Guiding with scissors

If you went down to the River City tours this year in Dumbarton you were certainly in for a big surprise.

Two members of the cast had summer jobs as tour guides. Robbie and Hayley, aka Gary Lamont and Pamela Byrne, ditched their curling tongs in favour of showing members of the public around the streets and sets of Shieldinch.

Gary and Pamela studied together, on different courses, at Glasgow's RSAMD. Although they knew one another to see, it's only when they worked together regularly as hairdressers in River City's Just Gordon salon that they became bosom buddies on and off-screen.

'We got our very first job together, in James and the Giant Peach at the Citz,' Pamela said, 'and since then we've become great pals. Just as well, as we seem to do everything together.'

We caught up with the duo to get the low-down on life as a tour guide.



What happened on the tour when you and Gary turned up?

Pamela: 'Whenever Gary and I would walk in, or even more so when we'd walk in together, peoples' jaws would hit the floor. People were always so chuffed, because when you go on a tour you're told that you won't see any cast. We're probably the first cast members to do it. The people on the tour loved it and were so supportive'.

Gary: 'We kept the fact that cast members were doing tours a bit quiet.

When I turned up most people on the tours were a bit confused and thought it was a joke. I bet it was bit surreal!'

'The whole point of the tour is it's the River City set, it's our office, where we got to work every day. It is special though - so it's nice to step out of that and appreciate the River City set for what it is. And you can tell people all that you get up to - all your backstage tips'.

Did people call you by your own name or your character name?

Pamela: 'I would say to people at the start of the tour, 'My name's Pamela, but if you want to call me Hayley I don't mind!' When we went to the salon, people would say: 'I'm thinking about doing this with my hair, what do you think?' They were quite serious!' Do you think it would suit me?' I would tell the people on the tour - you can ask me anything about the characters but I can't talk to you about storylines. People would always ask me about Jack, even before the storylines went out'.

Gary: 'Most people did say: 'Oh, Robbie, Robbie!'. And I get folk saying to me every day in life 'What shall I do with my hair?' If I had a pound for every time someone said that to me I'd be more than a millionaire. What I usually say to them in response is, have you seen the state of my hair??''

The River City cast have time off over the summer. Have you been busy aside from doing the tours?

Pamela: 'I've been involved in a Fringe production in Edinburgh. The Lasses,O. It's a play about Robert Burns and the many women he knew. In another River City connection it was directed by David Paisley, who played Rory Murdoch'.

Together, they've also appeared in A Song, a Sip and a Sandwich, performing numbers from Chicago, Avenue Q and duetting in a number from the musical version of Legally Blonde.

It's purely coincidental that they've now been cast as best friends in River City and forged a close friendship. Gary: 'Pamela and I are now a bit of a double-act. Where I go she seems to pop her head up and vice versa.'