  The method of analytic perturbation theory, which avoids the problem of
ghost-pole type singularities and gives a self-consistent description of both
spacelike and timelike regions, is applied to describe the "light" Adler
function corresponding to the non-strange vector channel of the inclusive decay
of the $\tau$ lepton. The role of threshold effects is investigated. The
behavior of the quark-antiquark system near threshold is described by using a
new relativistic resummation factor. It is shown that the method proposed leads
to good agreement with the ``experimental'' Adler function down to the lowest
energy scale.
