TV Shows We Used To Watch - Crossroads 1964-88 | The sillies… | Flickr Paul Townsend By: Paul Townsend TV Shows We Used To Watch - Crossroads 1964-88 The silliest TV soap ever! Wobbly sets, ludicrous plots, awful acting... but 50 years after its launch, fans are still devoted to Crossroads. The sets were famously wobbly, the characters notoriously flaky and the stories lurched from the unlikely to the downright bizarre. But the millions of viewers who checked in every weekday at the Crossroads motel for their five-times-a-week teatime fix couldn’t have cared less. They loved every shambolic moment of it — fluffed lines, mistakes and all. Launched to fill a gap in the schedules 50 years ago, Crossroads ran for almost 5,000 episodes. Its first incarnation lasted until 1988, and it was revived — disastrously — for two years in 2001. At its peak in the Seventies, it pulled in 18 million viewers and was second only to Coronation Street. Its stars won viewers’ polls and showbiz awards.

However, not everyone was so enthralled. ITV’s regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, twice ordered it to cut its output, first to four, then three, episodes a week to improve its quality. The chairman, Lady Plowden, lamented that Crossroads was ‘distressingly popular’. It is, however, sadly missed these days, not least by its stars. Jane Asher, who played the motel’s owner (and arch-bitch and sexual predator) Angel Samson, in the revived version, says she loved every minute of it. So much so, that she even posed in a bath of bubbles and discreetly placed rose petals, while sipping from a glass of Champagne to promote her motel. ‘It was an iconic soap and greatly under-appreciated’, she insists. ‘I watched the original as a teenager, and could easily have got hooked on it. But I was more a fan of The Archers on the radio. But by the second time around the show had really had its day’. Crossroads first opened its doors in November 1964 — set in the fictional King’s Oak, Birmingham, and charging guests £4 a night for each of its 18 rooms.

The show, with the formidable Noele Gordon as the motel’s matriarch, Meg Richardson, was scheduled to run for 30 episodes over six weeks. It was an immediate hit with viewers in spite of its visibly cheap production values. The budget was reported to be only £10,000 for an entire week’s five episodes, compared with the same amount spent on each episode of rival Coronation Street. The sets had been constructed out of flimsy canvas and board because they had never been meant to last for long. The highest-paid star was Gordon, whose salary was reportedly £200 a week. Some minor characters were persuaded to work for £10 an episode on the grounds that the show would be good exposure for them. With such a demanding schedule, there was little time for scripts to be re-written and polished, still less for rehearsal, so everything had to be filmed in one take. The expense of editing out mistakes was so great, given the tiny budget, that the producers ordered them to be left in.

Jane Rossington, who was in the show for 24 years as Meg’s daughter, Jill, has the distinction of speaking the very first words in the opening episode, and the final words in the last, and remembers how many bloopers crept in. She recalls: ‘Noele would sometimes call me Jane, on camera, rather than by my character name, Jill, but there was no time or budget for re-takes. “Oh, no one will notice”, she’d insist. ‘I loved her, but she did speak her lines very slowly and sometimes I would wonder if she was ever going to finish a sentence!’ The story lines were equally erratic. Jill had an on-screen pregnancy that went on for over a year — and, to the shock of viewers, the father was her screen stepbrother. But after the baby was born, it was never mentioned again. The script called for her to marry three times — once bigamously — and to become a drug addict and an alcoholic. ‘Everything that could happen to a person happened to me’, she says, ‘but it was all terrific fun’.

TV critics sneered — ‘amateurish pap,’ said one — but the show attracted viewers of all ages and a huge fan base. Indeed, the more absurd the plots became, the more they lapped it up. Meg survived regular murder attempts. Motel Lothario Adam Chance (Tony Adams) would try to seduce most of the female guests. Various members of the staff would go berserk with pots and pans and one of them, cleaner Amy Turtle (Ann George), was briefly arrested as a Russian spy named Amelia Turtlovski. Characters disappeared for months on end with little explanation. Chef Shughie Mcfee (Angus Lennie) went behind the fridge for some ingredients and was gone for the rest of the year. Deke Arlon, who played coffee-bar boss Benny Wilmott, was told by Meg to get some sugar. He exited the kitchen and was never seen again. Dim-witted handyman Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry), rarely seen without his iconic blue beanie, once went out for a spanner and returned six months later.

He was beset with a litany of troubles: falsely accused of murdering his gipsy fiancee Maureen — killed on the morning of their wedding — he was then temporarily blinded and lost his best friend, Miss Diane, the manager (Sue Hanson), when she died of a brain haemorrhage. He subsequently commemorated her by naming his pet donkey after her. Motel manager David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen, was an incurable gambler for just one week in 1977, his son Chris was a part-time terrorist and his ex-wife Rosemary shot him. We all remember the shooting of JR Ewing in 1980 - it shook soap fans across the world. But, at the Crossroads Motel, David Hunter's ex-wife, Rosemary (played by Janet Hargreaves), was the first soap character of 1980 to pull a trigger. It shook... er... several soap fans across England. Suddenly, Rosemary pulled out A GUN!! "David... say it... tell me you love me... SAY IT!" she whined menacingly. When he refused, she shot him. Of course, all was well.

David was discovered by Meg and made a full recovery, Rosemary underwent psychiatric treatment and was never seen again, and that was that. According to legend, the reason for David's somewhat informal attire at his engagement party had its roots in a behind-the-scenes mishap. When Janet Hargreaves first pulled the trigger of the gun, it didn't go off. But Ronald Allen had already broken the bag of stage blood, ruining the suit he was wearing. It seems that the Crossroads wardrobe allowance could not run to another suit! But motel boss Meg had more than most to endure. One husband tried to kill her by painting the living room with poisonous emulsion and she lost another to a heart attack. viewers thought they’d lost her in a huge explosion at the motel. The big bang allowed them to start with a new set and motel, but Meg’s days were numbered. She was sacked in 1981, despite thousands of protests, including a petition from a Hell’s Angels chapter. In the story, she sailed off into retirement on an Australia-bound QE2.

In reality, she believed she had become the victim of TV politics: The network’s bosses were said to want to ditch what they deemed to be downmarket shows like Crossroads in favour of ‘quality drama’. Without the soap’s most popular star, the show would lose viewers and thus give them an excuse to drop it, which is what happened. Another character who was to come to a real untimely end was Meg’s son, Sandy, played by Roger Tonge. He had intrigued viewers by apparently never growing any taller during his 17 years in the show, and retaining a perpetually breaking voice. The height problem was resolved when scriptwriters invented a car crash which obliged Sandy to spend the rest of his time at the motel in a wheelchair. In a case of life imitating art, Tonge really became confined to a wheelchair when he contracted Hodgkin’s Disease. He died aged 35 in 1981 — and Sandy was never mentioned again. Virtually anyone who appeared in the series automatically became the victim of some scriptwriter-inspired mishap within six months. There were poisonings, rapes, drug addiction, incest, abortions, nervous breakdowns, kidnapping and even the bomb which blew up the motel.

That didn’t stop soon-to-be famous faces making brief appearances in the motel lobby. David Jason made his TV debut in Crossroads in 1966 as a crook; Elaine Paige checked in as a guest; and Malcolm McDowell was public relations consultant Crispin Ryder in 1965. Ken Dodd played himself in 1973, Larry Grayson attended a wedding in 1973, Max Wall checked in in 1982, and Dad’s Army veteran Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey) was a vicar at the motel opening ceremony in 1964. The £10 million revamp in 2001 was bereft of many of the touchstones of the original, like the imperious Meg, or sad Sandy. Some of the original cast couldn’t reprise their roles because they had succumbed to cancer: Noele Gordon, in 1985; Roland Allen (David Hunter) in 1991; Ann George (Amy Turtle) in 1989; and Pamela Vezey, who played Kath Brownlow, in 1992.

And if the original cast was scarce, so, too, were many of the quirks that used to make it so endearingly popular. The sets no longer wobbled, the actors were better rehearsed and remembered their lines; and there was sex. ‘It was all great fun,’ laughs Jane Asher. ‘My character, Angel, was a real super bitch, deeply unpleasant to her staff and her children, ruthlessly ambitious and very glamorous. There was a lot of sex — we would all be exhausted if we had that much sex in real life — but we were quite discreet. It did go out at 5.30pm’. Not all the cast were happy about the adult content. Kathy Staff, who played cleaner Doris Luke in both the original series and the revival, left in dismay at the raunchy sex scenes. ‘It’s no longer a family-friendly show,’ she complained. She needn’t have worried. Viewing figures slumped to below 1.4 million, and after two years the revival was axed. Says Asher: ‘There were rumours that the company wanted to sell the studios in Nottingham where Crossroads was filmed.

Whatever the reason, we were surprised they didn’t give it enough time to build up a following. ‘My character was very glitzy and over the top. I didn’t have any input to the stories. I’d like to make that quite clear. They weren’t the most subtle of scripts, I have to say’. That’s one way of putting it. Another would be that Crosswords was the best worst TV show Britain has ever made. But despite it all, the show has lived on to enjoy a continuing repeat life on extra-terrestrial TV. However, the final indignity for the fictional motel is the derisory fees paid by the satellite channels for the re-showings: £1.25 per episode. 2002 Crossroads 'was all a dream' TV soap Crossroads ended on Friday, with the twist that the entire series had been a figment of a character's imagination.. The show, which was reinstated in 2001 after a 13-year hiatus, is being cancelled because of poor ratings.

The final episode saw the Crossroads hotel boss Angel (Jane Asher) realise her job had all been a dream - as she returned to her real-life job as a supermarket checkout assistant in Birmingham called Angela. "I've just woken up from an amazing dream and dreamt that I owned a hotel called Crossroads," she told a co-worker. Shortly afterwards the supermarket's staff were told the store was closing, and the lights went out on the show, with the final words being: "Oh, fudge." The dream ending echoes the end of one series of US drama Dallas, where Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) stepped out of a shower months after he was supposed to have been dead. His death turned out to be a dream. A Crossroads spokesman said before the show went out: "The final episode will tie up all the loose ends from all the outstanding storylines. "Then as a special twist at the end, the scene cuts to Angel checking through a floret of broccoli and chatting to the person on the next till. We hope to give our viewers a smile on their faces as the show finishes." Characters from the hotel turned out to be customers at the supermarket, including Angel's husband Max (Graham McGrath).

The soap returned to British screens in 2001 with hopes it would become ITV1's flagship daytime soap. The original Crossroads, which ran from 1964 to 1988, was seen as a TV institution, although wobbly sets were also part of the experience. But from a high of 3.2 million viewers when it first returned, ratings have continued to decline. Critics were unimpressed. The show underwent a recent revamp, designed to get rid of unpopular characters and give the soap a new direction. But the Crossroads hotel announced it was to close for good earlier this year. Another second daytime soap commissioned at the same time, Night and Day, limps on a late-night slot after also being axed. 50 years after its launch, fans are still devoted to Crossroads | Daily Mail Online comments The sets were famously wobbly, the characters notoriously flaky and the stories lurched from the unlikely to the downright bizarre. But the millions of viewers who checked in every weekday at the Crossroads motel for their five-times-a-week teatime fix couldn’t have cared less. They loved every shambolic moment of it — fluffed lines, mistakes and all.

Launched to fill a gap in the schedules 50 years ago, Crossroads ran for almost 5,000 episodes. Its first incarnation lasted until 1988, and it was revived — disastrously — for two years in 2001. The cast of Crossroads in the motel's reception in the 1970s with Noele Gordon, as Meg Richardson, fourth from left, as the motel matriarch At its peak in the Seventies, it pulled in 18 million viewers and was second only to Coronation Street. Its stars won viewers’ polls and showbiz awards. However, not everyone was so enthralled. ITV’s regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, twice ordered it to cut its output, first to four, then three, episodes a week to improve its quality. The chairman, Lady Plowden, lamented that Crossroads was ‘distressingly popular’. It is, however, sadly missed these days, not least by its stars. Jane Asher, who played the motel’s owner (and arch-bitch and sexual predator) Angel Samson, in the revived version, says she loved every minute of it.

RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share So much so, that she even posed in a bath of bubbles and discreetly placed rose petals, while sipping from a glass of Champagne to promote her motel. ‘It was an iconic soap and greatly under-appreciated’, she insists. ‘I watched the original as a teenager, and could easily have got hooked on it. But I was more a fan of The Archers on the radio. But by the second time around the show had really had its day’. Crossroads first opened its doors in November 1964 — set in the fictional King’s Oak, Birmingham, and charging guests £4 a night for each of its 18 rooms. The show, with the formidable Noele Gordon as the motel’s matriarch, Meg Richardson, was scheduled to run for 30 episodes over six weeks. It was an immediate hit with viewers in spite of its visibly cheap production values. Actress Ann George, who played cleaner Amy Turtle in the soap, which ran for almost 5,000 episodes The budget was reported to be only £10,000 for an entire week’s five episodes, compared with the same amount spent on each episode of rival Coronation Street.

The sets had been constructed out of flimsy canvas and board because they had never been meant to last for long. The highest-paid star was Gordon, whose salary was reportedly £200 a week. Some minor characters were persuaded to work for £10 an episode on the grounds that the show would be good exposure for them. With such a demanding schedule, there was little time for scripts to be re-written and polished, still less for rehearsal, so everything had to be filmed in one take. The expense of editing out mistakes was so great, given the tiny budget, that the producers ordered them to be left in. Jane Rossington, who was in the show for 24 years as Meg’s daughter, Jill, has the distinction of speaking the very first words in the opening episode, and the final words in the last, and remembers how many bloopers crept in. She recalls: ‘Noele would sometimes call me Jane, on camera, rather than by my character name, Jill, but there was no time or budget for re-takes. “Oh, no one will notice”, she’d insist.

‘I loved her, but she did speak her lines very slowly and sometimes I would wonder if she was ever going to finish a sentence!’ The story lines were equally erratic. Jill had an on-screen pregnancy that went on for over a year — and, to the shock of viewers, the father was her screen stepbrother. But after the baby was born, it was never mentioned again. The script called for her to marry three times — once bigamously — and to become a drug addict and an alcoholic. ‘Everything that could happen to a person happened to me’, she says, ‘but it was all terrific fun’. TV critics sneered — ‘amateurish pap,’ said one — but the show attracted viewers of all ages and a huge fan base. Indeed, the more absurd the plots became, the more they lapped it up. Meg survived regular murder attempts. Motel Lothario Adam Chance (Tony Adams) would try to seduce most of the female guests. Various members of the staff would go berserk with pots and pans and one of them, cleaner Amy Turtle (Ann George), was briefly arrested as a Russian spy named Amelia Turtlovski. Characters disappeared for months on end with little explanation.

Chef Shughie Mcfee (Angus Lennie) went behind the fridge for some ingredients and was gone for the rest of the year. OUT TAKE Victoria Wood says Mrs Overall in her sitcom Acorn Antiques, played by Julie Walters, was partly based on Amy Turtle. Deke Arlon, who played coffee-bar boss Benny Wilmott, was told by Meg to get some sugar. He exited the kitchen and was never seen again. Dim-witted handyman Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry), rarely seen without his iconic blue beanie, once went out for a spanner and returned six months later. He was beset with a litany of troubles: falsely accused of murdering his gipsy fiancee Maureen — killed on the morning of their wedding — he was then temporarily blinded and lost his best friend, Miss Diane, the manager (Sue Hanson), when she died of a brain haemorrhage. He subsequently commemorated her by naming his pet donkey after her. Motel manager David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen, was an incurable gambler for just one week in 1977, his son Chris was a part-time terrorist and his ex-wife Rosemary shot him.

But motel boss Meg had more than most to endure. One husband tried to kill her by painting the living room with poisonous emulsion and she lost another to a heart attack. Then viewers thought they’d lost her in a huge explosion at the motel. The big bang allowed them to start with a new set and motel, but Meg’s days were numbered. She was sacked in 1981, despite thousands of protests, including a petition from a Hell’s Angels chapter. In the story, she sailed off into retirement on an Australia-bound QE2. In reality, she believed she had become the victim of TV politics: The network’s bosses were said to want to ditch what they deemed to be downmarket shows like Crossroads in favour of ‘quality drama’. Without the soap’s most popular star, the show would lose viewers and thus give them an excuse to drop it, which is what happened. Actress Jane Asher, who played who played the motel's owner Angel Samson, in the revived version of Crossroads which ran for two years from 2001 Another character who was to come to a real untimely end was Meg’s son, Sandy, played by Roger Tonge.

He had intrigued viewers by apparently never growing any taller during his 17 years in the show, and retaining a perpetually breaking voice. The height problem was resolved when scriptwriters invented a car crash which obliged Sandy to spend the rest of his time at the motel in a wheelchair. In a case of life imitating art, Tonge really became confined to a wheelchair when he contracted Hodgkin’s Disease. He died aged 35 in 1981 — and Sandy was never mentioned again. Virtually anyone who appeared in the series automatically became the victim of some scriptwriter-inspired mishap within six months. There were poisonings, rapes, drug addiction, incest, abortions, nervous breakdowns, kidnapping and even the bomb which blew up the motel. That didn’t stop soon-to-be famous faces making brief appearances in the motel lobby. David Jason made his TV debut in Crossroads in 1966 as a crook; Elaine Paige checked in as a guest; and Malcolm McDowell was public relations consultant Crispin Ryder in 1965.

Ken Dodd played himself in 1973, Larry Grayson attended a wedding in 1973, Max Wall checked in in 1982, and Dad’s Army veteran Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey) was a vicar at the motel opening ceremony in 1964. Crossroads first opened its doors in November 1964, set in the fictional King's Oak, Birmingham, and charging guests £4 a night for each of its 18 rooms The £10 million revamp in 2001 was bereft of many of the touchstones of the original, like the imperious Meg, or sad Sandy. Some of the original cast couldn’t reprise their roles because they had succumbed to cancer: Noele Gordon, in 1985; Roland Allen (David Hunter) in 1991; Ann George (Amy Turtle) in 1989; and Pamela Vezey, who played Kath Brownlow, in 1992. And if the original cast was scarce, so, too, were many of the quirks that used to make it so endearingly popular.

Ronald Allen, right, who starred as David Hunter in the soap who was a shareholder of the Crossroads Motel The sets no longer wobbled, the actors were better rehearsed and remembered their lines; and there was sex. ‘It was all great fun,’ laughs Jane Asher. ‘My character, Angel, was a real super bitch, deeply unpleasant to her staff and her children, ruthlessly ambitious and very glamorous. There was a lot of sex — we would all be exhausted if we had that much sex in real life — but we were quite discreet. It did go out at 5.30pm’. Not all the cast were happy about the adult content. Kathy Staff, who played cleaner Doris Luke in both the original series and the revival, left in dismay at the raunchy sex scenes. ‘It’s no longer a family-friendly show,’ she complained. She needn’t have worried. Viewing figures slumped to below 1.4 million, and after two years the revival was axed. Says Asher: ‘There were rumours that the company wanted to sell the studios in Nottingham where Crossroads was filmed. Whatever the reason, we were surprised they didn’t give it enough time to build up a following.

‘My character was very glitzy and over the top. I didn’t have any input to the stories. I’d like to make that quite clear. They weren’t the most subtle of scripts, I have to say’. That’s one way of putting it. Another would be that Crosswords was the best worst TV show Britain has ever made. But despite it all, the show has lived on to enjoy a continuing repeat life on extra-terrestrial TV. However, the final indignity for the fictional motel is the derisory fees paid by the satellite channels for the re-showings: £1.25 per episode. Crossroads star to play Hancock « Express & Star PUBLISHED: April 2, 2010 11:39 am LAST UPDATED: April 2, 2010 12:59 pm Crossroads star to play Hancock The actor behind Crossroads legend Benny is to play legendary Brummie comedian Tony Hancock at the city’s Alexandra Theatre. Crossroads legend Benny is to take to the stage as legendary Brummie comedian Tony Hancock in a new play in the city’s Alexandra Theatre.

Entitled Hancock’s Finest Hour the show, which has been under development for two years, will be at the theatre from June 21-26. The play is set in Hancock’s dressing room while he awaits a TV interview. Paul Henry, who played handyman Benny in the Midlands soap, will portray the tortured genius, who committed suicide at the age of 44. Classically trained in Birmingham, Paul came up through the Rep system and is a great fan of Hancock. The shows in Birmingham are part of a national tour. Tickets for the play, directed by the award-winning Chris Hayes, cost £17.25 to £25.50 and are available on 0844 847 2294. For details, visit Fans of TV soap Crossroads mark ten years since its cancellation - Birmingham Mail “Crossroads Motel, Can I Help You?” It was the phrase which welcomed millions of viewers to the Midlands’ own soap opera as a trip to the fictional village of Kings Oak became a regular teatime treat.

Crossroads – famed for its wobbly scenery – ran for an initial 24 years from 1964 to 1988 and was revamped for the 21st century in 2001. But this year marks the tenth anniversary of the show - which attracted nine million viewers at its height - being laid to rest for good. Now fans are preparing to commemorate the landmark, which falls in May, while next year marks the 50th anniversary of the first episode’s broadcast. A spokesman for the Crossroads Appreciation Society, the show’s official fan club, said a number of special events were being planned. He said: “So many people have so many great memories of Crossroads. “The show’s reputation of being amateurish was totally undeserved. Those claims were an injustice and very hurtful. “At times there were groundbreaking storylines and the so-called wobbling scenery was no worse than anything seen in Coronation Street or EastEnders.” Taboo-breaking plots included actor Roger Tonge appearing in a wheelchair as the paraplegic son of hotel owner Meg Richardson.

There was also the 1983 test-tube baby heartbreak of garage mechanic Kevin and his wife Glenda, to say nothing of storylines touching on inter-racial relationships, rape and domestic violence. These were subjects that had not been touched on TV before, especially on a teatime family soap. The fan club said many of the show’s surviving cast members had been interviewed by a TV crew in advance of a possible special to mark the 50th anniversary. “It started off as a cheap teatime soap but became very polished,” the spokesman said. “When it finally ended it was almost as if they couldn’t wait to kill it off.” The show made a star of Birmingham actor Paul Henry, who played its best-loved character, simple-minded handyman Benny Hawkins. His influence even spread to the Falklands, where British troops serving in the 1982 conflict nicknamed the island residents “Bennies”. Instructed to stop using the name, they used “stills” instead – because the locals were “still Bennies.” And creations like Meg, son Sandy and daughter Jill, cleaner Amy Turtle and waitress “Miss” Diane Lawton offered an assortment of storylines that veered from the gripping to the plain ridiculous.

Bennie and Miss Dianne But there were real-life dramas among the cast to rival anything shown on screen. Crossroads matriarch Noele Gordon, who played motel owner Meg from the first scene in 1964, was written out of the soap in 1981. It caused a national outcry and a succession of changes to the show’s formula were introduced. Politicians of the day even voiced their disapproval. Stories began to revolve around new motel boss Nicola Freeman (Gabrielle Drake). Long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter (Ronald Allen and Sue Lloyd), were axed bringing more protests from viewers. In 1986, new producer William Smethurst, known as Butcher Bill after a controversial spell at the helm of radio soap The Archers, was brought in to freshen up the show. Favourites, such as Miss Diane and Benny, were also dropped. But the changes failed to save the series and it was axed for the first time in 1987. However it was sensationally revived in March, 2001, with ITV needing a replacement for Home and Away, lost to Channel Five.

Still taken from the earliest surviving episode of ITV soap, Crossroads The new Crossroads featured new sets, storylines and cast members headed by actress Jane Asher, who played bitchy motel boss Angel Samson. Original favourites were introduced, including Jane Rossington, Tony Adams and Kathy Staff. But Staff, who famously played Nora Batty in Last Of The Summer Wine, quit over the amount of sex in the scripts, claiming it was no longer the family-friendly show of years gone by. The brash new show was never out of the spotlight but traditional viewers steadily deserted it. New producer Yvonn Grace upset many regular fans by claiming the glitzy new version was targeted at the gay market, warning that it was the revived programme's “last chance.” The cast learned in early March, 2003, that Crossroads was set to check out of the ITV schedules for good and the last episode was broadcast on May 3 that year. Like us on Facebook Features: The Return of Crossroads as seen in the National Press CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE NEWS ARCHIVE HOME PAGE Here are just a few articles from the national press announcing the return of Crossroads to ITV after a 13 year absence.

"Return of Drossroads" by Kevin O' Sullivan ( The Mirror) The sets creaked, the actors struggled and the wafer-thin plots never thickened. For 24 long years, TV motel soap Crossroads ruled supreme as the nation's most-derided soap. But however much the critics snarled and sneered, its army of patient fans loved it. In its sixties heyday it pulled in 14 million viewers. And maybe that's why Carlton director of production Lord Waheed Alli confirmed yesterday that the series which was once a national joke is being lined up for a five-days-a-week teatime slot - 12 years after it was axed. Carlton want a home-grown soap to fill the slot left by Home and Away moving to Channel 5. The new Crossroads would be made in Nottingham, but Lord Alli said that this time it would probably be set in a hotel rather than a motel, adding: "we don't have motels any more, do we?" It seems we don't have many of the original actors either. The new show will be aimed at a young audience - which could be bad news for some of the original actors.

As suave Adam Chance, Tony Adams was a household name for more than a decade. But since Crossroads, Tony, 59, has scarcely worked in television at all. Nor has Jane Rossington, Tony's screen wife Jill and one of the soap's stalwarts for its entire 24-year run. But former Big Breakfast chief Alli reassured anxious fans by promising: "If Jane's interested, there will always be a role for her in the new Crossroads." The future is less certain for Paul Henry, who played famous dimwit Benny and was once voted "King of Soaps". But he has never been forgotten. "I must have received between 200 and 300 phone calls today from people telling me the show might return." says Paul, 54, who spent 12 years playing the simple odd-job man who seemed one bulb short of a full lighting set. "I just hope that if it does come back, there is a part for me. I had a wonderful time." Crossroads' biggest star was actress Noele Gordon, alias motel supremeo Meg Mortimer. The nation was shocked when the soap queen was axed in 1981. She died of Cancer four years later.

But there was life after Crossroads for Kathy Staff, who played Doris Luke. She went onto great success as the battleaxe Nora Batty in the BBC's Last Of The Summer Wine. The man who killed off the series when viewing figures slumped to four million, Central TV boss Andy Allen, is unrepentant. "I wrestled with it for a long, long time." He says. "But I felt Crossroads was losing its appeal - and I stand by my decision to end it." But fans have always blamed meddling producers for its decline. Tony Adams says: "A lot of people condemned Crossroads when they had only watched a few episodes. We used to shoot five episodes a week live, although it was not broadcast live. But, with no editing facilities, the mistakes used to stay in. That's why it was slated. I had lunch with Jane Rossington last week, and she said it carried a curse because of its bad reputation." ITV bosses plan to keep the famous theme tune, but it will be reworked to give it a thoroughly modern sound. There are plans to set up a money-spinning Coronation Street-style studio, open to the public.

A Carlton insider says: "With the right investment of money and talent there's no reason why Crossroads can't be just as popular as Coronation Street and Eastenders. Meanwhile the actors must wait and hope. Lord Alli says: "Apart from Jane's role, no other decisions have been made. Its a new programme and it will have new characters. But no one would want to alienate the fans who used to enjoy Crossroads in the past." Well, they wouldn't dare do it again.. would they? "Jane's back and she looks just Jill-iant" by Emily Smith (The Sun) Crossroads favourite Jane Rossington checks back in for the soap's remake - looking almost the same as she did 20 years ago. Jane, who helped launch the motel soap as Jill in 1964, is back on set for the ï¿½10million remake. The 57-year-old shared a joke with actor Luke Walker, who replaces loveable dimwit Benny Hawlkins as the new handyman. An insider said: "The new show will be a lot more young and sexy than the old version.

But we couldn't bring it back without Jane - and she still looks great." Jane added: "To be back as it is reborn is wonderful." Other old faces making a return include Tony Adams as Adam Chance and Kathy Staff - Nora Batty in Last Of The Summer Wine - as Chef Doris Luke. The soap, axed 12 years ago, is being shot in Redmile, Leics. It returns to ITV five times a week next spring "I know standards have improved on Crossroads... In the old series I was pregnant for over a year" by Stafford Hildred (The Sun) When Jane Rossington was in Crossroads the first time round, her character was pregnant for a YEAR. Now the telly soap famous for its wobbly sets and even wobblier storylines is back. But its bad old days are well and truly behind it, promise bosses. The infamous ITV series returns to British screens next month after a 13-year break and a ï¿½10million revamp. The relaunch sees Jane, who played Jill Richardson, among just three original cast members still working in the Midlands motel.

And the actress, who spoke the show's first lines in November 1964 as well as the last before it was axed in April 1988 cannot wait for the big day. Jane, now 57, admits corners were cut during the soaps first 24-year run. "There were only eight of us in the early episodes." She recalls. "People on set used to say, 'Its only Crossroads,' as if it didn't matter. It was very hard to work in that atmosphere." Jane reveals the show's writers even tried to work her real-life pregnancy into the script. But they ended up leaving her character carrying the child for over a year as her due date clashed with the ongoing plot. "Soap was a dirty word at the time we were taken off, Jane adds. "I admit I was disappointed, but it had almost become inevitable." "However, since then there has been an explosion of soaps. Millions of people used to love Crossroads and it's just fabulous that its returning. The new show is much pacier and in your face.

It has got this fabulous new set and loads of attractive youngsters in the cast so its brilliant to be back." The new faces include Toby Sawyer as waiter Tom Curtis, Gilly Gilchrist as chef Billy Taylor and hunky handyman Bradley Clarke - the new Benny - played by Luke Walker. The original Crossroads began life as a six-week serial called The Midland Road. It told the story of widower Meg Richardson - Jane's on screen mother - who turned the family home into a motel. As the years passed, characters came and went at bewildering speed. Chef Shughie McFee once went behind the fridge for some ingredients and did not return for six months. Deke Arlon, who played coffee bar boss, Benny Wilmott, said: "My last scene was in the motel with Meg. She said, 'Benny go out and get some sugar.' I was never seen again." And characters mysteriously disappearing were not the only problem. Peter Brookes, who played postman, Vince Parker, said: "In my very first episode everything went wrong and I had to make up my first line. I was supposed to try the post office door and find it locked.

Unfortunately the props man had forgotten to lock it and I fell through to face a startled postmistress. I muttered something like 'I'd keep that door locked if I were you,' and we just carried on." Anthony Morton, who played chef Carlos in the early shows added: "I once had a scene with Jane Rossington where I had to crack eggs into a bowl. The first egg was so rotten it was almost black. The smell was appalling but we just carried on. That was Crossroads." Despite its embarrassing reputation, Crossroads actually paved the way for more recent hard-hitting soaps including Eastenders and Brookside. The show boldly tackled controversial storylines ranging from alcoholism and rape to bigamy and test-tube pregnancies. Meg's son Sandy was the first handicapped character in a British soap, Joe McDonald was one of the first black stars and Down's Syndrome sufferer Nina Weill won the hearts of millions playing her part. The show also boasted a series of now famous names among its cast. Malcolm McDowell, Elaine Paige, Bob Monkhouse, Ken Dodd, Kate Robbins and Diane Keen were all among the early stars. Coronation Street's Johnny Briggs and Sue Nicholls also got their TV breaks on the set.

Even Only Fools And Horses funnyman David Jason put in appearances as a gardener. Producers claim the new Crossroads will be a world away from the old show, which ran for more than 4,500 episodes and pulled in 16 million viewers. The nasal Brummie accents have been ditched, along with the shaky props and on-set telephones that rang long after they were picked up. In their place is a gleaming four-star hotel, complete with Internet Cafï¿½, beauty salon, sauna and gym, all created inside huge Nottingham studios owned by the show's new producer Carlton TV. Designer Rod Stratford says: "This time we have gone for genuine hotel fittings and furniture. The reception area is huge, around 8,000 square feet and the bar area was inspired by the new Hilton hotel that's just opened nearby. The lifts aren't operated, as they once were, by a couple of guys with a rope. They're real, and not one of the walls will wobble, I promise you!" Former Crossroads favourites including Jane, Tony Adams and Kathy Staff will be joined by a glittering array of newcomers.

Central TV boss Charles Denton, who took the decision to axe her, found himself receiving hate mail, while angry Noele accused him of killing off the best-loved woman in Britain. The actress made a brief return in 1983 but died of Cancer three years later. Friends insist she never really recovered from the sacking. Former co-star Jane said: "Noele would be more pleased than anyone at the decision to bring back Crossroads. She loved the show and so do I." April 4, 1988: Crossroads Motel checks out as much-maligned soap is axed by ITV - BT April 4, 1988: Crossroads Motel checks out as much-maligned soap is axed by ITV After 24 years and more than 4,500 episodes, the doors to the Crossroads Motel slammed shut as the once popular ITV programme finally gave in to falling ratings. Print this story Crossroads, the daytime soap opera that spawned a thousand jokes but was at one time the most popular programme on British television, aired its final episode on this day in 1988.

The series, which had begun in 1964, centred around the goings-on in the Midlands motel of the same name. For most of its long run, the motel was owned and run by Meg Richardson (later Mortimer), played by Noele Gordon. Other popular and long-serving characters included the suave motel manager David Hunter (played by Ronald Allen), lugubrious cleaner Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), accountant and later manager Adam Chance (Tony Adams), and the somewhat dim-witted handyman Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry). Shot on a shoestring budget entirely in the studio, for some time the show was filmed ‘as live’ with no time for retakes or edits, occasionally allowing mistakes or fluffed lines to appear on screen. The resultant reputation for gaffes, the low production values and the cheap, occasionally wobbly sets made the series an easy target for stand-ups and comedy shows of the day; Victoria Wood’s affectionate spoof Acorn Antiques became one of her longest-running and best-loved sketches.

Despite this, Crossroads became immensely popular – second only in viewer ratings to Coronation Street for most of the 1970s, and very occasionally taking the top spot; 15 million tuned in to watch Meg marry Hugh Mortimer in 1975. After Gordon’s character was axed in 1981, ratings began to fall; a switch in production companies from ATV to Central Television led to further unpopular changes in plot and characters, and the show was finally brought to a halt, after more than 4,500 episodes, at Easter 1988. Were you a fan of Crossroads? What are your memories of the series? Let us know in the Comments section below. Crossroads – Did you know? The show’s original central plotline had Meg Richardson feuding with her less-successful sister Kitty Jarvis; this idea was watered down due to the popularity of Noele Gordon in the role of Meg. The budget for the show in its early years was so small that some cast members ended up wearing their own clothes on-screen.

The memorable theme tune was composed by TV stalwart Tony Hatch; a version by Paul McCartney and Wings would occasionally be used in the closing credits of any episode with a particularly dramatic ending. Thames TV, who took over the independent television franchise for London in 1968, initially refused to buy Crossroads. They changed their minds early in 1969, but for several years London viewers saw episodes six months later than most of the country. The series originally aired on five days a week, but in order to improve its quality the Independent Broadcasting Authority demanded a cut to four episodes a week in 1967, then three in 1980. Towards the series' close, ITV pruned this even further to twice a week. The bobble-hatted Benny Hawkins proved incredibly popular; however, Falkland Islanders were less than happy to be dubbed “Bennies” by soldiers who came up with the unflattering nickname for them during the 1982 crisis.

The series often featured storylines considered controversial for the time; it also boasted the first paraplegic main character in a UK soap, when Meg’s son Sandy Richardson (Roger Tonge - pictured above with his screen mother) was permanently injured in a car accident. The series was briefly revived by Carlton Television, set in a much grander four-star hotel and with a largely new cast, in 2001. It lasted just over two years before being axed. Crossroads (soap opera) - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos Crossroads (soap opera) NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE Website Crossroads was a British television soap opera that ran on ITV . Set in a fictional motel (later a hotel) in the Midlands in England, Crossroads became a byword for cheap production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite this, the series regularly attracted huge audiences during this time, with ratings as high as 15 million viewers.

[1] It was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling and produced by ATV (until the end of 1981) and then by ATV's successor, Central Independent Television until 1988. The series was revived by Carlton Television in 2001, however due to low ratings it was cancelled again in 2003. Contents 1964–1988[ edit ] The original premise of Crossroads was based around two feuding sisters, Kitty Jarvis (Beryl Johnstone) and Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon). [2] Meg was a wealthy woman who, with the help of her late husband Charles's insurance money and compensation money from the council for them building a motorway through their land, turned her large Georgian house into a motel. "The Crossroads Motel" was located on the outskirts of the small village of King's Oak, which was on the outskirts of Birmingham. With Charles, Meg had two children. The elder was a girl named Jill (born 1946) followed by Alexander (known as Sandy) in 1950. Kitty, on the other hand, was married to the unemployed Dick and was not wealthy.

Dick and Kitty bought a newsagents and tobacconists shop in the nearby town of Heathbury a few years after the show started. Kitty and Dick had a son called Brian, born in 1945. The idea of the sisters feuding was soon dropped. The show had several characters in its early years. They included Meg and Kitty's brother, Andy Fraser, who became engaged and later married to motel secretary Ruth Bailey in 1965. Hotel chef Carlos Raphael and his wife Josefina who was a waitress along with Marilyn Gates. Kitchen assistant Amy Turtle , later briefly arrested as a suspected Soviet spy, [3] joined the series in 1965 as did postmistress Miss Edith Tatum. Also featured was motel handyman and groundsman Philip Winter. Long running character Diane Lawton arrived in 1966. Other additions included Meg's close friend, former actress, Tish Hope; the suave manager and later motel director David Hunter; his first wife Rosemary and son Chris and his second wife Barbara; chefs Mr. Lovejoy, Mr.

Booth and Shughie McFee; hairdresser Vera Downend; the Harvey family, consisting of father Wilf and his grown children Stan and Sheila; accountant and later motel manager Adam Chance; and cleaner Doris Luke. Perhaps the most memorable character proved to be the "village idiot" Benny Hawkins, whose trademark was a woolly hat worn all year round. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed the Falkland Islanders "Bennies" after the character. [4] Instructed to stop using the name, the troops came up with "Stills" for locals - because they were "still Bennies". [5] Over the years the series dealt with storylines which were controversial for the times. A single parent working at the motel seems staid now, but was hugely controversial in the mid-1960s; Sandy Richardson was injured in a car accident in 1972 and need to use a wheelchair, the first paraplegic regular character portrayed in British soap opera. This permanent character development was made to accommodate actor Roger Tonge who had been developing increasing ill health.

In the months running up to the character's accident, Tonge had become increasingly immobile and was limited in scenes to sitting, lying in bed or standing rigidly still. Rather than lose the character, the accident storyline allowed the actor to use his wheelchair on screen. The series also saw black characters appearing regularly - a follow-on from the 1960s BBC soap Compact , also created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling. Melanie Harper (played by Cleo Sylvestre ) arrived at the motel in 1970 as Meg's foster daughter (itself a taboo issue). Cleo was given the role by producer Reg Watson after press coverage of racial tensions in the Birmingham area at that time. [6] In 1978, garage mechanic Joe MacDonald (played by Carl Andrews ) arrived. The year before, an inter-racial summer romance took place between Cockney garage mechanic, Dennis Harper (played by Merlin Ward, but credited as Guy Ward), and motel receptionist Meena Chaudri (Karan David).

1981 saw a highly controversial storyline about a false accusation of rape; a 1983 storyline saw a test tube baby born to Glenda and Kevin Banks (played by Lynette McMorrough and David Moran). The subject of Down syndrome was also raised in 1983 with an insight into the life of Nina Weill, [7] a little girl who, as Nina Paget, was befriended by three of the regular Crossroads characters. The character of Meg Mortimer was axed in 1981 and was thought to have died in a fire that gutted the motel, but turned up alive aboard the QE2 , about to sail to a new life overseas. Newspapers reported that two endings were planned for Meg - one that she would die in the fire, the other would have her disappear for a while and turn up on the QE2. Viewers were surprised to see producers had used both. Meg returned briefly in 1983 for a reunion with Jill and Adam on their honeymoon in Venice. In 1985, new producer Phillip Bowman was planning to bring the character of Meg Mortimer back into the show as a "permanent occasional".

Plans were well advanced and scripts were written when Noele Gordon died in April of that year, aged 65. Edward Clayton was brought back as Jill's ex-husband Stan Harvey to read the lines originally written for Gordon. 2001–2003[ edit ] With the revival in 2001, changes were made to characters and stories. The returning character of Jill Chance had married John Maddingham and widowed, but was calling herself Jill Harvey again, the name by which she had been known prior to her marriage to Adam Chance in 1983. References were also made to the Russell family taking over a "failing motel", despite Crossroads having become a hotel in the late 1980s; in the final episode of the original series, the name 'King's Oak Country Hotel' was seen over the entrance doors. Lack of real links to the past, and the killing of Jill a few months into the new run, turned many fans away. Popular characters in the new Crossroads included new owner Kate Russell (Jane Gurnett), supercilious receptionist Virginia Raven ( Sherrie Hewson ), and womanising deputy manager Jake Booth ( Colin Wells ).

The storyline of the final episode was the revelation that the revived series and glamorous hotel had been a dream of supermarket worker and Crossroads fan Angela, with all the other characters revealed as shoppers. Angela even approaches a female customer in the supermarket and tells her she recognises her as "Tracey Booth from Crossroads". Tracey's mother-in-law, Kate, was also shown as one of Angela's colleagues in the supermarket. ATV era[ edit ] Crossroads title sequence (1969) Crossroads began its run on Monday 2 November 1964 and was first shown five days a week. The episodes were then recorded "as live", a very common practice at the time, with very limited opportunities for retakes. Within a few months, 10 of the ITV companies had started broadcasting the series, though Granada never screened it during the 1960s. The Independent Television Authority (ITA) decreed in 1967 that Crossroads should be reduced in frequency to four episodes per week to improve its quality.

[2] The series was widely derided by critics who criticised the wobbly sets and fluffed lines, but gained many fans, most famously Prime Minister Harold Wilson 's wife Mary who complained when the newly formed Thames Television (the franchisee for the London area), decided to stop showing the series in 1968. The decision proved unpopular with viewers and was reversed six months later, although initially it was placed in a late afternoon slot [8] but, as a result of the gap in transmissions, viewers in the Thames region were about six months behind the rest of the country for several years. [2] Crossroads was not fully networked until 1972, [8] when Granada, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire took it. (Each ITV station was able to broadcast the episodes at different times on the same day). Though by the early 1970s it was second only to Coronation Street in the ratings [9] it did, occasionally, in the mid-1970s beat Coronation Street gaining audiences of up to 15 million viewers during the decade.

[7] In 1979, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) - then commercial television's regulator - decided production should be reduced further to three episodes a week from April 1980, with the chairman of the IBA Lady Plowden reportedly [10] describing the soap opera as "distressingly popular". [11] ATV planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called A Family Affair, [12] but this idea was dropped. Series star Noele Gordon , who played matriarch Meg Richardson, regularly won the TV Times Most Popular Female Personality viewers award during the 1970s. [3] Viewers reacted negatively at the dismissal of Gordon in 1981, an action taken by head of programming Charles Denton who became a "national hate figure". [13] The series producer Jack Barton agreed with Denton, thinking that Gordon's character had become too dominant, [7] but the episode gained heavy coverage in the press for some time.

[14] Central era[ edit ] Crossroads Kings Oak title sequence (1987–1988) ATV, having lost its ITV franchise at the end of 1980, was ordered by the IBA to reform into Central Independent Television , which took over the franchise on 1 January 1982, and was thought to show limited enthusiasm for the programmes it inherited. [15] Further changes were introduced in March 1985, when new filming locations, sets and characters were introduced. Many storylines began to revolve around the new motel owner, Nicola Freeman (played by Gabrielle Drake ). More long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed. The theme tune was also updated, and the opening titles replaced with a longer version. Finally, the show was renamed Crossroads Motel - although this fact was never formally announced by the show's production team and the word "Motel" was simply incorporated into the opening titles. In 1986, a new producer, William Smethurst, took over following the sacking of his predecessor, Philip Bowman.

Smethurst, who had been brought in by Central Television's new head of drama, Ted Childs , ordered changes, aimed at creating a wittier, more upmarket serial, and at improving the production values of the show. Smethurst shifted the narrative centre to the nearby village of King's Oak. Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter and Benny Hawkins, were dropped; as with earlier changes, this was unpopular with viewers, who telephoned Central in protest. Smethurst gained the nickname "Butcher Bill" but was unfazed; he had, after all, reversed the declining fortunes of the BBC radio soap The Archers . Smethurst insisted he only got the flak because his was the name the public knew. [16] Michelle Buck guided the show through its final few months on air as series producer, with William Smethurst still on hand as executive producer. Further changes included the series being renamed Crossroads Kings Oak for a time, with the intention in the future of shortening this to merely Kings Oak. Also, the familiar theme tune was replaced by a new theme composed by Max Early and Raf Ravenscroft.

New titles were introduced to accompany the new theme, which featured stills of King's Oak and the new King's Oak Country Hotel. However, this final change was overtaken by the decision in June 1987 by Andy Allen, Central's director of programmes, to axe the series. In January 1988, the series was reduced to only two episodes a week, with Crossroads King's Oak finally coming to an end on 4 April 1988 (the Easter bank holiday ). The last, extended episode saw the character of Jill ( Jane Rossington ) riding off with her lover, John Maddingham ( Jeremy Nicholas ). Asked what name she would give the hotel she would be running in her new life, the character remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name". Carlton era[ edit ] Crossroads title sequence (2001–2002) In April 2000, Carlton Television announced that they would be reviving Crossroads for the daytime slot on ITV.

The first revived episode was broadcast on 5 March 2001 with a glossy format (Carlton having bought Central back in 1993) to the surprise of the wider media. [17] The revived series was sponsored by washing detergent, Surf and was broadcast each weekday at 1.30pm and 5.05pm on ITV , with a Sunday omnibus on ITV2 . The revived series was also broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One and in New Zealand on TV One . Four characters from the original series returned: Doris Luke ( Kathy Staff ), Jill Harvey ( née Richardson), Jill's ex-husband Adam Chance ( Tony Adams ), and Jill's daughter Sarah-Jane Harvey (Joanne Farrell/Holly Newman). Initial reactions were favourable; [18] however, changes in story from the original were puzzling for fans and did not help ratings. Kathy Staff left in dismay at the amount of sex, [19] and told ITV Teletext she felt it was no longer the family-friendly show she had originally been part of.

The decision to kill original character Jill Harvey, who was murdered by ex-husband Adam Chance three months into the series' revival, proved unpopular with fans of the original show. [20] Jane Rossington said she did not want to commit herself to another long run in the show, but warned Carlton it would be suicidal to kill Jill. [20] Jane Asher appeared in Crossroads as Angel Samson in 2003 Episode 137 of the second series remains the only episode never to be shown in full on ITV . The lunchtime screening on Tuesday 11 September 2001 began at 14:10 BST. At the halfway commercial-break point however, the programme was interrupted to hand over to ITV News for then very sketchy details of the developing situation in the USA . As the afternoon went on and the seriousness of the situation became clear, all ITV Network daytime programmes, starting with CITV transmissions at 15:15, were relegated to Digital Terrestrial Television channel ITV2 to continue rolling news coverage. The semi-dropped episode was therefore transmitted in full on ITV2 at 17:30 BST.

However, at the time, the channel was only available to a small number of viewers able to view the subscription-based ITV Digital , Telewest or NTL . As a result, the episode remains unseen by most of the programme's regular fanbase, including the entire Channel Islands who could not receive ITV Digital. A short re-cap of events in Episode 137 was screened before both the 14:10 and 17:05 showings of Episode 138 on 12 September 2001. The episode was included in the Omnibus edition that Sunday; again, however, this only went out on ITV2 . The series was reduced to four episodes a week from November 2001 until January 2002. The series went into a hiatus from August 2002 to January 2003, during which time further changes were made. The remodelled series, under producer Yvon Grace, appeared to be a self-consciously camp parody, with Jane Asher playing a new central character - the glamorous and bitchy Angel Samson.

[21] The series also featured appearances from Kate O'Mara , and people associated with light entertainment , such as Lionel Blair , Les Dennis and Tim Brooke-Taylor . The revived series also launched the careers of Freema Agyeman ( Doctor Who , Law & Order: UK ), Luke Roberts ( Holby City and Mile High ), Lucy Pargeter , Shauna Shim and Jessica Fox . Yvon Grace admitted she was aiming the new Crossroads towards the LGBT TV audience, but fans were not happy with her ambivalence towards unresolved storylines from the 2001-2002 run. [22] Plans were in place to bring Adam Chance back on a three-month contract in a last attempt to bring in more viewers; actor Tony Adams said that a down-on-his luck Adam would have been taken under Angel's wing as her personal assistant. [23] With ratings continuing to decline, the revived series was also axed in March 2003, [24] with the final episode being broadcast on Friday 30 May 2003.

The 2003 series was criticised by fans who felt the series had moved away from the 1964-88 series and the 2001-02 series, as well as being "too gay". Later, Jane Asher apologised to fans as a result of the way the 2003 series went. [25] Theme tune[ edit ] The Crossroads theme tune was composed by Tony Hatch . In 2004 Hatch said: "The budget for the music was low and it would have to be recorded in a TV studio in Birmingham - not the perfect acoustic conditions in comparison with the dedicated music recording studios I was used to. ... The original theme was actually two tunes. Each one represented one of the families and these tunes could be played separately or, because they shared the same chord sequence, together in counterpoint with each other. ... As the budget was small I decided to use a small rhythm section plus a harp and feature the first theme on a 12-string guitar with the second theme played on the oboe.

Right at the beginning I put the famous 9-note motif - the call-sign which gets the family in front of the TV set." [26] A selection of cues were recorded, including Meg's Theme which eventually became the standard opening theme, Kitty's Theme which was phased out as action focussed on the motel, the closing theme which combined both Meg's and Kitty's themes, and a variety of background pieces. A rerecording by The Tony Hatch Sound was issued as a single by Pye Records in 1965. A special arrangement of the theme by Paul McCartney and Wings , was also used from the late seventies, usually when an episode ended with a dramatic event. Central Independent Television 's head of music Johnny Patrick rearranged the tune in 1985 for piano and synthesiser, upon the show's relaunch as Crossroads Motel by producer Philip Bowman. Following William Smethurst's arrival as producer in 1987, this recording was overdubbed with added synthesisers. An entirely new theme aired in late 1987 when the series was relaunched as Crossroads, Kings Oak, composed by Johnny Patrick , with Raf Ravenscroft and Max Early, with the CBSO .

This later formed the basis of the single released by actress Shona Linsdey, "Goodbye", to commemorate the end of the show in 1988. The 2001 revival brought back the original Tony Hatch theme, this time arranged and performed by Tony Flynn . Another version, in 2003, was arranged by Patrick Dineen and performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic . Locations[ edit ] The fictional Crossroads Motel was in an equally fictional village near Birmingham, Kings Oak (there are real suburbs in south-west Birmingham called Kings Heath , Kings Norton and Selly Oak ). A number of real-life hotels doubled for location filming; it is stated in the 1982 Crossroads Special that the Longshoot Motel (Nuneaton) was used as a 'blueprint' in designing the motel and it is likely that some scenes were filmed there during the run of the series. Kings Oak In 1970, the series gained a film unit, giving it the freedom to do location shooting. Originally, Tanworth-in-Arden was used for King's Oak, although outside scenes were only occasionally used. Under Central, more location shooting began to be featured.

Some early King's Oak location material was also filmed in Wolverhampton . The most famous location - as seen in the programme during the 1960s and 1970s was not a motel at all, but an agricultural college in Shropshire . It has also been suggested that Crossroads was filmed at a 1960s motel on Stratford Road in Alcester Warwickshire called CherryTrees (the buildings were demolished in 2001 and a care home was built), however it was a nearby petrol station (now closed) that was used in the early 1980s for filming a couple of outdoor scenes of the Crossroads garage. After the in-story destruction of the motel by fire, the revamped motel was filmed from 1982 at the Golden Valley Hotel in Cheltenham ; [27] from 1985 filming moved to the Penns Hall Hotel (now Ramada Jarvis Birmingham) in Sutton Coldfield , the changed appearance explained as being due to rebuilding. At the time of the move to Sutton Coldfield, new studio sets were also introduced.

Other locations included the canal (including Gas Street Basin ) behind the studios in Birmingham; in-story this was the King's Oak Canal, on which Vera had a barge. The Chateau Impney Hotel also featured numerous times, most famously when Hugh proposed to Meg in 1973, and it was used to hold their wedding party two years later. The Chateau Impney was renamed the Droitwich Hotel on-screen. St Laurence's Church in Alvechurch was the setting for Jill and Adam Chance's wedding in 1983. Hagley Hall was used for the wedding reception. Helios Health Club based in Brierley Hill was used as the location for the Motel Health Club, filmed on Mondays when the health club was closed. In 1985, Crossroads gained its first set of full length opening titles, filmed around Sutton Coldfield , Tanworth-in-Arden and in Birmingham city centre . The revived Crossroads from 2001 was still set in the West Midlands ; however, exterior shots were filmed at locations in and around Nottingham , such as Bingham and Redmile .

The original series was recorded at ATV's/Central's Broad Street studios in Birmingham , while the revived series was filmed at Carlton Studios in Nottingham . Critical reception[ edit ] Despite the popularity of Crossroads with the viewing public, the show was often criticised by TV reviewers and ridiculed by British comedians. [1] Television historian Hilary Kingsley stated that Crossroads never failed "to provide its critics with ammunition. Some of the acting would have disgraced the humblest of village halls; many of the plots were so farcical they could have been written in a bad dream, and much of the dialogue was pathetic." [1] The Guinness Book of Classic British TV noted that "Crossroads was the series that no-one seemed to love. Yet at its peak, it was watched by more viewers than any other soap except Coronation Street ." [1] The revived series also received mixed reviews from critics. [28] [29] Acorn Antiques[ edit ] Spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques , created by comedian Victoria Wood as part of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV , is a deliberate parody of Crossroads.

[30] The final episode of As Seen on TV in 1987 features a hoax documentary, 'The Making of Acorn Antiques', in which the actress playing Mrs Overall ( Julie Walters ) - a character based on Crossroads' Amy Turtle - is revealed as a rather grand character who considers herself a huge star. This portrayal, plus a later pretend news item in which it is revealed she has been sacked from the show, both suggest the actress character (later given the name Bo Beaumont in the musical based on the sketches) is based on Noele Gordon, with Bo making her 'goodbye' appearance to the press in headscarf and large sunglasses and making a dramatic speech, just as Gordon did. DVD release[ edit ] Very few recordings officially exist of episodes broadcast before the end of 1981 [31] because ATV wiped and re-used most of the videotapes , and no episode survives before no.126 from April 1965.

Network DVD issued four volumes of the series on DVD (UK Region 2) in 2005, with 12 of the original ATV episodes in each volume (the first release including Meg's 1975 wedding, the highest rated episode). The third release was delayed due to the loss of ATV documents listing which episodes still exist, and Granada Television staff having to use other resources to locate episodes. Crossroads Volume 3 was released on 26 February 2007. There are two versions of the DVD, one being a special limited edition, which contains an extra third disc - featuring recently found episodes from 1976. Crossroads Volume 4 was released on 17 September 2007. Network DVD was in the process of releasing all the surviving episodes in transmission order exclusively through its website. The first set of 16 episodes was released in January 2008 and contained some episodes not previously available on earlier DVD releases. There are apparently 1,700 episodes of Crossroads in existence; most of these are from Central Television 's run of the show from 1982 to 1988.

Over 20 archive volumes of Crossroads, "with each and every surviving episode in transmission order", have been released so far, with Crossroads Archive Volume 20 the most recently released, in April 2009. On 2 November 2009, to coincide with the show's 45th anniversary, Network DVD re-released the 21 volumes - including Volume 1.1, see below - in a 41-disc box-set. The move angered some fans who had already bought the individual volumes on their original release. A black and white Crossroads Archive Volume 1.1 has also been released, containing the episode from April 1965, along with 2 further episodes (nos. 1884 and 1886 from March 1973, which were both originally made in colour but now survive only as black and white telerecordings ). Repeats[ edit ] From 1996 until 2001, episodes of the original series were repeated on UKTV channel, UK Gold .

Since 2015, the original series has aired on Big Centre TV on Freeview channel 8 in the Midlands or available online live at 9.00pm each evening Monday to Saturday, which can also be watched on the catchup service free. Comic strip[ edit ] Crossroads was adapted into a weekly comic strip in 1972 by Dutch comics artist Alfred Mazure , published in TVTimes . [32]

Question: What was the first name of the handyman played by Paul Henry in the t.v. soap 'Crossroads'?
Answer: 'BENNY'