Adam (Episodes 966/7)

Adam was an extremely camp, moustached hairdresser hurriedly employed by Dave Smith in March 1970 when he bought Alan Howard’s Salon and caused a walk-out of the existing staff when he sacked Bernard Butler because he felt that his inane chatter bored the customers.

Adam dressed in a bright patterned shirt and a similar cravat. He had a diploma for window dressing and it was put to use in the salon by rearranging the bottles of hair cream and the packets of razor blades when there were no customers to see to. The one member of the old staff who remained was Hilda Ogden and Adam bickered with her when she was cleaning while he was trying to cut Albert Tatlock’s hair. Albert lost his limited patience and went to Mick Connolly’s barber’s shop on Bessie Street instead, saying it was like the parrot house at Belle Vue in Dave’s establishment. A desperate Dave reemployed Elsie Tanner as manager but she set the condition that Bernard and Sandra Butler were also taken back on. Dave agreed and also managed to persuade Valerie Barlow to return as chief stylist. The return of these staff caused Adam and his colleague Jasmine to take their turn to walk out, but neither of them were missed by Dave.