Crossroads (TV series)
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-->Crossroads was a British television soap opera set in a motel near Birmingham, England. It was first broadcast on ITV between 2 November 1964 and 4 April 1988. The programme was not adopted immediately by all of the ITV regions; it was not shown across the whole ITV network until the early 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s it became a byword for cheap production values, unlikely storylines and poor acting, yet was still one of the most popular programmes on British television.
ATV series
Crossroads first aired five days a week, until the ITA decreed that it would go to four airings a week in 1967, in order to keep storylines from being watered-down and in an attempt to improve the programme's quality. In 1979 the decision was made to cut the show to three weekly showings from 1980 onwards.The location of the Crossroads Motel was a fictional village near Birmingham, "King's Oak" (there are real Birmingham suburbs called Kings Norton and Selly Oak). The main character in the original series was motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. Meg's children - Jill (Jane Rossington) and Sandy (Roger Tonge) - also played a prominent role in the storylines.
Other major characters during the early years of the show included the chef Carlos Raphael (Anthony Morton); the postman Vince Parker (Peter Brookes) and his waitress wife Diane (Susan Hanson); Brummie waitress Marilyn Gates (Sue Nicholls), the postmistress Miss. Tatum (Elisabeth Croft) and the charlady Amy Turtle (Ann George), a character later satirised by Julie Walters as "Mrs Overall" in the Victoria Wood spoof Acorn Antiques) in 1985. However, Crossroads fans at the time 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 - 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. Easily the most memorable character however was 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 locals 'Bennies' after the character. (The troops were soon instructed not to call the Falkland islanders 'Bennies'. They then adopted the name 'Stills' for the locals - because they were "still Bennies").
Despite being critically derided for its low production values and far-fetched scripts, Crossroads nevertheless was hugely popular - high profile fans included Mary Wilson, the wife of former Prime Minister Harold Wilson) - and maintained high ratings and a loyal audience throughout its 24-year run on ITV. It should also be noted that the series dealt with a number of controversial storylines - Sandy Richardson was injured in a car accident and left confined to a wheelchair, becoming the first paraplegic regular character in British soap opera, a sadly ironic story as the actor Roger Tonge himself ended up in a wheelchair as the 70s progessed, the introduction of garage mechanic Joe MacDonald (Carl Andrews) as the first black character to appear regularly in a British soap and the test tube baby born to Glenda and Kevin Banks (Lynette McMorrough and David Moran).
Central TV series
Crossroads was made by ATV until the company lost its broadcast franchise at the end of 1981 and was relaunched with new management as Central, who began to make various controversial changes to the series. To public outcry, Noele Gordon was sacked in 1981 - Meg 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. Crossroads carried on with the same name and many of the same characters until March 1985, when it was totally overhauled with new filming locations, new sets - and many new characters. More long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed from the show. The theme tune was updated and new longer opening titles were introduced. The show was renamed Crossroads Motel with many of the storylines revolving around new motel owner Nicola Freeman (Gabrielle Drake).In 1987, a new producer, William Smethurst took over Crossroads and he was ordered to change the soap into a wittier, more upmarket serial, by shifting the focus onto the nearby village of King's Oak. Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter, were dropped, much to the regret of the show's fans, who jammed Central's telephone switchboard, many of them in tears, to protest. The legendary character Benny Hawkins was last seen in episodes broadcast in late 1987.
Plans were set out in April 1987 to change the show beyond recognition. It was to be called 'Kings Oak' and would have brand new opening titles, and a totally new theme tune. The motel/hotel would be renamed and the "Crossroads" name lost forever.
The new theme tune and look went ahead, in the transitional phase the show was known as "Crossroads, King's Oak", but the grand vision came unstuck, as plans to axe the show were announced in June 1987.
Crossroads Kings Oak finally came to an end in 1988. The last, specially extended, episode was broadcast on Easter Monday, 4 April, with Crossroads finally becoming "The King's Oak Country Hotel" and Jill riding off into the sunset with lover John Maddingham (Jeremy Nicholas). As she left King's Oak behind for a new life in the West, she was asked what she would name the new hotel she would be running. She remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name."
Crossroads Locations
A number of real life hotels doubled up as 'Crossroads Motel'. The original motel was actually a real motel just south of Birmingham City Centre. It was called CherryTrees, however it closed many years ago and the buildings made famous by Crossroads were demolished in 2001.After CherryTree's and the infamous motel fire (in the series) The Golden Valley Hotel in Cheltenham made its debut in 1982 as the post fire motel and later 'Penns Hall Hotel' in Sutton Coldfield became 'Crossroads' in 1985. The story line devised to explain the new look 1985 motel was one of major rebuilding work. This also saw brand new studio sets to tie-in with the change of filming locations.
Tanworth-in-Arden was used for King's Oak location filming from 1970, although "outside scenes" were rare before the mid-1980s. Wolverhampton was also used for some early King's Oak location filming.
Other locations include the canal directly behind ATV's former studios in Birmingham City Centre, this was the 'Kings Oak Canal' in Crossroads where Jill had a barge. The Chateau Impney Hotel featured numerous times - famously when Hugh proposed to Meg there in 1973, and they held their wedding party at the location two years later - in the series the Chateau Impney was renamed Droitwich Hotel.
In 1985 Crossroads gained its first set of 'full length' opening titles, these were filmed around Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham City Centre.
Carlton series
Crossroads was subsequently revived as a Carlton Television production with a more glossy format (Carlton having bought Central and acquired the rights to all ATV programmes) in 2001. The relaunched series returned in March 2001 and was broadcast at 5pm on weekdays on ITV1. The only familiar characters to reappear were the cleaner Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), Jill Richardson (Harvey) and her ex-husband Adam Chance (Tony Adams). Initial reactions from the critics were favourable but there were some continuity-related storyline puzzles.
- Jill Chance had apparently married John Maddingham, who had later died, but she was now calling herself "Jill Harvey" again. She hadn't been Jill Harvey since her marriage to Adam Chance in 1983. If she was going to revert to a former surname, surely her maiden name of Richardson would have made more sense?
- References were made to the Russell family taking over a "failing motel", but Crossroads had become a hotel in the late 1980s. In the final episode of the original series, "King's Oak Country Hotel" was clearly seen emblazoned over the hotel entrance doors. When had it become "Crossroads Motel" again?
The re-modelled series appeared to be a self-consciously camp parody, with Jane Asher cast as new central character, the glamorous and bitchy Angel Samson. The series also featured guest appearances from the likes of Kate O'Mara, Lionel Blair, Les Dennis and Tim Brooke-Taylor. However all of the storylines left from the previous August were ignored and barely even mentioned meaning that yet again the fans were left with a series that bore little resemblance to their memories.
Eventually after a few months the falling ratings led to the axe. The storyline of the final episode (broadcast in May 2003) was the revelation that the glamorous hotel had been a dream that had been dreamt by Supermarket worker Angela. Angela was of course the 'real life' Angel. All of the other characters were also revealed to be just ordinary shoppers at the Supermarket. During this final episode, Angela approaches a female customer in the Supermarket and proclaims that she recognises her as Tracey from the 'TV soap Crossroads' which would suggest that it was only this series that was supposed to be the dream and therefore had no real connection to what had gone before. However, even this didn't work, as Jane Gurnett's character (Kate) was shown to be one of Angela's colleagues in the supermarket, yet Kate was Tracey Booth's mother-in-law in the 2001-2 series.
The "dream ending" idea had been used by other series in the past, notably St. Elsewhere and The Brittas Empire.
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, accomanied 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. Despite being enjoyable to viewers (as a departure from the normal single-direction scrolling credits), this was always cumbersome to execute and was eventually dropped in January 1985.
- 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. In the event this idea was apparently forgotten, and the two versions were played more or less at random.
- 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.
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. However, Network have issued two volumes of the series on DVD (Region 2, U.K.) with twelve of the original ATV episodes (the first release including Meg's 1975 wedding, the highest rating' edition) in 2005 in each volume. A third volume was due to be released on 19 June 2006, but this has now been postponed.External links
- [Crossroads Appreciation Society] official fan club's tribute website
- [Crossroads 2001] A fan site celebrating the second series of ITV's hotel soap opera.
- [Planet Crossroads] fan site
- [Destination Crossroads] fan site
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