Crossroads (TV series)

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Crossroads
Crossroads DVD cover.
Genre	Drama
Creator(s)	Hazel Adair, Peter Ling
Starring	Noele Gordon, Jane Rossington, Roger Tonge, Ronald Allen, Sue Lloyd, Susan Hanson, Paul Henry, Ann George, Tony Adams, Kathy Staff, Gabrielle Drake, Terence Rigby
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	4510
Production
Running time	30
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Original run	1964 – 1988
Links
IMDb profile

Crossroads is a British television soap opera set in a motel near Birmingham, England. Originally broadcast on the commercial ITV network between 1964 and 1988, it was produced first by ATV (until the end of 1981) and then by Central. A byword for cheap production values (particularly in the 1970s and 1980s), the series was revived in a glossier format in 2001 by Carlton Television; however, this revival failed to achieve the popularity of the original, and came to an end in 2003.

The original series was briefly known as Crossroads Kings Oak in the last year of its run.

[edit] Production history

[edit] ATV era (1964-1981)

Crossroads was first aired on Monday, November 2, 1964, and was initially shown on five days a week. Although popular with viewers, the Independent Television Authority (ITA) decreed in 1967 that the series should be reduced to four airings a week, to prevent storylines from being watered-down, and in an attempt to improve the overall programme quality. In 1979 the decision was taken to reduce output further, down to three weekly showings (beginning the following year). ATV had planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called A Family Affair^[1] but this ideas was dropped with the arrival of Margaret Matheson as the new Head of Drama.

Despite being critically derided for its low production values and far-fetched scripts, Crossroads nevertheless was hugely popular (with high profile fans including Mary Wilson, the wife of the prime minister, Harold Wilson), and maintained high ratings and a loyal audience throughout the course of its original run. However, a number of regional companies (particularly the newer ones) were to drop the series because of its poor reputation. For example, the newly-formed Thames Television, the franchise company for the London area, decided in 1968 to stop showing the series. This decision was deeply unpopular with its viewers (with complaints reportedly including one from Harold Wilson); six months later the decision was reversed, but a practical consequence was that viewers in the Thames region were half a year behind the rest of the country for several years to come. Another example occurred in the north of England, where some viewers living in the east of the Granada region (which wasn't broadcasting the series) were reported to have redirected their aerials to receive coverage from Yorkshire Television (who were).

[edit] Central era (1982-1988)

The Crossroads Cast, 1982

ATV lost its broadcast franchise at the end of 1981. The new franchisee, Central Independent Television, continued production of Crossroads, but the new management decided to make a number of controversial changes; the most notable of these was the dismissal of Noele Gordon (Meg Richardson) from the cast.

Further radical changes were carried out in March 1985, when new filming locations and sets, and various new characters, were introduced. Many of the storylines were to now revolve around the new motel owner, Nicola Freeman (Gabrielle Drake). More long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed. The theme tune was also updated, and the opening titles were replaced with a longer version. Finally, the show was renamed Crossroads Motel.

In 1987, a new producer, William Smethurst took over the series. Ordered to change the soap into a wittier, more upmarket serial, he decided to shift the focus onto the nearby village of King's Oak. Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter and Benny Hawkins, were dropped; as with the earlier changes, this was unpopular with the series' fans, who flooded Central's telephone lines in protest. Further changes were planned, with the series being renamed Crossroads King's Oak for a time before an intended final change to King's Oak, with the name Crossroads being permanently dropped both from the series name and in-story. However, this final change was overtaken by the decision, announced in June, 1987, to axe the series completely.

Crossroads King's Oak finally came to an end in 1988. The last, specially extended, episode was broadcast on April 4 (a bank holiday), with the Crossroads hotel finally becoming "The King's Oak Country Hotel", and the character of Jill riding off into the sunset with her lover, John Maddingham (Jeremy Nicholas). Asked what name she would give the hotel she was to be running in her new life, the character remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name".

[edit] Carlton revival (2001-2003)

Crossroads was revived in March 2001 as a Carlton Television production with a glossy format (Carlton having bought Central and acquired the rights to all ATV programmes). Broadcast at 5pm on weekdays on ITV1, the only familiar characters to return from the original series were those of the cleaner Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), Jill Richardson (Harvey), and her ex-husband Adam Chance (Tony Adams). Initial reactions from the critics were favourable; however, changes in story continuity from the original were puzzling for fans of the latter, and didn't help in the revived series struggle for ratings.

The series went into hiatus from August 2002 to January 2003; when it returned, it had undergone yet further changes. The re-modelled series appeared to be a self-consciously camp parody, with Jane Asher cast as a new central character, the glamorous and bitchy Angel Samson. The series also featured guest appearances from Kate O'Mara, and people more generally associated with light entertainment, such as Lionel Blair, Les Dennis, and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

With ratings continuing to decline, the revived series was also axed, with the final episode being broadcast in May 2003.

[edit] Characters and storylines

The main character in the original series was motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. Meg's children were also to play a prominent role: Jill, played by Jane Rossington; and Sandy, played by Roger Tonge.

Other major characters during the early years of the show included the chef, Carlos Raphael (Anthony Morton); the postman, Constance Merrow, (Geraldine Newman), Vince Parker (Peter Brookes), and his waitress wife, Diane (Susan Hanson); Brummie waitress Marilyn Gates (Sue Nicholls); postmistress Miss Tatum (Elisabeth Croft); charlady Amy Turtle (Ann George).

Amy Turtle was later to be satirised by Julie Walters as "Mrs Overall" in the Victoria Wood's 1985 spoof Acorn Antiques. However, Crossroads fans generally felt that whilst Mrs Overall's fluffing of her lines and position as char at the antiques shop were based on Amy, the character's mannerisms, voice and clothing were far more evocative of Charmian Eyre's character Mavis Hooper (who appeared in the series from 1981 to 1985).

Later additions to the cast included Ronald Allen as the suave manager David Hunter, Sue Lloyd as his wife Barbara, Angus Lennie as obstreperous Scottish chef Shughie McFee, Zeph Gladstone as hairdresser Vera Downend, Tony Adams as accountant Adam Chance, and Kathy Staff as cleaner Doris Luke. However, the most memorable character by far proved to be the village-idiot character Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry), whose trademark was a woolly hat worn all year around. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed the Falkland Islanders "Bennies" after the character. (Instructed to stop using the derogatory nickname, the troops then came up with the term "Stills" for the locals - because they were "still Bennies".)

Over time the series dealt with a number of storylines that were controversial for their time. Sandy Richardson was injured in a car accident and left confined to a wheelchair, becoming the first paraplegic regular character in British soap opera; by coincidence the actor (Roger Tonge) himself ended up in a wheelchair as the 1970s progressed. The series also saw the first black character to appear regularly in a British soap (garage mechanic Joe MacDonald, played by Carl Andrews), as well as an intense inter-racial summer romance in 1977 between cockney garage mechanic, Dennis Harper (played by Merlin Ward but credited as Guy Ward) and motel receptionist Meena Chaudri (Karan David). Another storyline saw a test tube baby being born to Glenda and Kevin Banks (played by Lynette McMorrough and David Moran respectively).

The character of Meg, axed in 1981, was initially thought to have died in a fire that gutted the motel, but later turned up alive aboard the QE2, about to sail away to a new life overseas.

With the revival of the series in 2001 a number of changes were made to character and story continuity. Confusingly for fans, the returning character of Jill Chance had apparently married the now-dead John Maddingham, but was now calling herself "Jill Harvey" again, the name by which she'd 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, "King's Oak Country Hotel" was even to be clearly seen emblazoned over the entrance doors.

Lack of any real links to the past and the killing of Jill just a few months into the run turned many fans of the original series away. Despite this, the series did pick up a respectable number of viewers to become one of ITV's highest rating daytime shows. 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 glamorous hotel had been (literally) a dream of supermarket worker Angela, with all of the other characters being revealed to be just ordinary shoppers. Angela even approaches a female customer in the supermarket and tells her that she recognises her as Tracey (Booth) from the "TV soap Crossroads"; confusingly, Tracey's mother-in-law, Kate, was also shown as one of Angela's colleagues in the supermarket.

[edit] Locations

'Kings Oak'sign

The fictional "Crossroads Motel" was located in an equally fictional village near Birmingham, "Kings Oak" (there are real Birmingham suburbs called Kings Heath, Kings Norton and Selly Oak). A number of real-life hotels doubled up for location filming; the original Crossroads was filmed at a real motel just south of Birmingham city centre called CherryTrees (the buildings made famous by Crossroads were demolished in 2001). After the in-story destruction of the motel by fire, the revamped motel was filmed from 1982 at The Golden Valley Hotel, in Cheltenham; from 1985 filming moved to the Penns Hall Hotel, in Sutton Coldfield, with the changed appearance was explained in-story as due to major rebuilding work. At the time of the move to Sutton Coldfield new studio sets were also introduced.

In 1970 the series gained the use of 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 used occasionally. Under Central much more location footage began to be used. Some early King's Oak location material was also filmed in Wolverhampton.

Other locations included the canal (including Gas Street Basin) directly behind ATV's former studios in Birmingham City Centre; in-story this was the "King's Oak Canal", on which Jill had a barge. The Chateau Impney Hotel also featured numerous times, most famously when Hugh proposed to Meg there in 1973, and it was also used to hold their wedding party two years later. The Chateau Impney was renamed the "Droitwich Hotel" on-screen. Hagley Church was the setting for Jill and Adam Chance's wedding in 1983. Hagley Hall was used for the wedding reception afterwards.

In 1985 Crossroads gained its first set of 'full length' opening titles, which were filmed around Sutton Coldfield and in Birmingham city centre.

[edit] Trivia

• During its original run the show was usually only 20 minutes long excluding commercials. To save time, there was no opening title sequence, simply a title caption superimposed over the start of the first scene, accompanied by a brief snatch of the theme music.
• The show's closing titles originally consisted of two superimposed roller captions, one vertical and one horizontal. As one credit would roll off screen vertically the next would roll on horizontally, and vice-versa, thus symbolising the show's title.
• Until the mid- 1980s the show would always end with a brief post-credits scene in which a character would speak a single line of dramatic dialogue, before the final bar of the theme tune played over the closing ATV/Central logo.
• In the 70s, Wings recorded an alternative arrangement of the show's theme music which was meant to be played over the closing credits whenever the show ended on a particularly dramatic cliffhanger.
• The show was parodied in Acorn Antiques, a spoof soap opera which was a regular sketch on Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV, screened in the mid-1980s. 2006 it is a hit musical touring Britain. Victoria Wood is a member of the Crossroads Appreciation Society, and sometimes uses this fact in her jokes.
• The majority of episodes are stored at Yorkshire Television in Leeds others are kept at the British Film Institute in Bradford.

[edit] DVD release

Very few archive recordings exist before 1981 because ATV wiped and re-used most of the videotapes, and no episode survives before September 1966. Network have issued two volumes of the series on DVD (Region 2, UK) with twelve of the original ATV episodes (the first release including Meg's 1975 wedding, the highest rating' edition) in 2005 in each volume. The third release was delayed due to the loss of ATV documents listing what episodes still exist, and Granada Television staff having to use other resources to locate the episodes required.

Crossroads Volume 3 was released on 26th February 2007. There are two versions of the DVD. One is a special limited edition, which contains an extra third disc - featuring recently found episodes from 1976.

[edit] References

1. ^ As detailed in a 1980 book of the same name.

[edit] External links

• Crossroads Appreciation Society official fan club's tribute website, endorsed by ITV Central.
• Crossroads 2001 All about the second series of ITV's hotel soap opera.
• Destination Crossroads Features a look at the second and third series of the soap.
• Crossroads I at the Internet Movie Database
• Crossroads II at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet Crossroads fan site
• Freema Agyeman as Lola Wise in Crossroads III 2003