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Crossroads

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The ITV soap Crossroads started in 1964 and has become infamous for shaky sets and poor acting, though it isn't entirely fair to remember it for this reason!

Crossroads was set in a Midlands Motel and followed the lives of the owners and staff. Respected actress Noele Gordon played the matriach, Meg Richardson, who continually fought to save the motel from one threat or another.

Possibly the most famous character from the show, who is still evoked in jokes and jibes today, was that of Benny the handyman. Benny, wearing his woolly hat, was not the brightest star in the sky and 'being a Benny' soon came synonymous with being stupid.

There were love affairs, thefts, murders and fires not to mention some truly bizarre storylines not least Amy Turtle the cleaner being accused of being a Russian Spy!

Crossroads wasn't filmed at great expense and originally aired five times a week so the filming schedule was extremely tight, hence many mistakes had to be left in. And yes, the set did at times wobble!

Crossroads is attributed as a great inspiration of Victoria Wood's spoof comedy soap 'Acorn Antiques'

Crossroads was axed in 1988 but was revived in a whole new guise in 2001, but struggled for a couple of years before being taken off air to revamp once more. On its next outing it lasted just 30 episodes before being binned surely for the last time.

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Do You Remember Crossroads?

Do You Remember Crossroads?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Re-read Bretty's post below re the Crossroads kitchen - the reason it and the chefs disappeared from time to time was that there wasn't studio space for both the kitchen and the Crossroads garage! So when a garage storyline was going on, the kitchen was dismantled and the actors playing Shughie, Mr Booth et al went off to other work! That was usually the reason for mysterious absences - Kathy Staff was written out for a short period every year to do Last of the Summer Wine. But this happens in soaps even now - characters are rested for a few weeks. Crossroads had an odd system of writing - series creator Peter Ling wrote the storylines and then, instead of dividing up scripting duties episode by episode as now, different storylines were allocated to different writers, who sometimes specialised in writing for particular characters, so three or four writers are often credited for one episode. The script editor had to join it all together!
  • fbatkin
    on
    As jasper Carrot said Benny went out for a spanner and was gone for months. Other characters included Amy Turtle and Miss Luke, Carlos the chef, Vera Downend and vince plus Miss Diane. There was a slow version of the theme tune played by Paul McCartney and wings and a slow instrumental called Benny's song.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Got the DVDs and all the wobbly set, bad acting stuff is mostly myth. There are a few fluffed lines but probably no more than in your average TV series of the time. The production values are up to the standard of any studio-produced show of the era, too. I liked the 2001 revival and used to watch it as a student. Then it was abandoned mid-storyline and relaunched as a sort of comedy spoof, which didn't work for me. Love Jane Rossington as Jill in both the original and modern versions.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    But Shughie was ALWAYS disappearing! He'd feature in a story-line then disappear for about eight months! It was all very odd. Mr Booth was just the same. Someghing very weird about that Crossroads kitchen...
  • Anonymous user
    on
    this show was never the same after the mysterious disappearance of shughie mcfee.

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