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.

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 the lack of any real links to the past, and the controversial killing of Jill 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 higest rating daytime shows. Unfortunately the producers used a break in production to re-vamp the show once again. (The show was off-air from August 2002 - January 2003)

Related Topics:
Carlton Television - 2001 - Kathy Staff - Tony Adams

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The re-modelled series included guest stars such as Jane Asher, 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 resemblence to their memories.

Related Topics:
Jane Asher - Kate O'Mara - Lionel Blair - Les Dennis - Tim Brooke-Taylor

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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, and the staff were actually supermarket workers.

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The "dream ending" idea had been used by other series in the past, notably St. Elsewhere and The Brittas Empire.

Related Topics:
St. Elsewhere - The Brittas Empire

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