Crossroads (soap opera)

Crossroads was a British television soap opera set in a motel near Birmingham. It was first broadcast on ITV between 2 November 1964 and 4 April 1988.

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 1979, it moved to three times a week.

Related Topics:
ITA - 1967 - 1979

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The location of the Crossroads Motel was a fictional outskirt of Birmingham, "King's Oak" (there are real suburbs Kings Norton and Selly Oak). The main character in the original series was Meg Richardson, the motel's owner, played by Noele Gordon.

Related Topics:
Kings Norton - Selly Oak - Noele Gordon

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Other major characters included the chef Carlos; the postman Vince Parker and his waitress wife Diane; and the charlady Amy Turtle (played by Ann George, she was later satirised by Julie Walters as "Mrs Overall" in the Victoria Wood spoof Acorn Antiques). Mrs Richardson's children were Sandy, played by Roger Tonge and Jill, played by Jane Rossington. Mention of the characters cannot overlook the village-idiot character Benny Hawkins, whose trademark was a woolly hat worn all year around; the disagreeable shop-keepers the Grices; or the postmistress Miss Tatum, introduced as a narrator who was never seen except for her hands, tatting. Other key performers in the programme were Ronald Allen and Tony Adams.

Related Topics:
Amy Turtle - Ann George - Julie Walters - Victoria Wood - Acorn Antiques - Roger Tonge - Jane Rossington - Tatting - Ronald Allen - Tony Adams

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While Crossroads had many fans (most notably Mary Wilson, the wife of former Prime Minister Harold Wilson), it also had many vocal detractors who criticized it for everything from its amateurish actors to its "wobbly sets". However, it still received high ratings and survived for as long as it did on its large fan base. This even extended to British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed locals 'Bennies' after the character played by Paul Henry.

Related Topics:
Mary Wilson - Harold Wilson - British troops - Falklands War - 1982 - Paul Henry

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The show's detractors often forget that until the early 1970s most of the show's storylines had been deliberately tongue-in-cheek.

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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. Very few archive recordings exist because ATV wiped and re-used most of the videotapes. However, Network Video issued a DVD with twelve of the original ATV episodes (including Meg's 1975 wedding) in 2005.

Related Topics:
ATV - 1981 - Central - Network Video - 2005

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