Most of us don't know the Briscoes Lady's real name – it's Tammy Wells. Photo / Kellie Blizard
The actor-artist has had a double life for 37 years.
Tammy Wells has arguably one of the most recognised faces – and voices – in the country, yet chances are most of us probably don’t know her real name. With almost universal affection from New Zealanders, she is simply known as the “Briscoes Lady”.
So iconic is this doyenne of deals that over in London, Kiwis taking part in the Waitangi Day pub crawl will often don a blue apron and brown wig, dressing up as her. And she gets a kick out of it.
Incredibly, it’s been 37 years since Tammy arrived on our TV screens with her upbeat personality, enthusiastically gesticulating and inviting us to snap up bargains at the homewares chain.
As she arrives at the Weekly photoshoot, her warmth and high energy are matched exactly to her alter-ego, but it’s clear they are two separate identities.
A rural girl at heart, Tammy lives on a six-hectare lifestyle block near Christchurch with her husband Michael, where you’ll likely find her in the garden or behind an easel, painting.
The 62-year-old is a natural talker, happy to share about her first grandchild or what she’s learned from her favourite podcaster, Mel Robbins or having the courage to exhibit her artwork.
It’s been a “tale of two lives”, with Tammy commuting up to the Auckland film studio where the ads are shot for around 30 days a year.
But now that her Auckland-based son James and his wife Jenn have become parents to daughter Amelia, Tammy couldn’t be happier about spending time in the city.
“The Briscoes Lady is now a grandmother!” laughs Tammy. “And a smitten one! When I started in 1989, I didn’t even have kids. And after having two sons, it’s so lovely to have a girl in the family. Amelia is just divine.
“Everybody said to me, ‘Oh, you’ll love being a grandmother’, and I’m sold. At 14 weeks old, she smiles, laughs, holds her wee head up and shakes her rattle, and my heart is taken.”
When Jenn went into labour in March, Tammy stayed in their house on “fur patrol”, looking after the couple’s elderly cat and dog.
“I was nearly climbing the walls waiting to hear any news,” she recalls. “It was just thrilling to hear Amelia had arrived, and I got to meet her the next day.
“So far since she’s been born, I’ve been up to Auckland six times and if I’m not filming, I just get cheap flights to pop up to see her because babies change so much from day to day.
“And we had Amelia’s christening in my wee rural church three weeks ago and I played the organ. My darling daughter-in-law’s parents were out from England, so they all flew down to Christchurch for the special day.
“I’m so looking forward to holidaying with Amelia and reading to her… Oh, I feel very blessed!”
When Amelia gets a bit older, Tammy says she’d love to teach her granddaughter to paint in whatever capacity that looks like.
“I lost my mum 12 years ago and I decided to learn to paint after she died because it was something I had always wanted to do,” she explains. “I feel I can safely call myself an artist now. Jenn encouraged me to get on with it and have an exhibition, so we held my first one at Piggly Inn [a renovated pig shed that Michael built on their property] last spring for family and friends.”
Tammy sold 11 out of 25 artworks – she has a penchant for portraits of animals that have been part of her life, like Moby the Steer or Sue, her chicken – and is hoping to display some artwork in a Christchurch home and garden store.
“I have learned to be a bit brave,” she says. “It’s never easy taking up something new, but life is short and as you get older, you work that out. And what’s the worst that can happen? Things don’t sell. And what’s the best: they could!”
She’s not the only artist in the household either. Tammy is now championing Michael’s new career as a sculptor after the 63-year-old retired from dairy farming.
His Corten steel artworks range from small, ornamental, barbed-wire bird nests through to various large 3D pieces, and the couple regularly open their gates to host garden clubs and retirement villages.
“We’ll have an afternoon tea in Piggly Inn, and sit around and chat about the garden. They’ll turn up and often go, ‘Oh! I just worked out who you are’.”
The passionate gardeners celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in February, and Tammy can still remember the moment she first spotted him on the school bus. She was in fourth form at St Margaret’s College while Michael attended St Andrew’s.
“He was my high-school sweetheart,” she smiles. “I fell in love with him when I was 14 and married him at 22. We’re close mates and when you’ve been together that long, you kind of become one person in a way.
“Last night, we were at a conference dinner and it was so lovely having him there at my work do. He really copes with me being highly strung, especially when I’ve drunk too much tea.
“Yesterday, when we were driving to the airport, I had to say sorry for being short, because as you grow older, you realise often when that happens, you’re not frustrated with your husband, you’re actually frustrated with yourself.
“So I’ve learned to drink decaffeinated tea and coffee, try not sweat the small stuff and give it over to a higher power.”
The seemingly ageless advertising icon has also just renewed her contract with Briscoes and will stay on as a frontwoman for a few more years to come.
“I had some discussions and the company said to me, ‘If you would still like to be doing this, then we would like you to stay.’
“My boss Rod Duke, also said to my husband, words to the effect of, ‘We love your girl!’ So it’s going to go on, maybe with a Zimmer frame!”
Tammy scored the role at age 26, following a successful career as a sound engineer in radio.
She had taken a course on acting for television and auditioned in Christchurch, where she recalls walking around and talking with an ottoman as her only prop.
Heather Eggleton – the glamorous co-host of It’s in the Bag – had taken Tammy through her paces and shared one piece of advice: “Make sure you do something that makes you stand out.”
“So I did something with my nose, like scrunched it up, but not full Tabitha-twitchity,” says Tammy, giving a reenactment of a scene from the 1960s sitcom Bewitched.
“But I did a little twitch,” she laughs. “When Rod picked me, he said, ‘The one who’s got her arms flailing around everywhere.’ I was hoping he’d notice the nose, but no, it was the arms!
“Rod also mentioned that they’d do a couple of ads and trial them for a few months, then come back to me. So I was thinking it would probably be just a one-off opportunity.”
After Tammy’s sons came along – James, now 34, is an actor and Cameron, 32, works in advertising in New York with his husband Ben – they grew up assuming everyone’s mum was on TV.
“Cameron especially enjoyed that his mum was a wee bit famous and that people recognised me,” she says. “He was in Hallensteins as an 8-year-old when he said to the shop assistant, ‘Do you know who my mum is?’ because they hadn’t said anything to me!”
As you might expect, Tammy gets recognised everywhere. Even seated outdoors at a café after our photoshoot, she gets approached by passersby, saying, “Sorry, but are you the Briscoes Lady?”
Of course, it doesn’t faze the seasoned performer.
Next month, Tammy will be an official judge for the homeware giant’s nationwide search to find New Zealand’s best bed maker, who will take out a $10,000 grand prize.
Which begs the question, does the Briscoes Lady make her bed?
“I do, but not every day,” she admits. “Sometimes I just pull my door around to hide it. And I don’t do ‘hospital corners’ because I can’t bear to be that tightly tucked. What I’ll tell the competition finalists is that I’m looking for great flair.”
On July 9, Tammy will be part of a judging panel at Briscoes Panmure in Auckland to crown New Zealand’s Best Bed Maker. Visit briscoes.co.nz.
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