Crossroads was a British television soap opera set in a motel near Birmingham, England. It was first broadcast on ITV between 2 November 1964 and 4 April 1988. The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television... The word motel originates from the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, first built in 1925 by Arthur Heinman. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK... Current ITV logo. ... November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 59 days remaining. ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was a body created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of Independent Television (ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ...

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. See also: Kings Norton, Leicestershire King’s Norton is a district of Birmingham, England. ... Selly Oak constituency shown within Birmingham Selly Oak is an area in south Birmingham, England. ... Noele Gordon (December 25, 1923 - April 14, 1985) was a British film and television actress. ...

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. Amy Turtle was a character in Crossroads, the British television soap opera. ... Julie Walters as Molly Weasley in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone Julia Mary Walters (born February 22, 1950) is a British actor of Irish Catholic extraction, mainly associated with comedy and character roles. ... Victoria Wood (born May 19, 1953) is a British comedienne, actress, singer and writer. ... Acorn Antiques was a parodic soap opera featured regularly on the sketch show Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. ... Roger Tonge (30 January 1946 - 26 February 1981) was a British actor. ... Jane Rossington (born March 5, 1943 in Derby) is a British actress, most known for her role as Jill Richardson on the soap opera Crossroads. ... Tatting shuttle Tatting pin Pine Pattern Collar in Tatting Tatting is a technique for handcrafting lace that can be documented approximately to the early 19th century. ... Ronald Allen Ronald Allen was an established British character actor born in 1930 who died June 18, 1991. ... Tony Adams is the name of several well-known people, including: Tony Adams (actor), Welsh actor. ...

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. Mary Wilson (born 1918) is a British poet, best known as the wife of former British prime minister, Harold Wilson. ... The Right Honourable James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was one of the longest serving Labour Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom. ... The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majestys Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was a war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, between March and June of 1982. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... There are other people called Paul Henry Paul Henry, born 1947 in Birmingham, is a British actor whose best-known role was Benny Hawkins, a bumbling semi-rustic handyman he played from 1975 to 1988 in the soap opera Crossroads. ...

The show's detractors often forget that until the early 1970s most of the show's storylines had been deliberately tongue-in-cheek. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

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. The ATV colour logo, used from the start of the colour standard in 1969 until the companys demise in 1981. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Central TV logo, 1985-1998 Central Independent Television, commonly referred to as Central, is the Independent Television company that succeeded ATV on 1 January 1982. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Central TV series

To public outcry, Noele Gordon was sacked in 1981, probably for reasons connected with internal politics and the planned image of the show after the switch from ATV to Central Television. Crossroads carried on with the same name and many of the same characters until about 1985, when it was remodelled slightly and renamed Crossroads Motel. In 1987, in a final bid to reach defecting viewers, the stories of the villagers surrounding the motel were told, and the show was given yet another name change, becoming Crossroads: King's Oak. This article is about the year. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

It was finally cancelled in 1988. The last, specially extended, episode was broadcast on Easter Monday, 4 April, with Jill riding off into the sunset with lover John Maddingham. As she left her motel behind for a new life in the West, she was asked what she would name the new motel she would be running. She remarked, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name." 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Crossroads Locations

A number of real life hotels doubled up as 'Crossroads Motel'. The most notable of these were, The Golden Valley Hotel in Cheltenham which made its debut in 1982 as the post fire motel and later 'Penns Hall Hotel' in Sutton Coldfield, which featured the famous lake. Both of these hotels remain open to this day

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 highest 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) Carlton logo in cinemas Carlton Television Limited is the United Kingdom Channel 3 (ITV) licencee for London, Monday 9:25am, to Friday, 5:15pm. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Kathy Staff (born July 12, 1928) is a British actress born at Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, United Kingdom. ... Tony Adams (born December 11, 1940) is a Welsh actor, best known for his performances in two British television soap operas. ...

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. Jane Asher Jane Asher (born April 5, 1946) is a British film and television actress and the author of several full-length novels. ... Kate OMara (born August 10, 1939), British actress, born in Leicester. ... Lionel Blair (born 1931 or 1934 in Montreal, Canada) (real name Lionel Ogus) is a British actor, choreographer, tap dancer and television presenter. ... Les Dennis (born Leslie Dennis Heseltine October 12, 1953) is an English television presenter. ... Tim Brooke-Taylor Photo: April 2000 Tim Brooke-Taylor (born July 17, 1940 in Buxton, Derbyshire) is a British comic actor most well known in Britain as a member of The Goodies comedy trio, and as one of the panel members of the comedy radio show Im Sorry I...

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. Exterior appearance of typical American supermarket (a Safeway) A supermarket or grocery store is a store that sells a wide variety of food. ...

The "dream ending" idea had been used by other series in the past, notably St. Elsewhere and The Brittas Empire. St. ... The Brittas Empire was a British television sitcom, that ran between 1991 and 1997. ...

Trivia

• During its original run the show was usually only 20 minutes long excluding commercials. To save time, there was no opening title sequence, simply a title caption superimposed over the start of the first scene, accomanied by a brief snatch of the theme music.

• The show's closing titles originally consisted of two superimposed roller captions, one vertical and one horizontal. As one credit would roll off screen vertically the next would roll on horizontally, and vice-versa, thus symbolising the show's title. Despite being enjoyable to viewers (as a departure from the normal single-direction scrolling credits), this was always cumbersome to execute and was eventually dropped in the late 1970s.

• Until the 1980s the show would always end with a brief post-credits scene in which a character would speak a single line of dramatic dialogue, before the final bar of the theme tune played over the closing ATV logo.

• In the 70s, Wings recorded an alternative arrangement of the show's theme music which was meant to be played over the closing credits whenever the show ended on a particularly dramatic cliffhanger. In the event this idea was apparently forgotten, and the two versions were played more or less at random.

• The show was parodied in Acorn Antiques, a spoof soap opera which was a regular sketch on Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV, screened in the mid-1980s.

The theme music of a radio or television program is a melody closely associated with the show, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... Core members of Wings, Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney and Denny Laine. ... The theme music of a radio or television program is a melody closely associated with the show, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits. ... In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. ... Acorn Antiques was a parodic soap opera featured regularly on the sketch show Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. ...

External links

• Crossroads Appreciation Society official fan club's tribute website
• Crossroads 2001 A fan site celebrating the second series of ITV's hotel soap opera.
• Planet Crossroads fan site