Lunch with Gyles Brandreth
Ella with Gyles, his wife Michele Brown, and DO Amy Bainbridge
Dispensing optician, Ella McCormack, had a few questions for Optix Conference host and colourful broadcaster, Gyles Brandreth, when she met him over lunch during the event…
EM: Gyles, this is your fourth time as Optix Conference host. Have you learnt anything interesting about opticians [eyecare professionals] along the way?
GB: I’ve always liked opticians. I used to wear glasses; I wore them from the age of 10. What is great about the whole world of opticians is that you get a choice. Eyecare is fundamentally what it is all about – the frames are a bonus. To be a successful optician, you need to be a people person, and since I like people, I love it. It’s a brilliant business to be in because it won’t go away. People will need to go on seeing forever. It’s an interesting mixture really, between medical and fashion. What I like about opticians is they are people who look you in the eye.
EM: Have you noticed any changes in the optical profession?
GB: It used to be just opticians. Now, audiology is an important part of it. For someone like me, of riper years, that makes sense. People are more self-conscious about hearing than they are about eyesight. Having it as part of an opticians is a good idea to make things more accessible. Also, a generation ago, there were a lot of owner drivers and family businesses. Now, as the years go by, people join groups.
There are advantages to that; scale, marketing, branding and the economy. There are also disadvantages, or rather you can get something different, from a sole trader. We have a son-in-law who is a vet and there have been similar changes there. The challenge of a business group is to retain the personality of the traditional and independent vet or opticians. Maybe we want our pets to see better? First Optix, then Audix, how about Petix?
EM: You are well known on the television for your eye-catching jumpers. Do you have any that are optical themed?
GB: Yes, one is 80s inspired and has Elton John style huge dark glasses with gold rims. It’s not as easy as you may think [to design a jumper]; people often make them too busy. I wear them on television so the image must be quite high up, something that is clear and powerful. I’ve got hundreds of jumpers, most of them created in the 1980s. I would love a leading eyewear designer to design me a spectacular spectacle sweater…
EM: Do you have any interesting memories or experiences of going to an optician?
GB: I don’t wear glasses now, but I do get my eyes checked. My wife is one of your best customers. She has got glasses in every room in the house. She has spectacles of all different shapes, sizes, types; reading ones, long distance ones, lightly shaded, darkly shaded, light pink, light blue, you name it. She’s been keeping dispensing opticians going in recent years. Michele went to our local optician, and they told her she has dry eyes. They said you are so happy with your husband, you don’t cry enough.
EM: You have a successful Podcast called Rosebud, where you talk to famous people about their first memories and experiences. Who would you like to interview most in the world? It could be someone living or someone who is no longer with us.
GB: On Rosebud, we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing lots of wonderful people, from Dame Judi Dench to Sir Keir Starmer. We get a variety of people, film stars such as Kristin Scott Thomas, Sigourney Weaver and Hugh Bonneville. The Astronomer Royal, the Poet Laureate, business people like Sir James Dyson. It is interesting, to people in the eye world, because of course first memories usually reflect something that is a sense. Something either you’ve seen, sometimes heard, often smelt or felt.
I’d like to interview Joan of Arc – a saint would be fascinating. Elvis – he would be fascinating too. I’d love to have met Mr Magoo. He was a cartoon character and had very thick glasses lenses. They didn’t look bad, they looked distinctive. When he took them off, he couldn’t see so he was walking round bumping into things. It was very funny. I’ve been to a seance once and within moments guess who came through? Diana, Princess of Wales.
EM: Can you tell us about some of your amazing charity work?
Relating to the optical world, I’m the trustee of the Queen’s Reading Room, which is Queen Camilla’s project to get more people reading for the enjoyment of it. I helped launch Poetry Together, where we get older people and children to learn the same poem by heart and we have a tea party, tea, cake and a poetry slam. To do all this, you have to be able to read and to see – so it’s worth having your eyesight checked…
Read Ella’s report on the 2025 Optix Conference…
Ella McCormack BA (Hons) FBDO is a dispensing optician, practice manager and the group manager of Bainbridge Bespoke Opticians.