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Post by Peter Stirling on Jun 8, 2012 17:48:22 GMT
The Guinness Classic British TV book makes a fair assessment of Crossroads contrasting the sometimes flimsy production values with the impressive viewing figures it had at it's peak. Was Crossroads ever exported? I've got the feeling I read it was shown in Australia at one time, but I might be wrong. They seemed to have a bigger budget in the 60s than later on ?judging by all the clips on YT and stuff on Ebay which shows extensive location filming,even abroad,...and even stunt work. With a few exceptions the early 70s more or less retreated into the studio IIRC The more extensive location work seemed to return with the Brownlows, Glenda got raped and Arthur got run over while holding his trophy. Meg actually shot a promo for Greek TV- whether or not it got sold there dunno?
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Post by Martin McDowell on Jun 8, 2012 23:30:47 GMT
Crossroads was sold to Australia, it was shown there for about a year or so in the mid 1970s.
There is also an episode on Youtube of Crossroads taped off TV One in New Zealand in 1989 so at least some episodes were screened overe there too but nothing probably that would now be missing.
Not sure what other countries bought it.
Thats great news about the possibility of a June 1969 existing. That was the time when they did a witchcraft storyline so that would be very interestig to see! Lets hope it turns up at the BFI when they check up.
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
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Post by Mike Garrett on Jun 21, 2012 1:01:14 GMT
It was shown in China and France and a fair few places. NZ seemed to like it there was positive fan mail from there, although they're well used to 'Reg Watson's other soaps in the same format so don't tend to be so snobbish about soap.
I guess these ITC films are still missing including the three that have gone wayward since circa 1988 which were copied onto 1" for the BFI in 1985 for clip purposes. One was the 'Sheila gives birth' ep which was interesting in itself as it contained 'flashbacks' of other lost episodes.
And the other two missing were from the same week that another two turned up with that 1965 episode a few years ago. Clips from the lost eps are on YT but I guess the most used scene up to them being lost was Meg getting her hairdo done in the salon and Jill claiming it looked super, yet it looked no different from usual...
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2012 9:06:26 GMT
Interesting, Mike. Perhaps you can answer a question of mine? I recall watching a Crossroads documentary back in the '80s which looked at the programme from a slightly sociological angle. Would this be the programme C4 copied clips for using in? I remember seeing clips from episodes in the show which have not turned up on any of the DVD releases. Particularly some footage of Carlos's twin falling to his death from the Eiffel Tower (which I watched at the time of broadcast - around 1969 or thereabouts?) and another clip featuring an early appearance by David Hunter. Do you know if these clips exist in full episodes or where they were sourced from?
Worrying that episodes went AWOL as late as 1988 but there are sadly so many similar stories of such things happening.
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
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Post by Mike Garrett on Jun 21, 2012 12:42:26 GMT
Yes they were copied for Open the Box in 1985 (BFI co-production with an indie called Beat Productions). But survived long enough to be included in the 1987 This Is Your Life for Jane Rossington and also the BBC's Open Air programme.
I Know Greg Taylor once tried to find out from the programme logs at the BBC where the clips came from but all the documents said was "ITC Entertainement" with no indication to it being Birmingham or a Polygram outlet.
I know the Carlos fighting with his twin is an excerpt from an ATV Today report, which also includes a clip of Sandy down a cave and Marlyn (poor Sue Nicholls) falling into a lake.
But we know the clips used in Open The Box and Open air were not from ATV Today as OTB runs on a 1" machine a full episode in fastforward so you see the opening caption and 'end of part one'. And Open air has a different opening caption.
Where they've gone I don't know. It's also the case that two Video Tape episodes are missing which were copied by Central for the fan club in 1990. One involves the 'Indian racist' storyline and the other is the episode directly before the 1975 wedding which has Meg's mother with a speaking part.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2012 14:12:31 GMT
Thanks for the detailed info, Mike. The mystery deepens...
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Post by Phil Leach on Jun 22, 2012 11:42:36 GMT
It's quite a confusing picture! The ATV commissioned episodes became part of the ITC collection so eventually ending up with Polygram and then Carlton International. The Central ones belonged to the new Central company. There were some that were broadcast by Central and kept by them but officially assigned to ATV. These are the 1982 episodes that were thought to be lost but were in fact copied to D2 by Central in the 1990s.
Crossroads is classed as a network programme because it was shown across the network although it was not actually networked! Different times and slots, that sort of thing.
I think the Crossroads film inserts are with ITV in Leeds as they used to be in Birmingham because they had been retained by the film library.
Format V was a regional programme so material is with MACE. Although all that we hold for the Noele Gordon programme is the film insert material. The as broadcast 2 inch went (educated guess) when the repeat was compiled onto 1 inch. That One Inch repeat version became a network programme so is held by ITV and was the tape that Network accessed. The only Format V we hold on VT is a programme about Redditch new town. Everything else from that series is 16mm film.
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
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Post by Mike Garrett on Jun 22, 2012 12:51:00 GMT
Excellent, that the Format V film inserts survive, its the original opening filmed intro which is quite the rarity.
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Post by Stuart Douglas on Jun 22, 2012 13:56:18 GMT
Yes they were copied for Open the Box in 1985 (BFI co-production with an indie called Beat Productions). But survived long enough to be included in the 1987 This Is Your Life for Jane Rossington and also the BBC's Open Air programme. I Know Greg Taylor once tried to find out from the programme logs at the BBC where the clips came from but all the documents said was "ITC Entertainement" with no indication to it being Birmingham or a Polygram outlet. I know the Carlos fighting with his twin is an excerpt from an ATV Today report, which also includes a clip of Sandy down a cave and Marlyn (poor Sue Nicholls) falling into a lake. But we know the clips used in Open The Box and Open air were not from ATV Today as OTB runs on a 1" machine a full episode in fastforward so you see the opening caption and 'end of part one'. And Open air has a different opening caption. Where they've gone I don't know. It's also the case that two Video Tape episodes are missing which were copied by Central for the fan club in 1990. One involves the 'Indian racist' storyline and the other is the episode directly before the 1975 wedding which has Meg's mother with a speaking part. Hmm, sounds like our list of missing Crossrods episodes - as well as not being the most useful list on the site - is a bit out of date too? www.btinternet.com/~m.brown1/crossroads.htmStuart
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
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Post by Mike Garrett on Jun 22, 2012 20:18:28 GMT
I imagine the wonderful people at KAL will know more on the recent goings on but I wouldn't want to be the person trying to keep on top of all the ATV/ITC loses/finds over the past 20 years to put together a picture of it all. I doubt anyone will really admit to saying 'oh well we destroyed x,y and z' in recent times.
I spoke to Charles Denton last year and he said even in the Central/Carlton days there was a thing that ATV stuff really wasn't that important in the eyes of the company, which is rather sad. That may explain the destruction in 1997/2003 of none-film/vt material as far as ATV goes.
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Post by Martin McDowell on Jun 22, 2012 21:47:54 GMT
Yes, it is!
As Mike says all of 1982 exists. Uk Gold started showing the series from episode 3543 (shown 3 Dec 1981) so all episodes after this still exist complete. That might be a good first step to getting your list up-to-date!
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Post by Steven Flavell on Aug 28, 2013 11:53:37 GMT
Just been looking this up on Lostshows.com and according to them the episodes dated 17th and 22nd December 1981 are missing. Is this a mistake or have these gone walkabout since UK Gold screened them?
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 23, 2014 13:34:42 GMT
Update on this, I've spoken recently to the people who sorted the ATV/ITC footage for the fan club in the 1980s/early 1990s and the episodes which are now missing were stored under Heathrow Airport.
Some clips from these have recently been put on You Tube including a bit from the episode before the 1975 wedding and a clip of Noele Gordon in the reception in an 'electric chair' which lifts her up.
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Post by Patrick Coles on Apr 24, 2014 9:25:39 GMT
I must confess to having a soft spot for 'Crossroads' as my late Mum & my sister loved it (Mum's lady friends all loved it too, as did many of the the girls at my sister's school) & I was forced to watch it as it was always viewed in our house & was on before the likes of 'Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea', 'Lost in Space' etc that as a kid I was into...
it WAS an entertaining show that had a pretty decent regular cast of true 'soap' actors who took their roles seriously, it would today probably be dismissed as being; 'too white', 'too middle class' etc (the usual bleats) but it featured very 'ordinary' people in a midlands motel...with regulars you came to feel you 'knew', and they moved the stories at a logical very believable pace
the odd stronger - and sillier - storyline ran, but it wasn't all obnoxious arguments, class wars, sensationalist storylines, etc...indeed later on when these more sensational things began to creep in (the mafia turned up in Heathbury !, the odd murder, the fire at the motel etc) was when the charisma and normality of the show began to slip somewhat
If I remember correctly it had got a bit stale and thus a new 'saviour' producer came in who immediately stamped himself all over it - putting HIS name on the opening credits unlike Reg Watson etc...and I think he decided Noele Gordon was 'old hat' & sacked her (is that right ?) - probably the shock did shorten her life too - whatever too many changes came too quickly, my Mum and her friends didn't like the faster pace, no Meg, too many new faces all at once, and more hard hitting storylines re rapes, attacks, etc - didn't it become 'Crossroads: Kings Oak' or something ?
Mum & her lady friends all 'gave up' on the show then...as many fans must have also done for it slipped in the ratings later...
Mum & pals DID give the later revived series a chance - but Mum told me it was all 'yoof yoof yoof' being firmly aimed just at a younger audience (something that caused a few 'Corrie' veteran actors to quit that show over) & had the seemingly obligatory gay characters (I suppose to reflect 'real life') while I believe Jane Rossington & her screen husband actor had been lured back...only for Jane's character to be murdered by him (both actors were surprised at that) - the show apparently bore scant resemblance to the old 'Crossroads' and thus the older viewers deserted it in droves...and the new viewers quickly lost interest too - guess what ? - it flopped !
....and was quickly revamped, that flopped too, thus it got the boot...
Reg Watson and co must have got something right....later he did 'Neighbours' down under which proved very popular too...
the 'normality' and 'cosiness' with folk you felt you actually knew, of the original 'Crossroads' show was never allowed to return in the later version, as it seems modern soaps now all concentrate largely on a younger audience, and seek more sensational storylines to try to appeal essentially to a (perceived) younger audience whom they assume are only ever interested in conflict and aggression, and I think that was what put alot of potential viewers & older fans off it
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Post by brianfretwell on Apr 24, 2014 12:06:23 GMT
Ah, but wasn't the whole run of the revival revealed in the last episode to be the daydreams of the local supermarket checkout staff? I think that might have been to leave a chance of a good revival later and admitting they failed with both attempts.
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