Mike Garrett
Member
Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
Posts: 23
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 24, 2014 14:12:56 GMT
The Carlton versions were written off as a dream. It was unique in British Telvision until they started showing the Young Doctors which was the same format. It gets compared to Corrie or Emmerdale, it was supposed to be nothing like that. Reg Watson was head of entertainment the format was partly based on the American soaps.
June Whitfield said critics don't like happy middle class programmes so that didn't help either, but it out-performed its slot ratings wise for most of its run, keeping a lot of elderly people happy. It was never going to be hip, with it or swinging which the new version tried to be and just fell flat on its very sturdy sets floor.
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Post by Richard Marple on Apr 24, 2014 17:30:03 GMT
I've never known if the stories about the tackyness of the original run were true or not, either way they kept Victoria Wood in material for years.
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
Posts: 23
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 24, 2014 20:04:38 GMT
Victoria Wood got the whoopsies right, although all that happened in Corrie too and I dunno why it doesn't get picked up for all that. The late wonderful Richard Thorp said he couldn't understand why Crossroads got the stick either; he'd been in shows where the sets had been far worse. He recalled he did a scene in Emergency Ward 10 having a row, and he stormed into a room and the door swung back and took the whole wall with it and it went out live so they just had to carry on. He also recalled one 'extra' was a regular drinker and he once leaned on the ward wall and took a section of it out and again they just carried on.
Another one from his time in EW10 was the lights used to go off during the break, and a few times they returned to the show and the lights failed to light so they'd do the scene in the dark!
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Post by Patrick Coles on Apr 24, 2014 20:57:37 GMT
I never knew the revival of 'Crossroads'was revealed to be all a dream ( ) so Jane Rossington's character (Jill ?) wasn't murdered by her husband at all then...? the 'Bobby Ewing in the shower' Dallas reveal of 'it's all been just a dream' is the classic (& daftest) TV cop out to cover a right 'botched up' job.... tho' saying that maybe Paul McGann's Doctor Who might still yet awaken from a coma ...and we discover that everything BBC Wales have vomited at us from 2005 to date is revealed to be just a dream.... (nightmare !!!) back to 'Crossroads'- I think the key was the 'middle class management' / 'working class staff' split of types in the show - much originally centered on the kitchen (literally a 'kitchen sink drama') - with emphasis on the lives of the staff, mainly the girls (Marilyn Gates - Sue Nicholls, Miss Diane Lawton - Sue Hansen, whose hubby Pop star Carl Wayne of The Move even turned up as a postman once !) but in latter years you never even saw the kitchen area at all, while characters who initially had pretty normal lives fans could relate to, later began to have too many unlikely aspects in their lives to remain credible... My Mum told me Meg Richardson originally had some sisters, but I don't remember them at all, Meg was the mainstay of the show & booting her out was suicidal (like if they had axed Annie Walker or Ena Sharples from 'Corrie' in the sixties or Hilda Ogden / Bet Lynch later....tho' 'Corrie' DID admit a mistake in killing off Martha Longhurst early on ), but the sacking of Noele Gordon was far more detrimental to 'Crossroads' as she was the 'Queen of the show' and minus her it was a headless chicken later... MANY people enjoyed it, notably married women & the elderly....NOT a fav 'target audience' of TV execs in later years....hence the revival was so 'yoof' aimed I can't see such a style of soap ever being attempted now - post 'Brookside' (thanks Mr. Redmond) ALL the British soaps (notably 'Corrie', 'Emmerdale' & of course 'Eastenders' - a very realistic bunch who yet never once swear or ever mention Leyton Orient !) have all become essentially (perceived) 'yoof' audience aimed continual confrontational battlegrounds with arguments & shouting the norm, murders & attacks a plenty, festive domestic traumas, & a succession of fires/disasters/kidnappings etc...to grab those ratings at all cost so 'Crossroads' (as was) is very much a 'period piece' almost genteel style of soap now reflecting another time entirely before UK TV became such a permanently cynical 'continually shock the viewers forevermore in order to get those ratings' obsessed place...
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Mike Garrett
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Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
Posts: 23
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 24, 2014 21:57:30 GMT
I agree about the soaps today and the whole it was a much softer style.
Its a shame so much of the 60s is missing and also the more lavish episodes as well (the weeks worth of filming at Chateau Impney and countryside with Stephanie De Sykes in the vintage car all gone ect). Meg's sister was Kitty Jarvis (Beryl Johnstone the first wife of actor Kenneth More).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2014 9:05:40 GMT
I saw a lot of Crossroads in the '60s through to the early '70s, as it was always on in our house. The soaps of today are harder edged but completely unbelievable (and unwatchable), with unlikeable characters and one incredible situation piled on top of another. But there should still be a place for something softer and more everyday like Crossroads, which never deserved the flak it got throughout it's life. Myths have sprung up around it too; in all the years it was on in our house, I never saw a set wobble once; admittedly Amy Turtle and a few others would regularly fluff their lines, but never moving scenery.
It is a shame so much of the '60s era has been wiped as some of the most entertaining storylines were in there. I can actually recall watching the very first episode that was screened in the London area (just after Christmas 1964, soon after the beginning of the series in the Midlands) which began with a man in a suit seated at a desk - possibly in the office of the garage out of the window behind him - talking directly to camera as a means of introducing us to the regular characters up to that point!
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Post by Patrick Coles on Apr 25, 2014 11:37:31 GMT
so Meg Did have a sister ...!
I recall NO 'wobbling walls' on the 'Crossroads' set at all - in the early days most of the stories were centered on a modern large kitchen with originally fiery chef Carlos & his wife (early casting of non British characters as regulars there back in 1964) plus the girls Marilyn, Diane, etc....later Mr. Lovejoy then Mr.Booth were the chefs who were figures of authority
Meg & her son Sandy were managerial figures - I believe they guy who played Sandy had a terminal illness so they wrote him a car crash that crippled him & kept him in the show wheelchair bound as long as the poor chap could handle the role (- is that right ?) other manger guys assisted Meg thus the 'office' featured alot too - later 'David Hunter' (Ronald Allen from BBC's 'Compact') came in as a major co-star with Meg (& even later Sue Lloyd as his second wife too) A elderly lady ran the post office too (I forget her name now) which also was a featured spot while later on the garage featured alot (I was never that keen on 'Benny' who was too daft to work as a straight character for me, I felt he was when 'caricature' began to creep in - like that 'Reg Holdsworth' plonker in 'Corrie' etc)
various figures & families came & went over time but while the regular characters had eventful lives (as any ongoing show must have of course) it was kept overall quite credible - one 'husband' did try to bump Meg off (it does happen !) but in the main things were of a credible 'ongoing life' style rather than all this absurd sensationalist piffle modern soaps throw at us repeatedly - while 'Crossroads' despite the occasional storyline wasn't as 'sex obsessed' as modern soaps now are either- and in 'Crossroads' while there were conflicts, disagreements even petty feuds etc, arguments & abusiveness was NOT ever allowed to be 'the norm' and a sense of normal life was the biggest strength on the show that HELD it's core audience throughout the sixties, seventies & into the eighties.
there was an 'across the board' age spread too - younger characters, a few kids, younger adults, older folk etc - people EVERYONE could identify with (as you get in real life !), if 'Amy Turtle' muffed a few lines (just as did the elderly 'Albert Steptoe' & the original 'Doctor Who' etc in largely 'pre-quick edit' days of shooting on a tight schedule etc,) well that fitted her elderly character perfectly
- and just who is permanently 'word perfect' in real life ? (just watch the younger John Lennon forever forget his OWN song lyrics during live Beatles TV performances...he could never get his song; 'Help !' correct - despite Paul & George leading him in on each line in it...!)
and re those supposedly infamous 'wobbling walls' - as I said above I never saw any in 'Crossroads', tho' likewise in early sixties 'Dr.Who' (but it has to be said a few times later in the colour era - notably in 'The Sea Devils' Jon Pertwee tale - note the wall scanner in Col Trenchard's office at the secure prison - & in Tom Baker's story; 'Seeds of Doom' - in millionaire Harrison Chase's mansion - walls DID indeed 'wobble' !, while an unsuspecting Peter Davison once had a Tardis console control 'come off' in his hand...heroic Peter duly 'acted on' !)
so thanks to Victoria Wood & co 'Crossroads' has got an unfair reputation as 'tacky' and cheap...but in truth it had considerable strengths, and being filmed DAILY it had to be on it's toes even more so than contemporary soaps; 'Corrie','Emmerdale FARM' etc....so to have lasted from early sixties to eighties with big viewing figures & devoted fans - plus people like me who saw it & knew it regardless of if we were that mad on it - they MUST have got something right...yes ?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2014 11:58:47 GMT
I believe they guy who played Sandy had a terminal illness so they wrote him a car crash that crippled him & kept him in the show wheelchair bound as long as the poor chap could handle the role (- is that right ?) A elderly lady ran the post office too (I forget her name now) which also was a featured spot re those supposedly infamous 'wobbling walls' - as I said above I never saw any in 'Crossroads', tho' likewise in early sixties 'Dr.Who' (but a few timwes in the colour era later - notably in 'The Sea Devils' Jon Pertwee tale & in Tom Baker's story; 'Seeds of Doom' !! - walls DID 'woble' while an unsuspecting Peter Davison once had a Tardis console control 'come off' in his hand...heroic Peter duly 'acted on' !) so thanks to Victoria Wood & co 'Crossroads' has got an unfair reputation as 'tacky' and cheap...but in truth it had considerable strengths, and being filmed DAILY it had to be on it's toes even more so that 'Corrie','Emmerdale FARM' etc....so to have lasted from early sixties to eighties with big viewing figures & devoted fans - plus people like me who saw it & knew it regardless of if we were that mad on it - they MUST have got something right...yes ? I believe Roger Tonge was completely able bodied when Sandy was out into a wheelchair in 1972. He lived into the '80s. I'm sure Mike can provide more detail on this though. The postmistress was Miss Tatum, by the way. Yes, the exaggerated Acorn Antiques thing - as funny as it was - seems to have been taken on board as how Crossroads was. Younger generations who don't remember the show now probably believe it really was the same in exact detail, whereas, as you point out, other shows had more wobbly sets! An amusing memory regarding the Sandy accident: I was holidaying on the Essex coast with my parents in 1972, which was away from my normal London area viewing. At the point I went on holiday, Sandy was fine and working in the garage. While away, I caught an Anglia transmission of Crossroads (which were up to date with their screenings, whereas London was about six months behind) where I found Sandy on a life support in hospital. I wondered for ages what dramatic turn of events lead him to this state of affairs! Going home again to Thames transmissions was like having premonition as I knew what was going to happen in the storyline half a year hence!
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Mike Garrett
Member
Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
Posts: 23
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 26, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
Yeah Roger Tonge became ill after the fictional storyline of Sandy's car crash. It was cancer that killed him aged 35 in 1981. But what a legacy his storyline left; Crossroads Care/Carers UK still runs giving carers breaks.
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Post by Patrick Coles on Apr 26, 2014 18:01:58 GMT
that's great to hear - the show deserves MORE respect than being seen as an object of ridicule...it got about 15 million viewers at one point !
I can recall an old storyline where a younger fully fit Sandy Richardson went off on a trip to France...and got his wallet lifted in Paris ! (if I remember correctly), leaving him peniless in France - I think a French family took him in and contacted Meg at Crossroads who arranged a bank draft or something to get him home....it had location filming of Roger as Sandy in Paris
have I got that correct ?
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Post by John Green on Apr 26, 2014 19:46:03 GMT
Yeah Roger Tonge became ill after the fictional storyline of Sandy's car crash. It was cancer that killed him aged 35 in 1981. But what a legacy his storyline left; Crossroads Care/Carers UK still runs giving carers breaks. Nice one,Mike! www.carers.org/history-carers-trust for a piece on the origin.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2014 8:45:09 GMT
I remember also seeing Wendy Padbury in the early episodes as one of Sandy's school friends (I forget the name of her character). They used to come back to the motel after school and hang out in the kitchen. One for the Dr.Who fans!
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Mike Garrett
Member
Manager of the official ITV Crossroads fan club.
Posts: 23
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Post by Mike Garrett on Apr 27, 2014 22:25:20 GMT
I can recall an old storyline where a younger fully fit Sandy Richardson went off on a trip to France...and got his wallet lifted in Paris ! (if I remember correctly), leaving him peniless in France - I think a French family took him in and contacted Meg at Crossroads who arranged a bank draft or something to get him home....it had location filming of Roger as Sandy in Paris have I got that correct ? That's right. I don't think (Maybe the guys at KAL will know) any of the France/Paris film is around. I know in 2008 some stuff from the Tunisia/Spain filming turned up. Sandy is pictured in an 1965 (that's how long ago that storyline was!) TV Times outside the Moulin Rouge and eiffel tower. Wendy Padbury played Stephanie 'Stevie' Harris, (I think she ended up as one of Meg's foster kids or something like that). Unfortunate none of her episodes are around although there are a couple of photos of her in the show.
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Post by John Green on Apr 27, 2014 22:56:47 GMT
I remember also seeing Wendy Padbury in the early episodes as one of Sandy's school friends (I forget the name of her character). They used to come back to the motel after school and hang out in the kitchen. One for the Dr.Who fans! So 'Crossroads' really did have a wobbly cast?
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Post by Mark P on Jun 22, 2014 6:20:49 GMT
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