Amy Turtle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amy Turtle was a character in Crossroads, the British television soap opera, played by Ann George from 1965 to 1976 and then from 1987 to 1988.

Amy first came to prominence in the series helping out at the antique shop in King's Oak (the fictional village where Crossroads was set), but it was as the cleaner at the Crossroads Motel that she is best remembered. Her job gave her the perfect opportunity to listen to gossip and pass it on, yet, despite her irritating ways the staff remained strangely fond of her; as David Hunter the motel manager played by Ronald Allan commented in a 1974 episode when Amy had been away from the Motel for a while: "I miss Amy. Don't know why, I just do."

Over the years, Amy was involved in many storylines, some dramatic, some comedic, such as the time she was accused by the police of being a Russian double agent, Amelia Turtleovski.

The last storyline she was involved in was the tragic death of her son Billy. Amy went to visit her nephew in America, and didn't return to King's Oak until 1987.

[edit] Trivia

• It has often been (mistakenly) suggested that Amy Turtle was the inspiration for Victoria Wood's spoof of Crossroads Acorn Antiques; Wood has denied this, and Julie Walters (the actress who portrayed Mrs Overall) more than suggested with her performance and appearance that Mrs Overall was in fact based on Crossroads character Mavis Hooper played by Charmian Eyre. However Walters commented in 2002, that when she first saw the script of Acorn Antiques the Mrs Overall role she thought instantly of Amy Turtle, and so she wanted her to have a Birmingham accent.