Tower and Town, September 2015 (view the full edition)Pan's People - The One In RedI had arranged to meet Dee Dee Wilde at the house of my friend Caren in Steeple Ashton, and had got there a few minutes before the agreed time of 1.30. Dee Dee, by all accounts, was a fabulous example of how to age (that word doesn't even seem applicable) well, and I wanted to see this for myself and find out Dee Dee's secret. Her entry was superb. Not for her the convention of knocking on the door (Dee Dee and Caren have known each other since Ghana in the fifties). She 'made an entrance' a la Alida Valli, but not in an overtly divaesque way: she waltzed in, full of verve and humour and enthusiasm, and immediately I could see how her reputation was well-earned. Dee Dee was one of the founders of Pan's People, the hugely popular dancing troupe from the sixties and seventies, well before pop videos were made. The twin daughter of a naval officer married to an Italian she had been brought up in a cosmopolitan environment and had trained as a Classical Dancer in her teens at the Elmhurst Ballet School. "Life with Pan's was wonderfully exciting, and though we enjoyed the attention of lots of men, some unwelcome advances (such as those of Jimmy Savile) were easily rebuffed, since there were always six of us girls!" After Pan's People, Dee Dee continued with her dancing career, and with her hugely active and occasionally wildish life (episodes involving getting chucked out of Bahrain, and knickers on the kitchen lights of a Country House were mentioned), and she even found time to get married to her first husband Andrew and have two children, Alex and Poppy. Dance has remained a central part of her life to this day, and she continues to hold Dance classes, to the eternal benefit of her figure and obvious physical well-being! Dee Dee now lives in Wiltshire and is married for a second time to Henry Marsh, (multi-talented member of Pop Group Sailor). She clearly thrives on her 'life in the country' but I sense that the love for her 'showbiz' life has not left and she seems to be enjoying this 'conversation with questions'. If she is, it is due in large degree to her own input and vibrancy. Dee Dee and Henry live in Rood Ashton with Henry's mum, Jean; whilst a 102 year old(!) clearly needs a lot of care and attention, to the occasional detriment of the mobility of the carers, I sense that Dee Dee is perfectly at ease with this. I feel that this is part of the 'secret' in terms of growing old gracefully as exemplified by Dee Dee. In my view, albeit only after a 90 minute meeting, she is a giver rather than a taker. She has looked after herself wonderfully well, has a remarkably moderate 'ego' for someone so involved in the world of dance and entertainment, and has an energy which communicates itself very readily to any normally sentient being. As I said to her, she seems to embody that untranslatable French expression of being 'bien dans sa peau'! Andrew Unwin |