Sprightly queen of UTV Life on her favourite guests

Silver fox Pamela Ballantine remains a regular fixture on UTV after 27 years at the channel.

Sprightly and effervescent as ever, the bubbly presenter of the ever popular UTV Life magazine show that once beat Graham Norton in viewing figures by something close to six per cent on one memorable occasion, shows no signs of slowing down or hanging up her many, many pairs of towering and glossy Louboutins (she has a room full of them that makes Carrie Bradshaw look like an amateur in the sophisticated shoe collection department, even confessing to having a whole room in her home dedicated to them that was produced for her by an affable joiner named Stanley).

Ballantine, who grew up in south Belfast and confesses to being cripplingly shy until she attended finishing school at 17 and realised she was destined for unhappiness if she did not overcome her natural introversion, (few, she insists, from the school she attended would even remember her were it not for her now high profile, so all-encompassing was her shyness, a quality she thinks a lot in the public eye ironically naturally possess, as though they can come alive for an audience but afterwards retreat into their shell, intermittently transformed into loquaciousness by the glow of the limelight).

She is immensely self-deprecating, regarding herself as basically a qualified secretary whom “people somehow saw some potential in” and her mother has oft told her that though she may not be “good at much”, she at least always “manages to bloody well look the part”; but this is to under-rate Pammie’s natural warmth as an interviewer and her inherent, substantial charm; watching her on camera, no matter who she is interviewing, it’s hard to believe that she can be, deep down, at times, by her own admission, a “negative git”, because she exudes the kind of positivity and iron-clad optimism that make her a reliable source of joy of a Friday evening.

Over the years she has interviewed scores of local big names, and many stand out for her, most especially the time she sat down to lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip at Hillsborough Castle when then secretary of state Peter Mandelson, instead of instigating conversation, “stood there like a lemming” until Her Majesty asked Pamela if she lived in Belfast and then the affair segued into a prestigious event where former RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan addressed the gathered crowd of 20 or so, speaking for a lengthy period without notes to the extent that Her Royal Highness was most impressed by the former’s spontaneity and wit; the much-loved monarch was then in the province in order to present the RUC with the George Cross.

“She was lovely and had good giggles as well,” recalls Pamela, who is full of admiration for the Queen, now 96 and still attending myriad events at full throttle, never having really allowed herself time to process the loss of her beloved husband; at her age most would want to put their feet up and grieve in solitude: “But I don’t think she wants to,” adds Ballantine. “I think it is in the Queen’s nature to keep going and she has a profound sense of duty to her country.”

Other highlights of Pamela’s illustrious broadcasting career include filming in the hot sunshine and paradisal climes - white sandy beaches and crystalline lapping waves on palm tree-lined shores - particularly Jamaica and Barbados.

“For Jamaica we were shooting an outdoor pursuits game show. We did a Christmas shoot there in November one year and it was pretty awesome. Barbados was when I worked for a motorsport programme. For some reason in Barbados they love rally drivers from Northern Ireland. There was a guy called Ciaran O’Neill who took his Opal Kadette over to Barbados with a team of young fellas from west Belfast.”

Another interviewee who really stands out for her among the panoply of big names is a woman named Vera Magee who was something of a heroine from Ulster during the hell of the Second World War.

“I always remember Vera Magee, who was from Armagh and was born in the 1920s.

“She was orphaned at the age of 12 and sent to a convent.

“Then one day she was told to pack her things, she was off to work as a governess in France.

“Off she went at the age of 16. When France was occupied she had to report to the Gestapo every week rather than be interned.

“When General Patton’s army liberated that part of France she was one of the translators for the interrogators of the railway staff about the death trains that had been going through the railway station. She was an amazing woman.

“When the Clintons were over she was presented with the American Legion of Honour for the work that she did in France.”

Outside of being a much vaunted fixture on our TV screens, Ballantine loves attending Down Royal and would love to get back into horse riding - she adores watching races - if she had more time and dexterity on horseback, and is an avid walker. She also confesses to being something of a TV addict, getting most enjoyment out of shows like Fawlty Towers and Mock the Week and recalls growing up laughing with her parents, brother and sister at a most amusing Dave Allen, perhaps one of Irish comedy’s most thrilling raconteurs, in what was a very happy household in affluent, leafy south Belfast.

LOCKDOWN LED TO EXTENSIVE COUCH POTATO MODE

Lockdown initially occasioned a moment of panic: “At the start, like everybody, I was in a bit of a panic thinking, ‘Oh no, I live on my own, I’m going to be so lonely, this is desperate.’ But then I was talking to my friend who was working from home, alongside her husband who was also working from home, and their three kids who had to be home-schooled, and I then began to count my blessings.

“I tried to take myself off for a walk every day and stuck religiously to the rules.

“Everything stopped. I think I did four days work from March 2020 until February 2021. The weather was so good at times I was immensely happy out the back garden.

“I love TV but sometimes I did feel guilty sat there on the couch overindulging.

“But I’m also a pretty voracious reader. I love detective/crime novels and, as with the telly, if it has gratuitous sex and violence, then I am happy!”

WHY THE LATE SIR CLEMENT FREUD WAS PAMMIE’S MOST INSULTING INTERVIEWEE

Pamela is philosophical about having reached her sixth decade: “When I turned 60 people asked me if I worried about getting older and I just said, ‘Well it beats the alternative, as in not getting older and being six feet under instead!’

“I have always been a glass half full person and I never take for granted the privilege of the work I do. I’ve tried to make the most of the opportunities that have come my way.

“As Eamonn Holmes said to me once, and he’s a very genuine, lovely man, ‘Pammie, I take every opportunity that comes my way because some day my face and my performance, which is my pension, is just not going to fit’.”

And she never ceases to appreciate the manifold joys of presenting UTV Life: “The joy of doing it is getting to meet so many different people.

“UTV Life is a joy of a programme to present and we get great viewing figures which we never take for granted, whether it is live or on catch up.

“Our Friday slot means we’re up against the One Show and we say bring it on!”

As a well established interviewer I ask Pamela if she has ever had a ‘Michael Parkinson’ moment, akin to the time he interviewed Meg Ryan and elicited her immense ire in a moment of intensely memorable awkwardness; it has since become one of the broadcaster’s most memorably cringeworthy televised exchanges.

Ballantine remembers an encounter with Sir Clement Freud.

“He was a TV raconteur and a liberal MP. He’s a bit similar to Gyles Brandreth.

“We were just doing the sound level. It was Farming Ulster. He just happened to be at this Ploughing Championship up at Ballycastle.

“I asked if he had visited Northern Ireland often and he just called me a bimbo and then turned on his heels and walked away.

“I didn’t know he was the Northern Ireland spokesman for the Liberal Party at the time.

“He spent the rest of the afternoon following us around, trying to get an interview but my producer was adamant that he was not getting one after how he had addressed me.”

When off the air, Pammie likes nothing better than some quality crime fiction and catching rays.

“JD Kirk, who writes about a Scottish detective chief inspector, this big grisly Scotsman with a quare sense of humour, is fabulous. The DCI Logan books are full of wit. I love my holidays too and as soon as the lockdowns eased I took off to Spain. I have plenty of friends who have holiday homes there so it was brilliant craic.”

Q&A: ‘THERE IS A SMALL PART OF ME THAT WOULD LOVE TO BE A COWBOY’

Tell us your earliest childhood memories?

Riding my tricycle in the back garden in Maryville Park aged three or four. It had a bin on the back that my brother and I kept sweets in to share with our friends.

My brother was born in 1958 and I was born in 1957. I was a tomboy and we were exceptionally close. My wee sister came along five and a half years later.

My dad got a holiday bungalow in Ballyhalbert built when I was about five and we spent every weekend and every holiday there. We woke up in the morning, threw on our swimsuits or our fleecy stuff depending on what time of the year it was, ran around outside and basically came home when we were hungry. It was bliss. The sea was pretty much at our front door and we would just plunge into the waves off the rocks.

I grew up in south Belfast, just off the Malone Road.

Tell us about your school days?

I was never disruptive at school and I was an average student. My favourite subjects were history and geography.

Who makes you laugh?

Billy Connolly, with such pearls of wisdom like “never trust a man who is left alone in a room with a tea cosy and he doesn’t try it on”.

How do you keep so fit?

I joined Slimming World many years ago and I do try to follow their ethos. Living on my own I do try to cook healthily and I don’t do ready meals. I cook from scratch and I generally batch cook. Which is not to say that I am healthy all the time, give me a good bottle of wine, a Chinese or a pizza, and I am very happy indeed.

Describe your fashion and make-up style?

My silver fox look is entirely down to hairdresser Paul Stafford who cuts it for me regularly. I once agreed to get my hair cut short live on TV, and that was 22 years ago. Sunscreen would be my ultimate must-have product, and after that mascara because your lashes really do frame your eyes. But I can’t be bothered putting make-up on if I don’t have to go to work or go out to a do.

What kind of music do you like to listen to in your downtime?

I’m a closet rocker. I love Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Horslips, Peter Gabriel, early Genesis and Pink Floyd.

What kind of films do you most enjoy?

I love John Wayne and have a big picture of him on my wall. I adore cowboy movies and westerns. I think there is a small part of me that would love to be a cowboy.

Tune in to UTV Life on Fridays at 7pm on UTV. Next Friday, September 9, comedian Owen O’Neill, Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk and Irish soprano Margaret Bridge join Pamela, ahead of the staging of NI Opera’s La Traviata.