Crossroads (British TV series)
Crossroads is a British television soap opera that ran on ITV over two periods – the original 1964 to 1988 run, followed by a short revival from 2001 to 2003. Set in a fictional motel in the Midlands, Crossroads became a byword for low production values, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s. Despite this, the series regularly attracted huge audiences during this time, with viewership numbers reaching as high as 15 million viewers.
It was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, and produced by ATV and then by ATV's successor, Central Independent Television until 1988 when it was axed. The series was revived by Carlton Television in 2001, but due to low ratings it was cancelled again in 2003.
Storylines
1964–1988
The original premise of Crossroads was based on the everyday lives of two feuding sisters, their businesses, staff and customers, specifically in relation to the Crossroads Motel, in the village of Kings Oak near Birmingham. On hearing that Heathbury town council wanted to build a motorway through part of her land, astute businesswoman Meg Richardson had used the compensation money the council offered, and her late husband Charles's insurance money, to convert their large Georgian home into a motel – a motor-hotel aimed at motorists with parking outside their chalet. Crossroads had 16 chalets, a reception, bar, kitchen, office and private sitting room. According to Meg, the clientele included tourists who were journeying to places like "Stratford On Avon, the Lake District or even those breaking a journey going up to Scotland, as well as commercial travellers, people who have their business going up and down the Midlands, and theatre people." Charles Richardson and Meg had two children: hotel receptionist Jill, born in 1946, and schoolboy Alexander, or "Sandy", who was born in 1950.Meg went on to become engaged to businessman Hugh Mortimer but he initially married Jane Templeton, who was dying of a brain tumour, in order for her to come to England to undergo an operation. She died in hospital, never regaining consciousness following surgery. Meg was then courted by Malcolm Ryder whom she later married, however, he was a weak, unscrupulous man, and when he found himself in financial difficulties he decided to poison Meg and claim the insurance money. He was discovered, and when confronted with his crime walked out of the motel and out of Meg's life. Some time later, news came that he had burnt to death in a car crash in South America, which turned out not to be true; and after the police arrested him for his doppelgänger's murder, a divorce was sought. Eight years after their first meeting, Meg and Hugh re-met, fell in love and were married in 1975 at Birmingham Cathedral. Hugh was kidnapped by Australian terrorists, and died of a heart attack in 1978.
In 1970, Jill married John Crayne, who, it turned out is already married with a wife and two young daughters living in Switzerland. Jill had therefore married a bigamist, making the marriage null and void; this led Jill to attempt suicide. Following her recovery, Jill turned her attention to down-to-earth electrician Stan Harvey, whom she married the following year. In 1975, Jill gave birth to a daughter, Sarah Jane Harvey. In 1977, Stan spent some time on business in Germany and it was during his absence that Jill had an affair with her step-brother, Anthony Mortimer to whom she became pregnant, with their child Matthew, who was subsequently born in 1978. Despite trying to reconcile, Jill and Stan's marriage ended in him winning a bitter custody battle, which led to him and Sarah Jane moving to Germany. Anthony thereafter took Matthew to live in New York. Jill had a one-night stand with a television engineer, and again attempted suicide. Jill meets womanising accountant and later Crossroads manager Adam Chance on Christmas Day 1978, and in 1983 they are eventually married. This said, by 1988, Jill leaves Adam for a new life with publican John Maddingham.
Meg's sister Kitty Jarvis ran The Shopday Store, a newsagent's and tobacconist's shop in the nearby town of Heathbury, where she lived with her pipe-smoking husband Dick Jarvis , and their son Brian, who was born in 1945. In the programme's pre-publicity and first episode it is stated that Dick and Kitty have a daughter, Lesley, who is "out in Australia, doing very well for herself", unseen, she later marries Maurice Grant, a doctor at St. Joseph's Hospital Adelaide. Dick is initially unemployed, and struggles financially to the point of "borrowing" £2 from Kitty's shop till without asking her, with suspicion of the theft falling on their lodger Patrick Wade, who unbeknownst to Kitty and Dick is in reality an army deserter by the name of Philip Carroll.
After going on dates to such places as the Heathbury Bowling Alley and the motel coffee bar, Brian becomes engaged to car hire secretary Janice Gifford, whom he marries in 1965, the same year Meg's and Kitty's brother Andy Fraser marries widow woman Ruth Bailey . The character of Kitty was written out in 1969 after the death of actress Beryl Johnstone. Additional extended family members included Meg's black adopted daughter, Melanie Harper, Meg's adoptive son Bruce Richardson, Meg's niece Penny Richardson, and Meg, Kitty and Andy's mother "Granny" Fraser. Dick's father Enoch Jarvis also makes an appearance.
Among those closest to Meg or her family were former actress Tish Hope, Reverend Peter Hope, Kitchen worker Vi Blundell, hotel chef Carlos Raphael, his wife Josefina, waitress Marilyn Gates, kitchen assistant Amy Turtle , postmistress Edith Tatum, and motel waitress Diane Lawton. Others connected to the motel included, suave manager and later motel director David Hunter, his first wife Rosemary, their son Chris, David's second wife Barbara, Chefs Gerald Lovejoy, Bernard Booth and Shughie McFee, hairdresser Vera Downend, the Harvey family, consisting of father Wilf and his grown children Stan and Sheila, accountant and later motel manager Adam Chance, and cleaner Doris Luke. Perhaps the most memorable character proved to be the mentally challenged Benny Hawkins, whose trademark was a woolly hat that was worn all year round. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed the Falkland Islanders "Bennies" after the character. Instructed to stop using the name, the troops came up with "Stills" for locals – because they were "still Bennies".
Over the years the series dealt with storylines which were controversial for the times. A single parent working at the motel was hugely controversial in the mid-1960s, as was Sandy Richardson becoming a permanent wheelchair user after a car accident in 1972. The storyline was developed when actor Roger Tonge had himself become a wheelchair user off screen - when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma - as a way to keep him in the series, thus becoming the first paraplegic regular character portrayed in a British soap opera.
The series also saw black characters appearing regularly – a follow-on from the 1960s BBC soap Compact, also created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling. Melanie Harper arrived at the motel in 1970 as Meg's foster daughter. Sylvestre was given the role by producer Reg Watson after press coverage of racial tensions in the Birmingham area at that time. In 1978, garage mechanic Joe MacDonald arrived. The year before, an interracial summer romance took place between Cockney garage mechanic Dennis Harper and motel receptionist Meena Chaudri.
1981 saw a highly controversial storyline about a false accusation of rape; a 1983 storyline saw a test tube baby born to Glenda and Kevin Banks. The subject of Down syndrome was also raised in 1983 with an insight into the life of Nina Weill, a little girl who, as Nina Paget, was befriended by three of the regular Crossroads characters.
The character of Meg Richardson was axed in 1981 and was thought to have died in a fire that gutted the motel, but turned up alive aboard the QE2, about to sail to a new life overseas. Newspapers reported that three endings were planned for Meg: she would either die in the fire, take sleeping pills or disappear for a while and turn up on the QE2. Viewers were surprised to see producers had used all three. Meg returns briefly in 1983 for a reunion with Jill and Adam on their honeymoon in Venice.
In 1985, new producer Phillip Bowman was planning to bring the character of Meg Richardson back into the show as a "permanent occasional". Plans were well advanced and scripts were written when Noele Gordon died in April of that year, aged 65. Edward Clayton was brought back as Jill's ex-husband Stan Harvey to read the lines originally written for Gordon.
In 1986, the new character Ray Grice played by Al Hunter Ashton was introduced as part of an attempt to create wider storylines.
Recording for the show ended at Christmas 1987 with the final episode broadcast in April 1988 where Jill drives off into the sunset with her lover to open a "little hotel in the West" that she thought they could call "Crossroads".
Although Crossroads had always been a family run business, others throughout the years had become shareholders, most notably, Tish Hope, Bernard Booth, Gerald Lovejoy, Louise Borelli, David Hunter, Hugh Mortimer, Adam Chance, Barbara Hunter, J. Henry Pollard and his daughter Miranda. However, by the early 1980s it became apparent that the family and their shareholders thought differently about the motel's future, and in 1985, it was sold off to Major International Hotels, under the management of Nicola Freeman.
MIH then sold the motel to Tommy Lancaster and his family-run Red Ox business in 1987, transforming it into a luxury hotel that was first named The Crossroads Country Hotel, then, The Kings Oak Country Hotel.
After the death of his wife Mary, Tommy put the hotel back on the market and it was bought by another chain, The Three Crowns Group, with the takeover period overseen by Daniel Freeman – the stepson of former MIH boss Nicola Freeman.