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Post by Lee Bannister on Jul 19, 2004 15:39:55 GMT
(I'm registered now!) Yeah I timed it and it works out at 1'20". (I remember that from Nolly's book too). Actually you could hear how the edit works on the 'Classic Crossroads' video from a few years ago. It closes the end of the Episode where Meg leaves on the QE2, fading in a couple of bars before the loop edit! (2 versions were released on video - one with the theme, and one with the Brass Band playing on the Quay!)
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Post by MikeGarrett on Jul 19, 2004 16:50:33 GMT
"The series was devised by Reg Watson ...a drama series about two families who lived and worked on opposite sides of a crossroads. One family ran a general store and the other the Crossroads Motel. He called me and asked if I would write a theme for the show.
The budget for the music was low and it would have to be recorded in a TV studio in Birmingham - not the perfect acoustic conditions in comparison with the dedicated music recording studios I was used to.
The original theme was actually two tunes. Each one represented one of the families and these tunes could be played separately or, because they shared the same chord sequence, together in counterpoint with each other. (Don't ask me now which was which.)
Reg's idea was that if the first scene of an episode featured the motel then he would use their theme and vice versa. On the closing credits both themes could be played together. (I think this was forgotten when others took over from Reg.) As the budget was small I decided to use a small rhythm section plus a harp and feature the first theme on a 12-string guitar with the second theme played on the oboe.
Right at the beginning I put the famous 9-note motif - the call-sign which gets the family in front of the TV set."
A bit of a sample of what Tony Hatch said about the music. I'm sure Tony Hatch also said that whoever owned the original music, felt at the time (1965) the Crossroads theme was too short to release as a single, so he re-recorded it for Pye.
Still I am so pleased to hear they are in safe hands! At least one part of Crossroads' history is in complete form.
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Post by H Hartley on Jul 19, 2004 21:12:49 GMT
thats Marvelous Mike! thanks for sharing that. I have to say , my favourite bit was the great thumping piano on the end sequence. I visualised Tony Hatch jumping on the keyboard to do it.
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Post by alan smith on Jul 20, 2004 14:49:47 GMT
I seem to recall the show got into trouble because of a Poltergeist storyline in the first couple of years of its run. Does anyone else recall this?
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Post by MikeGarrett on Jul 20, 2004 16:56:11 GMT
I recived a letter once to CAS, which gave a memory from a fan of Sandy, when he was a reporter for the local newspaper going on a ghost-hunt in one of the church's grave yards in the village.
He was also looking into witchcraft and such, however they didn't tell us the outcome of the plot. Might be part of that same story line.
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Post by noel mccarthy on Jul 24, 2004 21:45:45 GMT
Hi
I actually posed this question to the fan club. they very kindly informed me that the BFI are listing tham at the moment and they indeed appear to have more episodes than they thought (1972 onwards) this is because the tapes they have actually hold two episodes when it was thought that there was only one on each tapes.
I hope this helps
Regards
Noel
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Post by Mark Boulton on Jul 26, 2004 17:58:51 GMT
Yes, i'm most keen to know more about this too! This was apparently reported as fact here not long agp but there has been no follow-up. We can but hope. Can the person who reported this provide any more confirmation if they are reading this? That was me, and it was never a question of loads of missing episodes suddenly turning up. It was simply a question of having dozens of shelves of 2" and 1" tapes and the time to actually get the tapes cleaned, loaded up onto VTR machines and copied onto DigiBeta. This takes time, you know! I only know this because I visited the NFTVA - it's not as if I'm a regular visitor or an insider or anything. The only episodes that the engineer told me they couldn't find were Meg Mortimer's wedding, the Motel Fire and Meg's leaving, but as I pointed out these three had just so happened to have been released on video a few years ago, and so it was most likely that the episodes had been copied to 1" sometime in the mid-80s - hence they appeared as gaps in the 2" library.
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Post by Mark Boulton on Jul 26, 2004 18:06:19 GMT
Hi I actually posed this question to the fan club. they very kindly informed me that the BFI are listing tham at the moment and they indeed appear to have more episodes than they thought (1972 onwards) this is because the tapes they have actually hold two episodes when it was thought that there was only one on each tapes. I hope this helps Regards Noel I don't think this is the case, because my visit was getting on for a couple of years ago now, and already then I was being told that two and sometimes three episodes would be fit onto one tape as standard.
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Post by MikeGarrett on Sept 4, 2004 9:13:21 GMT
Does anyone know if the BFI will know what is in the episodes they've restored? Or who can be asked about what is around and what isn't.
The simple reason I ask is, Carl Wayne died last week, and his family and friends have asked me to find out if his editions exsist and ITV Duty Office are utterly hopeless. Central TV used to be very helpful!!
Actually Carl was interested in this himself, but sadly Carlton at the time refused to tell us. 1970-1973 is the period in question.
Its a long shot, but clearly I'm trying anything to to find out more.
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Post by Kev on Sept 4, 2004 9:55:05 GMT
Am I right in thinking some were repeted by Uk Gold 10 years ago.
An anecdotal story that could be a load of cobblers but I'll tell it anyway.
Crossroads tapes were used as frisbees at whatever location they are stored at, possibly by bored security guards.
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Post by Gareth R on Sept 4, 2004 9:56:16 GMT
family and friends have asked me to find out if his editions exsist and ITV Duty Office are utterly hopeless Out of interest, why would anyone expect the Duty Office to know anything about the contents of random episodes of a series made by a long-defunct ITV franchise?
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Post by Kev on Sept 4, 2004 9:59:22 GMT
Just quickly reread the thread.
Andy if you are out there.
Any more details about this accidental ATV fire?
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Post by MikeGarrett on Sept 4, 2004 10:22:53 GMT
Out of interest, why would anyone expect the Duty Office to know anything about the contents of random episodes of a series made by a long-defunct ITV franchise? Long defunct? I know Central Television is only a news operation now, but it is still there broadcasting, and Central was ATV.. anyway the confusion is because Central only do 'regional' stuff now with the merge of Granada and Carlton, no one at either or ITV know what is going on. Although I have heard the Carlton Archive (Central/ATV/HTV) is supposed to be closing so I hope it'll be going to join the ITN Archive alongside Coronation Street and Emmerdale (so their website says) Anyway I think its EW10 that was in the cans, Crossroads was on the big heavy reels Although this thread isn't about how good or bad Crossroads was (to beat Corrie weekly for years and be the fourth most popular ITV show on the week it was axed can't be all that bad) I could reel off all the other firsts and good points but the CAS website does that very well on its own!
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Post by Lee Bannister on Sept 6, 2004 9:31:28 GMT
Just to clariry - I've been in contact with Granada recently regarding our new Tiswas Online website. As you know Carlton has now been totally consumed by Granada Media, and so Granada now owns the whole lot (ATV/Central/Carlton). They are keen to stress that there is an ongoing archive project in operation, and far from the ATV/Central/Carlton archive closing it is in fact in the process of being consolidated with the current Granada archive. I'm sure the ITV Duty Office wouldn't concern itself with archive holdings, why should it, and in this period of transition it might be best to hang on a bit until the company is fully sorted in this respect. But the thing to remember is that they ain't getting rid of anything, if they've got it - it'll be catalogued eventually! You must remember that the Kal guides were produced with the info to hand at the time - now that the archiving project has come further, it shouldn't be a surprise that more has turned up. Oh yeah, I don't work for them by the way I just understand where they're coming from!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 6, 2004 12:52:49 GMT
To add to the confusion over Crossroads there's always been a split between the ATV ones and the Central episodes. Central TV only ever had the rights to the ones they'd made - so episodes in production from around January 1982. ATV Network (or part networked, whatever Crossroads was!) programmes became part of the ITC collection (Central only took over the news and a few regional and schools programmes from ATV). The network collection was eventually sold to Polygram and then sold on to Carlton International. By this time Central had merged with Carlton but Carlton and Carlton International always operated separate archives. So for example a Central made programme looking at the history of Crossroads would have to pay to use clips from Carlton International. Any anyway it's all changed again - Carlton International has been swallowed by Granada International and Carlton has merged with Granada to form ITV (whose production company is known as Granada). Confusing isn't it?
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