonies coming up and they are fun – you can do a retake, and interact with the guests. But I could never do that standing up on my back legs thing and talk to an audience, or do an after dinner speech. I’ve been asked many times but I know my limits.”

She’s had a successful and exciting career in front of the camera, but most of us will recall the shocking news six years ago that UTV had decided to terminate her contract with them, together with those of several other high-profile presenters.

All that can be said on the matter, has been said; indeed, it’s ancient history now, and Pamela is philosophical about it. In fact, she believes it opened many doors to her and presented her with opportunities that may otherwise have never arose.

“I never fell out with UTV. A lot of people may think that I was hanging on there by my nails, but that wasn’t the case. I was given a freelance contract which I was very grateful for. I knew these were commercial decisions – when you looked at who was being made redundant, I was one of many who were all the top earners.

“Yes it was a real kick in the teeth and it was hard, but they never closed the doors, I’ve always kept working there.”

She adds: “If you had said to me six years ago that I would be looking back on life with as much enthusiasm as I am now, I would have said, ‘really?’

When she’s not working, she loves nothing more than cosying up on her sofa with her Sky Plus; police dramas, and thrillers about serial killers are her programme of choice – “if there’s gratuitous sex and violence in it, I’m happy.”

But what about that reputation she’s earned over the years as Ulster’s number one party girl? Has her social life taken a back seat in recent times with the advent of her impending sixties, and the embracing of a settled relationship with Alan?

Not a bit.

“I still love going out partying, and if the opportunity arises I will, but don’t get me wrong, last Sunday afternoon I did six episodes of The Night Manager and three of The Durrells and that was me, I wasn’t going over the door,” she laughs.

She says that she and her partner Alan started out as friends,and that friendship still forms the basis of their very happy relationship.
“He lives in his house and I live in mine, and it works well.”

I tentatively broach the subject of marriage and children; she has been married before, to UTV colleague JP Ballantine, whom she tied the knot with when she was 26.

“If it’s not broken, why fix it?” she says pragmatically.

“Because Alan and I are from different walks of life and spheres of occupation, we’ve always got things to talk about. I never want to be in a relationship where you’re the couple that goes out on Valentine’s Night and sits in silence.”

As for children, she says she’s “never really had a maternal bone in my body”, and even when she had to have a hysterectomy three and a half years ago due to suffering from fibroids (she reveals that she had the “equivalent of a 20-week-old pregnancy” growing inside her), there was no sense of loss or mourning over the fact that she would never be a mother.

“To me it was the best thing I ever did, I felt a hundred times better. I’ve had friends who have had hysterectomies and to them it feels like part of their womanhood has gone. And I get that.”

What womanhood means to Pamela Ballantine is not letting anything get in her way, especially not her gender.

“If someone tells me I can’t do something, I’m a stubborn git – I’ll give it my best shot. I think the main stumbling blocks for women are their own mental attitudes.

‘‘I think my upbringing has played a huge part in how I have succeeded, because mum and dad brought us up to treat everybody as equals, but to also treat yourself as equal.

“That old phrase, ‘to thine own self be true’ is something that dad would have instilled in me and that I live by.”

‘I like people who have worked hard ... seen an opportunity and gone for it’

When it comes to naming the most inspirational people in her life, Pamela looks no further than home.

Her parents Bob and Edna Rolston, she says, passed on their own work ethic to her, and were truly fantastic role models to her and her two siblings when she was growing up.

The late Bob Rolston retired as chairman of Cantrell & Cochrane, having begun his career there as a humble tea boy.

“He had a great work ethic, and great ethos on life in general,” says Pamela.

“Meanwhile my mum kept the family going while dad worked.”

Hardworking women in general are people whom the broadcaster admits she looks up to.

“I think Helen Mirren is just hilarious and brilliant – she doesn’t give a toss,” she says, referring to the Hollywood actress.

“And Judi Dench as well. I like people who have grafted, who have worked hard, women who have seen an opportunity, gone for it and not let anything stand in their way, but aren’t looking for praise or to be in the public eye.

“Because I work with Women in Business, you get to meet so many amazing women who do not want a pat on the back.

“People who have done so much for our charities, the likes of May Blood and so on. And people who just embrace life.”

I joke that I assume she’s not the type of person who’s impressed by reality TV types, and she laughs in agreement.

“I never knew who the Kardashians were, and I had to say to people, ‘who are they? What are they?’ I love table quizzes, but when it comes to the picture round I have to hand it over to someone else, because it’s usually a Kardashian or someone else I don’t know!”

Table quizzes and TV aside, Pamela’s other great loves when it comes to precious downtime are slightly more ‘outdoorsy’.

She loves rally driving – “dad always had really nice cars, and I’ve just always loved cars” – and anything that involves being a bit of a dare devil.

She’s abseiled down tall buildings, zipped along on zip lines, parascended without fear, and done a tandem parachute jump.

The only feat she can’t quite master is skiing.

“As someone said, I had all the style and grace of a broken deck chair. I was useless!”

She adds: “The only thing I wouldn’t do is a bungee jump because you can displace your hips and detach your retina.

“I do think I might be a bit of an adrenalin junkie, but I also like a sedate life.”

Never mind the outdoor pursuits, any people she’s met who have ever frightened her?

“Has anyone ever left me tongue tied? Ronan Keating,” she laughs. “And Daniel Craig. But Dermot O’Leary told me he was intimidated by me!’

We can’t imagine why. Feisty and fun she may be, but this lady is most definitely one of our nation’s own sweethearts.