Crossroads 

The four or five times a week adventures of a motel owner, son, daughter and her staff. Drama was never far away from the ringing of the reception bell.

Creators:

Hazel Adair, Peter Ling

Stars:

Noele Gordon, Roger Tonge, Anthony Morton

Cast

Series cast summary:
Noele Gordon	...	Meg Richardson / ... 692 episodes, 1964-1981
Roger Tonge	...	Sandy Richardson 558 episodes, 1964-1980
Anthony Morton	...	Carlos Rafael 441 episodes, 1964-1967
Sue Nicholls	...	Marilyn Gates 398 episodes, 1964-1968
Pamela Greenall	...	Ruth Bailey / ... 335 episodes, 1965-1975
Susan Hanson	...	Diane Parker / ... 318 episodes, 1965-1985
Brian Kent	...	Dick Jarvis 310 episodes, 1964-1971

Storyline

The four or five times a week adventures of a motel owner, son, daughter and her staff. Drama was never far away from the ringing of the reception bell.

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Plot Keywords:

motel | midlands | partially lost tv series | sergeant | wobbly sets | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Has earned the nickname "The Actor's Graveyard", because actors with once promising careers have known to fail for appearing on the show. One exception is David Jason, who went onto a very successful television career, and has even defended the show. After doing a guest spot, Jason was asked to become a regular. He declined because he didn't want to be tied down to playing just one character at this stage in his career. Another exception is John Rhys-Davies, who also went on to have a successful career in film and television.

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Goofs

The March 1975 civil ceremony wedding of a fairly anonymous motel owner to a businessman - Meg Richardson and Hugh Mortimer - at Birmingham Register Office sees the city centre thronged with well-wishers; similarly the later affirmation/blessing at Birmingham Cathedral has a packed congregation, outside police supervision and reporters. Whilst in reality this reflects the interest of the general public in the show and its production, in narrative terms it is completely nonsensical.

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Connections

Referenced in Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Episode #1.7 (1988)

User Reviews

Benny Was The Star Of This Ridiculous Soap

The very first producer of this Brummie based soap opera was a gentleman called Reg Watson . This name may not be recognisable but it will ring a bell at the back of your mind and when I say he moved to Australia and created a show called PRISONER CELL BLOCK H you'll know who he is now . And like PRISONER this soap based at a Midlands motel was total turd , but often highly entertaining . In fact both myself and many of my peer group would discuss the previous night's episode at school

Every episode starts on a cliff hanger opening : " What you mean you're having my husbands baby " . The actors freeze , but it not a freeze frame camera shot as you can clearly see the actors tremble in fright at their dialogue . The caption CROSSROADS flashes up and Tony Hatch's guitar theme tune blasts in - Ding Ding Ding - Ding Ding Ding Ding . Then the actors get back to what they were doing before . Very bizarre and there's another idiosyncratic revealing mistake in almost every scene and that's the actors waiting for their cue . When the action cuts from one location to another you can clearly see for a brief moment the actor standing still like a statue then they go on to pour a cup of tea or make a phone call etc

But it was the script and characters that made the show entertaining garbage . Shugie McPhee was a master chef and head of the kitchen and in one subplot tried to bring down the motel by contaminating guests food . In one memorable scene a big plastic spider finds itself becoming dessert . And there was Adam Chance who was Ken Barlow's only rival in British Soapland's least convincing hetrosexual character

For me and many others the real star was Benny the retarded oddjob man at the motel . If Channel 4 did a programme called 100 GREATEST RETARDED CHARACTERS IN TELEVISION Benny would win by a mile and unsurprisingly the more ridiculous plots revolved around him . Benny is maimed trying to stop a couple of joy riders , Benny is left 25,000 pound in a relatives will , and Benny is framed for murder . Don't worry he was innocent , it turned out the manager of the garage killed his lover , heard someone walk in and hid as Benny found the body then gasped " My god Benny what have you done ? " . Benny was something of a national institution and no amateur talent contest of the late 1970s was complete without an impressionist trying - And failing - to capture Benny's mannerism

I stopped watching it in the early 1980s and I heard that the producers at the time tried to make it a serious drama which caused the viewing figures to drop and led to its ultimate cancellation .

Details

Official Sites:

Official fan club

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 November 1964 (UK)

Also Known As:

Crossroads

Filming Locations:

Ramada Hotel, Penns Lane, Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Associated Television (ATV), Central Independent Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (4510 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1