C is for Crossroads
Spaghetti Junction … The Bull Ring … The Rotunda … Crossroads.
Need we say more?
Just as Coronation Street is synonymous with Manchester, Brookside with Liverpool and Eastenders with London, so Crossroads became the television soap opera which was inextricably linked to Birmingham. The ATV soap originally started in November 1964 and ran on ITV until 1988. Crossroads was a daily soap set in the fictional village of King's Oak, on the outskirts of Birmingham. The soap revolved around the guests, workers and managers at the Crossroads motel.
In reality, the show was filmed at the ATV Centre in Broad Street in Birmingham. In its heyday the series attracted 18 million viewers and often topped the television charts. The idea for the show came from an ATV producer named Reg Watson whose fascination with American Soap Operas whilst visiting the USA in the 1950s led him to approach ATV boss Lord Lew Grade, suggesting that ATV should have a five night a week continuous drama series.
It took Lew Grade a few years to mull over Reg Watson’s suggestion and eventually he gave him the go ahead to launch a serial which would be set in a Birmingham boarding house. The serial was to go out on 5 nights a week but was only intended to run for 6 weeks. Writers Hazel Adair and Peter Ling however suggested that the drama should be based in a motel instead of a boarding house and Lew Grade liked the idea so much he gave them the job of writing the whole series.
The new series was to be named "The Midland Road" and would be set in the motel and in the local corner shop. It would evolve around the lives of two middle-aged sisters. But ATV were not happy with the name of the soap and by the middle of 1964 a campaign was launched in the local press to come up with a different name for their new drama series. Unfortunately no one won the competition so Reg Watson was asked to think of something and he came up with "Crossroads".
In November 1964 the first 25-minute instalment of Crossroads was aired, featuring a well-off widow named Meg Richardson who had opened Crossroads in the grounds of her Georgian house, the home she had shared with Charles, her first husband, daughter Jill and son Sandy. Meg decided to build the motel to coincide with a new motorway opening near the village. The motel had 18 chalets each costing just under £3 per night in 1964. The motel had a swimming pool, restaurant and bar, all open to the general public as well as motel guests. The concept of a motel was very new to Britain even though they had existed in the States for years, so Crossroads consequently had an ultra modern image in contrast to it’s rival soap opera Coronation Street.
From the outset, Meg Richardson played by Noele Gordon, was destined to become a British institution. Having already made her name on television presenting the variety show “Lunch Box”, Noele was to become one of the great female icons of British soap opera, alongside the likes of Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Annie Walker (Doris Speed) in Coronation Street.
Crossroads was famous for it’s wobbly sets and the TV critics loved to slate the show and the cast. From the late 1960s Crossroads was moved to teatime viewing in the regions, broadcasting at 6 or 6:30pm and ITV viewers continued to confound the critics by tuning in each evening in their millions.
In spite of the massive popularity of Crossroads, the show was axed in 1988 largely as a consequence of internal politics within the television company. The politics began in 1981 when ATV won the franchise to provide independent television across the whole of the Midlands region, which now included both East and West Midlands. As part of the new arrangement, ATV were instructed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority that they had to restructure the company in order to reflect both parts of the larger region. ATV therefore became Central and new management came into the company who made no secret of their intentions to restyle the company’s profile and this would ultimately include closing down the nation’s best loved motel.
Noele Gordon was controversially sacked from ATV and Crossroads in 1981, just one month before Central came into existence. It is suggested that ATV bosses believed that by firing Noele, the show would die a sudden death in the ratings. But Crossroads managed to survive for another seven years under Central’s reluctant management. Many Crossroads fans even claim that the period between 1984 and 1985, when the show was produced by Jack Barton, was it’s best era. But Jack Barton was under pressure to give the show a Central style make-over, bosses were demanding a more youthful and trendy cast and a more glamorous 1980s look. He was having none of it and walked out, to be replaced by new producer, Philip Bowman.
Philip Bowman was successful in restyling Crossroads and giving it a more classy look, even new music. Even though the saucy new storylines were not a hit with the soap’s die-hard older fans, Crossroads did have increased success, with ratings consistently reaching 12 million. William Smethurst took over as producer in 1986 and it was decided to refocus the drama from the motel to the actual village, with an accompanying name change for the soap to Crossroads Kings Oak. A weekend omnibus was launched in 1988 to rival the new BBC soap Eastenders.
But in April 1988, Central bosses eventually got their own way and Crossroads finished after 24 years and 4,510 episodes with a triple bill of three episodes in one. It’s axing was controversial and caused a public outcry, but even a concerted national campaign failed to save Birmingham’s much loved soap. It just wasn’t classy enough for Central bosses.
The series was revived by Carlton TV in 2001, bringing with it a whole new generation of fans and a renewed interest in the original series. Some of the old cast were brought back for the new series, such as Doris, Jill and Adam, but the new storylines simply failed to grip public enthusiasm as they had in the soap’s golden age of the 1970s and 1980s.
The new motel was just too plush, gone was the cheap but cheery feel of the former three star establishment and in came executive suites, twin and double bedrooms with en-suites, plush management apartments, a beauty salon and a health spa. Of course the old Crossroads did have some of these features too, especially in the late 1980s, but something was missing from the new series. Perhaps the point that TV bosses seem to miss is that soap fans actually like their bit of working class shoddiness.
With the departure of David Liddlement as head of ITV, his replacement Nigel Pickard decided that it was time for poor old Crossroads to be closed once again. It was axed after just four months and 98 editions, the final one aired on May 30th 2003.
All in all 4,928 episodes of Crossroads were shown, an impressive legacy for such a highly criticised series. But does anyone remember Tony Hatch’s classic theme tune? Get those Paul McCartney air guitars ready please… altogether now…
Baw, baw baw, ba ba ba baw…. Ba ba ba baw, ba ba baw baw…
Need we say more?
Just as Coronation Street is synonymous with Manchester, Brookside with Liverpool and Eastenders with London, so Crossroads became the television soap opera which was inextricably linked to Birmingham. The ATV soap originally started in November 1964 and ran on ITV until 1988. Crossroads was a daily soap set in the fictional village of King's Oak, on the outskirts of Birmingham. The soap revolved around the guests, workers and managers at the Crossroads motel.
In reality, the show was filmed at the ATV Centre in Broad Street in Birmingham. In its heyday the series attracted 18 million viewers and often topped the television charts. The idea for the show came from an ATV producer named Reg Watson whose fascination with American Soap Operas whilst visiting the USA in the 1950s led him to approach ATV boss Lord Lew Grade, suggesting that ATV should have a five night a week continuous drama series.
It took Lew Grade a few years to mull over Reg Watson’s suggestion and eventually he gave him the go ahead to launch a serial which would be set in a Birmingham boarding house. The serial was to go out on 5 nights a week but was only intended to run for 6 weeks. Writers Hazel Adair and Peter Ling however suggested that the drama should be based in a motel instead of a boarding house and Lew Grade liked the idea so much he gave them the job of writing the whole series.
The new series was to be named "The Midland Road" and would be set in the motel and in the local corner shop. It would evolve around the lives of two middle-aged sisters. But ATV were not happy with the name of the soap and by the middle of 1964 a campaign was launched in the local press to come up with a different name for their new drama series. Unfortunately no one won the competition so Reg Watson was asked to think of something and he came up with "Crossroads".
In November 1964 the first 25-minute instalment of Crossroads was aired, featuring a well-off widow named Meg Richardson who had opened Crossroads in the grounds of her Georgian house, the home she had shared with Charles, her first husband, daughter Jill and son Sandy. Meg decided to build the motel to coincide with a new motorway opening near the village. The motel had 18 chalets each costing just under £3 per night in 1964. The motel had a swimming pool, restaurant and bar, all open to the general public as well as motel guests. The concept of a motel was very new to Britain even though they had existed in the States for years, so Crossroads consequently had an ultra modern image in contrast to it’s rival soap opera Coronation Street.
From the outset, Meg Richardson played by Noele Gordon, was destined to become a British institution. Having already made her name on television presenting the variety show “Lunch Box”, Noele was to become one of the great female icons of British soap opera, alongside the likes of Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Annie Walker (Doris Speed) in Coronation Street.Crossroads was famous for it’s wobbly sets and the TV critics loved to slate the show and the cast. From the late 1960s Crossroads was moved to teatime viewing in the regions, broadcasting at 6 or 6:30pm and ITV viewers continued to confound the critics by tuning in each evening in their millions.
In spite of the massive popularity of Crossroads, the show was axed in 1988 largely as a consequence of internal politics within the television company. The politics began in 1981 when ATV won the franchise to provide independent television across the whole of the Midlands region, which now included both East and West Midlands. As part of the new arrangement, ATV were instructed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority that they had to restructure the company in order to reflect both parts of the larger region. ATV therefore became Central and new management came into the company who made no secret of their intentions to restyle the company’s profile and this would ultimately include closing down the nation’s best loved motel.
Noele Gordon was controversially sacked from ATV and Crossroads in 1981, just one month before Central came into existence. It is suggested that ATV bosses believed that by firing Noele, the show would die a sudden death in the ratings. But Crossroads managed to survive for another seven years under Central’s reluctant management. Many Crossroads fans even claim that the period between 1984 and 1985, when the show was produced by Jack Barton, was it’s best era. But Jack Barton was under pressure to give the show a Central style make-over, bosses were demanding a more youthful and trendy cast and a more glamorous 1980s look. He was having none of it and walked out, to be replaced by new producer, Philip Bowman.
Philip Bowman was successful in restyling Crossroads and giving it a more classy look, even new music. Even though the saucy new storylines were not a hit with the soap’s die-hard older fans, Crossroads did have increased success, with ratings consistently reaching 12 million. William Smethurst took over as producer in 1986 and it was decided to refocus the drama from the motel to the actual village, with an accompanying name change for the soap to Crossroads Kings Oak. A weekend omnibus was launched in 1988 to rival the new BBC soap Eastenders.
But in April 1988, Central bosses eventually got their own way and Crossroads finished after 24 years and 4,510 episodes with a triple bill of three episodes in one. It’s axing was controversial and caused a public outcry, but even a concerted national campaign failed to save Birmingham’s much loved soap. It just wasn’t classy enough for Central bosses.
The series was revived by Carlton TV in 2001, bringing with it a whole new generation of fans and a renewed interest in the original series. Some of the old cast were brought back for the new series, such as Doris, Jill and Adam, but the new storylines simply failed to grip public enthusiasm as they had in the soap’s golden age of the 1970s and 1980s.
The new motel was just too plush, gone was the cheap but cheery feel of the former three star establishment and in came executive suites, twin and double bedrooms with en-suites, plush management apartments, a beauty salon and a health spa. Of course the old Crossroads did have some of these features too, especially in the late 1980s, but something was missing from the new series. Perhaps the point that TV bosses seem to miss is that soap fans actually like their bit of working class shoddiness.
With the departure of David Liddlement as head of ITV, his replacement Nigel Pickard decided that it was time for poor old Crossroads to be closed once again. It was axed after just four months and 98 editions, the final one aired on May 30th 2003.
All in all 4,928 episodes of Crossroads were shown, an impressive legacy for such a highly criticised series. But does anyone remember Tony Hatch’s classic theme tune? Get those Paul McCartney air guitars ready please… altogether now…
Baw, baw baw, ba ba ba baw…. Ba ba ba baw, ba ba baw baw…
Other interesting facts about Crossroads:
Visiting Brum and need a room?
In spite of the infamous wobbly sets, some viewers were so convinced the Crossroads motel was real that they used to telephone the ITV studio to try and book non-existent rooms there!
Wiped out!
Of the original 4,510 episodes of Crossroads, only about 1,536 still exist. The others were all wiped, as was the policy of the time.
Find out more at the website links below:
http://www.planetcrossroads.co.uk/faq/index.php
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/itw/ATV/history.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crossroadsfanclub/message/1948
Visiting Brum and need a room?
In spite of the infamous wobbly sets, some viewers were so convinced the Crossroads motel was real that they used to telephone the ITV studio to try and book non-existent rooms there!
Wiped out!
Of the original 4,510 episodes of Crossroads, only about 1,536 still exist. The others were all wiped, as was the policy of the time.
Find out more at the website links below:
http://www.planetcrossroads.co.uk/faq/index.php
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/itw/ATV/history.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crossroadsfanclub/message/1948
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