Crossroads 2001 - Celebrating ITV's hotel soap from Carlton Television

Celebrating Crossroads 2001 – The second series of ITV’s hotel soap from Carlton Television

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RUMOURS THAT CROSSROADS IS DUE TO RETURN…

Monday, April 10, 2000

The Guardian

Lord Ali plans comeback for Crossroads

Crossroads, the soap with the shaky sets and shakier storylines, is poised to make a comeback. Lord Waheed Ali, the Carlton Television executive, is to put a proposal to ITV for a remake of the show.

It is not clear whether the new version will feature the trademark closing sequence in which the credits criss-crossed the screen above the distinctive theme tune (once arranged by Paul McCartney), but Lord Ali insists it will be recognisably Crossroads.

If accepted by ITV, which will soon have a daily soap slot that needs filling after Channel 5's successful bid for Home and Away, the show will be made at Carlton's studios in Nottingham.

Lord Ali, Carlton's director of productions, said: "I want to do a soap. I very, very badly want to get that slot vacated by Home and Away."

He said the new Crossroads was likely to be set in a hotel, rather than a motel - "I don't think we have motels any more, do we?"

Lord Ali would not reveal whether he would reintroduce classic characters such as Benny, the odd-job man, but said that the new show would be aimed at a young audience - a pledge sure to strike fear into fans of the original, who blamed meddling producers for precipitating its decline.

Dorothy Hobson, author of Crossroads - The Drama of a Soap Opera (now out of print), was delighted. A hotel was ideal for a soap, because it allowed for a good mix of permanent and visiting characters

April 11, 2001

The Independent

`Crossroads', home of wooden acting and flimsy sets, rises from the grave

THE TELEVISION soap Crossroads, based on a Midlands motel, which became infamous for its dodgy scripts and even dodgier sets, could soon reopen for business.

Detailed proposals to make an updated version of the classic daytime serial that ran for 24 years have been drawn up by Lord Alli, the director of productions for Carlton Television. Lord Alli said he "very badly" wanted to remake Crossroads to fill ITV's late- afternoon slot, which will be left vacant when the Australian soap Home and Away moves to Channel 5 next year.

Carlton will formally submit the idea to ITV on 24 April, but the proposal was greeted with mixed feelings by its former cast and the critics.

First launched in 1965, Crossroads drew audiences of 14 million at its peak, developing characters such as Benny Hawkins, the simple- minded handyman, and Meg Hunter, the hotel's first owner, who became national heroes.

The series could be the latest in a string of remakes from the Sixties and Seventies, including The Avengers, The Saint and Mission: Impossible. Carlton also unveiled its television remake of the classic film The Railway Children yesterday, which will star Jenny Agutter, the original child lead, as the children's mother.

Lord Alli, the former head of Planet 24, said he hoped to retain the Crossroads title and original theme music, written by Tony Hatch and later rerecorded by Paul McCartney's group Wings. Questions such as Benny's future have yet to be decided, he said.

The series would be made in Carlton's Nottingham studios, written with a younger audience in mind. Lord Alli dismissed suggestions that its poor production standards should be retained. "I just don't buy into that. The reason why Crossroads works was because there were great storylines and the characters were great and believable," he said.

Paul Henry, 54, who played Benny, remembered that viewers hung banners outside their homes stating "Benny is innocent" when his character was accused of a murder. "He was a great character to play because you could take every emotion to the extreme, he could lose his temper or get upset," he said.

Rival soap magazines had opposing views. Paul Smith, of Soaplife, said his magazine was right to give Crossroads its Golden Turkey Award in January. "I think it's old ground," he said. "I think it would be sacrilege to bring it back." However, Wendy Granditer, of Inside Soap, said it was "a great idea". She said: "I would be very, very upset if it came back as a very slick programme. I think people quite liked the daytime hammyness of it. That would be part of its appeal." (Severin Carell)

Tuesday 11th April 2000

The Telegraph

Crossroads heads for comeback 12 years on

CROSSROADS, the television soap opera that came to an end 12 years ago, should be back in the near future. Lord Waheed Alli, Carlton Television's director of productions, is on the brink of submitting a proposal to ITV for a remake of the show.

The motel-based production is best remembered for its shaky sets and even shakier acting. A spokesman for Carlton said yesterday: "We are one of a number of companies who are pitching ideas to ITV for a teatime soap. Although the proposal has been formed and agreed this end, it has not yet been submitted to ITV."

She did confirm that the soap would be recognisably Crossroads and filmed at Carlton's studios in Nottingham. It is being earmarked to fill a daily soap slot on ITV that will be left when Home and Away moves to Channel 5. Lord Alli said the new Crossroads was likely to be set in a hotel, rather than a motel. He said: "I don't think we have motels any more, do we?"

Sunday, April 16, 2000

Observer Viewpoint

Why is ITV threatening to resurrect Crossroads?

During video's first spring in the late Seventies, Radio Rentals advertised a new-fangled 'long-play' video recorder with the line 'It can take 16 episodes of Crossroads. (If you can)' Geddit? But if popular opinion didn’t think we could take 16 episodes of it then, why does Carlton think we can now?

When Labour peer and Carlton TV executive Waheed Ali announced last week that he plans to resurrect Crossroads, we assumed he was having a laugh. Cue: the gruesome flashbacks - the genetically worrisome romance between Benny and Miss Diane; Meg waving her final goodbye beneath a headscarf on the QE2; Kate Robbins singing 'More Than In Love' from the dizzy heights of number two in the charts in 1981. All good, funny, newspaper-filling stuff, but he was winding us all up, wasn't he? Apparently not. Ali's slightly camp fantasy to revive the five/four/three-nights a week, motel soap seems sincere.

But why bring back a show whose heyday was in the Seventies? Why revive a brand that means as much to the advertiser-friendly 18-25 year olds as Mint Cracknel and Baader-Meinhoff? Why resurrect something that was, not to put too fine a cultural point on it, crap?

Putting aside the fact that Ali ran his own successful TV company, Planet 24, for six years - ergo, the sort of harebrained scheme he wakes up with at three in the morning might just work - Crossroads was without doubt popular crap. Throughout the Seventies, it attracted up to 16 million loyal viewers, peaking at 17.6 million in 1978. In 1976, Noele Gordon, who played matriarch Meg Richardson/Ryder/Mortimer was voted favourite female personality at the TV Times Awards for the seventh year running. In 1981, when news leaked out of 'wholesale changes' (including the axeing of Gordon), thousands wrote to Central Television to complain, and the Sun launched a Save Our Meg campaign. When ageing heart-throb David Hunter was written out in 1984, producer Phil Bowman received death threats. But the numbers tell a misleading story. Hurriedly made, poorly performed, perfunctorily directed, preposterously plotted - these are the virtues which stuck to Crossroads, rightly or wrongly. Wobbly sets, irritating theme tune, and set 'just outside Birmingham' for heaven's sake. Larry Grayson made two separate cameo appearances in it.

Crossroads was Eddie’ The Eagle' Edwards in teatime serial form. Bringing it back in the twenty-first century - post 'Acorn Antiques', post Alan Partridge at the Linton Travel Tavern - smacks either of desperation, or, even worse irony. Kitsch TV nostalgia has become a plague on popular culture. In America, the thirty- and fortysomethingings who control the media remake favourite TV shows of their youth as multi-million dollar movies, and they're terrible (Wild Wild West, My Favourite Martian); so let’s not remake Crossroads as a TV Show. The precedent is not good. It would either have to be 'ironied-up' like last year's misfiring Mr. & Mrs. with Julian Clary (taken off within minutes), or played relatively straight like Channel 5's It's a Knockout - a great advert for just showing the original on UK Gold (or is that Mould?) and being done with it.

Indeed nobody would argue with the decision to re-run all 4,510 episodes of old Crossroads, round the clock, on a loop, forever, on a dedicated digital cable channel called XR-TV (Crossroads TV) But a new Crossroads for Generation Y2K means revisiting the same minefield that maimed so many the first time round.

Crossroads ran for 24 years from 1964 but its demise remains a cautionary tale. Gordon's dismissal in 1981 heralded the beginning of the end. ATV's programme controller, Charles Denton, and drama head Margaret Matheson decided that Crossroads should become 'less middle-aged' for the new decade. 'We have to bring in some new blood' said Denton, 'and point Crossroads in a new direction.' Uh-oh.

Crossroads became more glamorous, with younger actress Gabrielle Drake taking over the motel in 1985, and two years later a complete facelift saw the show rebranded as Crossroads, Kings Oak, and conspicuously yuppiefied. New producer William Smethhurst had been appalled at a survey showing that Crossroads viewers read the Star, and he set about raising the 'audience profile'. But the experiment failed, and the soap was cancelled in 1988.

When Crossroads was the same, it flourished. When it was different, it died. Bringing it back under the old name but with -presumably - a new thrusting, young, attractive cast would be a grave error; a nation forged in the white heat of camp irony after two hours at the Groucho Club that will surely end, like Meg on the QE2, in tears.

THE RETURN OF CROSSROADS IS CONFIRMED

30th August 2000

The Guardian

Crossroads Confirmed

For fans of Benny and Miss Diane, the 12-year wait is over. Crossroads, the epitome of cheesy 1970s television, is returning to ITV as a daily daytime soap early next year.

The new Crossroads will still be set just outside Birmingham, but the motel with the shaky walls is to be upgraded to a hotel - the Kings Oak - with a bar, restaurant, conference centre and beauty salon.

ITV and producer Carlton are not revealing whether Benny and other characters from the original Crossroads will be returning, along with the dodgy scripts and production values and the distinctive theme tune.

Casting is to begin in October and further details about the soap are expected nearer transmission. The production team for the 21st-century Crossroads will be based at Carlton's Nottingham centre and the drama is to be shot in the studio and on location.

ITV's controller of daytime television, Maureen Duffy, said: "The new Crossroads will be absolutely of our time. It really will strengthen ITV's daytime schedule by providing our viewers with strong narrative dealing with the realities, issues and fun of everyday life."

The commercial broadcaster has ordered a 12-month, five-day-a-week run of Crossroads. A second daily drama, United Productions' Trafalgar Road, has been commissioned to replace the early evening Australian soap Home and Away, which has been poached by Channel 5.

Trafalgar Road will be set in south-east London and focuses on a group of friends "watching their children grow up when they haven't finished growing up themselves", according to a United spokeswoman. She added: "It's about parents wishing they were still teenagers and struggling to make sense of their lives. They have teenage kids who think they know everything."

The original Crossroads ran for 24 years, from 1964 until 1988. Noele Gordon, who played the motel's matriarchal owner Meg, was voted favourite female personality in the TV Times awards seven years in a row during the show's 70s heyday.

When Gordon was written out of Crossroads in 1981 thousands wrote to producer Central Television to complain, and the Sun launched the Save Our Meg campaign.

The 1980s brought a slow, inexorable decline in the soap's ratings, despite several changes of direction aimed at reviving it. A younger, more glamorous actor, Gabrielle Drake, took over the motel in 1985. Two years later the show was rebranded Crossroads, Kings Oak, in a last-ditch attempt to attract a more upmarket following.

August 31, 2001

The Independent

`Crossroads' is back. But why don't the sets shake? And where is Benny?

ONE OF Britain's best-loved - and most derided - television soaps is to return. The new Crossroads will launch next spring as the centrepiece of the ITV 2001 daytime schedule, the channel said yesterday. .

The soap opera set in a motel outside Birmingham,which made "a Benny" a household term of derision, is to become a weekday fixture. Some of the old characters will be back, but it is not known yet whether Benny himself is among them.

The legendary shaky sets, however, will be absent. Steve Hewlett, the director of programmes at Carlton, said: "I am hoping it will become as iconic as the original, but for things that were good - the warmth, the sense of engagement - not the wobbly walls, which it won't have.

"It will be a class drama. It's a thoroughly modern soap, very much based on now, but it's got a history and in terms of history, establishing a place in people's heads is one of the hardest things for programme makers," he said.

The soap ran for 24 years until 1988, gaining audiences of 18 million in its Seventies heyday as well as a cult following. The new Crossroads will still be set in a hotel outside Birmingham, although it will be filmed in Nottingham.

The revival was the brainchild of Carlton's head of programming, Lord Alli, who said his passion for the soap had begun in childhood. "I watched it with my mother and I think it's one of those things which you could experience as real family viewing," he said. "It was not as gritty as some, you didn't feel you wanted to commit suicide afterwards, yet you didn't have the non-stop comedy of Coronation Street ... it was accessible, and easy viewing for the family." Lord Alli said he wanted to maintain that feeling for a modern audience.

The channel is said to be putting "significant resources" behind the soap, which will go out in half-hour episodes every weekday. Commissioned for a year, it has been storylined but not yet fully scripted.

Lord Alli wants the soap still to be based around a "strong matriarchal character" like Meg Richardson, played last time by the late Noele Gordon. Several of the original cast members have been "pencilled in", although talks are continuing. But the theme tune, the last version of which was arranged by Paul McCartney's band Wings, is likely to remain.

"Lots of our creative people have ideas for the theme tune, but I'm going to try to keep the old one," said Lord Alli. "The other thing I liked was the way the credits rolled - up and down and side to side. That will be my gesture to the old programme."

ITV also gave details of its replacement for the Australian soap Home and Away. Trafalgar Road, to be shown at teatime, set in south- east London, will feature a group of young families. Nick Elliott, controller of drama, said: "Trafalgar Road is a fresh and vibrant drama about today's young families in London."(Jojo Moyes)

31st August 2000

The Telegraph

Return of Crossroads, the world's wobbliest motel

CROSSROADS, the famously rickety soap opera set in a Midlands motel, is returning to ITV but without its most memorable star.

Benny, the woolly-hatted odd-job man, has been written out of an updated version which will be set in an upmarket hotel with a health spa and conference centre. The character, who was played by Paul Henry - now a publican in Birmingham - was deemed to be out of date by the show's producers.

The series will, however, see the return of at least two of the original cast: Jane Rossington, who played the boss's daughter, Jill Chance, and Kathy Staff, better known as Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine, as the cleaner Doris Luke. The original show, which ran for 24 years and attracted up to 16 million viewers until it was axed in 1988, was known for its shaky sets and hammy acting.

Lord Alli, the Labour peer and managing director of Carlton Productions, which is making the series, said that the new version would not be "a kitsch, post-modernist" remake of the original. He said: "The idea is to create a family show that will attract both young and older viewers." The new Crossroads would sit somewhere between the unreal world of Coronation Street and the gritty realism of EastEnders, he added.

Maureen Duffy, ITV's controller of daytime television, said that the new series would be "absolutely of our time" and would deal with the "issues and fun of everyday life". Crossroads, which will go out on weekdays, will be the highlight of ITV's flagging afternoon schedule and was one of two new soap operas unveiled by the network.

The second, Trafalgar Road, is set in south-east London and focuses on a group of young families. It will be shown at teatime, replacing Home and Away. David Liddiment, ITV's director of programmes who had invited production companies to bid for a new teatime soap, defended soaps, saying they "play an important role in connecting channels with their audience".

August 31st 2000

The Independent

Crossroads is back, but why don’t the sets shake?

The soap opera set in a motel outside Birmingham, which made "a Benny" a household term of derision, is to become a weekday fixture. Some of the old characters will be back, but it is not known yet whether Benny himself is among them.

THE BUILD-UP….CAST, CREW AND LOCATIONS….

Wednesday, September 27, 2000

The Guardian

Kay Patrick to series produce the Crossroads

Carlton Television has announced that Kay Patrick is to series produce the reborn Crossroads when it returns next year.

Patrick has series produced Sunburn for BBC1, and has worked as a director on Eastenders, Brookside, Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

Friday, October 27, 2000

Ananova

Barbara Dickson snubs Crossroads

Barbara Dickson has turned down a role in Crossroads.

Jonathon Powell, director of drama for Carlton Television, told the Media Guardian they had approached the former Band of Gold star about a role in the remake of the 1970s soap.

But Mr. Powell said she had declined.

Producers of the show are in the early stages of looking for actors to appear in the soap which will return to ITV in a daytime slot next year.

Friday, October 27, 2000

Guardian Unlimited / The Guardian

Dickson snubs Crossroads remake

Actress and singer Barbara Dickson has turned down the offer of a role in Carlton's ITV remake of 1970s daytime soap Crossroads.

Carlton director of drama Jonathan Powell confirmed that an approach had been made to Ms Dickson in the early stages of casting the returning soap, but said the actress would not be appearing in the show.

Crossroads is due to return to ITV daytime early next year in what is expected to be an early afternoon slot. Actress and singer Barbara Dickson has turned down the offer of a role in Carlton's ITV remake of 1970s daytime soap Crossroads.

Crossroads is due to return to ITV daytime early next year in what is expected to be an early afternoon slot.

Actress and singer Barbara Dickson has turned down the offer of a role in Carlton's ITV remake of 1970s daytime soap Crossroads.

Crossroads is due to return to ITV daytime early next year in what is expected to be an early afternoon slot.

Friday, November 17, 2000

Guardian Unlimited

Lucy Rouse's TV Gossip

Bet you can't wait for Crossroads to come back on? Television just hasn't been the same experience since those wobbly sets and green knitted woolen hats left the screen. (Well, OK, Dr Who continued into the 1990s, but it just wasn't the same after Tom Baker was it?) But the motel will be back on the box before the middle of next year, bringing laughs back to teatime soap-watchers everywhere.

What you also might not know is that the team making Crossroads over at Carlton is producing the show for about as much as they did the first time around. Those task-masters at ITV ordered not just one teatime soap, but two, a few months back- and they insisted that all producers sign contracts to demonstrate their programmes within strict budget limits. But it works out at an annual income of about £10m for Carlton, so it's not all bad news.

The other sad fact about the doom motel, though, is that the architect behind Crossroads revival won't be around to see his new baby hit the screen. You might not have had Lord Waheed Ali down as a typical Benny fan - but you'd be wrong. The Labour peer was head of Carlton Productions until earlier this week when the parent company's latest boardroom coup left him without a seat. Ali had joined Carlton with his production company Planet 24, which Carlton bought a couple of years ago. His brief was to improve Carlton's reputation for programme-making - so he decided to bring back Crossroads. Shame he isn't working there any more, you might think.

Another fruit of the Carlton cornucopia of delights - Inspector Morse - came to a fitting end on TV this week. Some 60 per cent of viewers tuned in to watch the demise of the wizened one. So ITV should be well happy. But not according to one insider who this week admitted to us: "It wasn't a fabulous production, to be quite honest."

18^th November 2000

The Telegraph

Villagers find themselves divided by Crossroads

THE selection of a picturesque village as the setting for the return of the 1970s soap opera Crossroads has split the community into those who think it will bring fame and others appalled at being associated with it. Carlton wants Redmile, in the vale of Belvoir, Leics, as the fictional Kings Oak.

Most indoor action will be shot in a studio but location work will be in the main street. Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson, a marketing consultant in the arts, said yesterday: "We are not talking here about a dramatisation of Dickens or Jane Austen - this is crap soap. What's in it for the village? In return for traffic congestion, litter and disruption we will become a focus of tourists of the kind who have their pictures taken outside the Rovers Return and wept for Deidre."

The Peacock, Redmile's small hotel, will double as the infamous motel that was - and probably will be again - forever buzzing with outrageous romance and scurrilous plotting. Sixty-five episodes are planned to start with and the series is scheduled to replace the Australian soap Home and Away. Filming is due to start next month.

This naturally delights Keith Parton, the Peacock's manager, and Helen Mackay, landlady of the nearby Windmill pub. Some residents admit to fancying the reflected glory it will bring but those who value tranquillity are far from pleased and are making their view heard with a petition. Its sponsor, Basil Collin, a retired company director, is organising a meeting on Tuesday at which residents will be invited to put their concerns to Idris Ahmed, Carlton's locations manager.

Mr Ahmed probably thought all was settled by his visit to Redmile on Oct 21, when he secured a favourable vote at a parish meeting, but some villagers question that meeting's status. Kenneth Brockway, the council clerk, said that between 70 and 80 were present. Others claimed that it was only 40 to 50 of a population of about 400.

Mrs Rawlings-Jackson said: "The information given by Mr Ahmed was insufficient. He gave a very rosy picture of what would be involved. I know, because I once agreed to have my former home used as a setting for Boon and it was horrible. I wouldn't let TV people near my home again for £100,000. You have to keep quiet and out of sight and the disruption and mess is dreadful. The TV people have lots of money, so they will be able to afford to pay the police to stop traffic and the residents will just have to put up with it."

Carlton offered to pay the parish. Mr Brockworth said this would go towards a play area or bus shelter. He wouldn't say how much. Mr Collin puts it at £200. Carlton said: "We were surprised to hear that the villagers have these worries and have contacted them and arranged to go back and explain what is involved. There will be a small amount of disruption in Redmile but 95 per cent of Crossroads will be shot in the studio."

Leicestershire county council said Carlton had told it that filming would shortly begin at Sutton crossroads, Notts, near Redmile. "The company has been asked to contact the council should roads in Leicestershire be affected. No contact has been made at present."

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

BBC Nottingham Online

More Cross words for Crossroads

Residents from a Nottinghamshire village are meeting TV executives today to decide whether the new version of Crossroads can be filmed near their homes.

Carlton Television says that Redmile in the Vale of Bevoir is ideal setting for the fictional village of Kings Oak in the company's new version of the soap serial.

The famous series is to be re-launched next year and the TV company wants to use the village near Bingham for external shots.

The village would appear in five of the65 scheduled episodes but some residents of Redmile aren't happy with the idea and are afraid that they'll be swamped with tourists.

They say that they have not been given any clear idea of what the disruption to their lifestyle is likely to entail or what traffic problems may arise.

However, others, such as Steve Hughes, the landlord of the Peacock Pub believe it will be good for business.

It's hoped that a meeting between TV executives and villagers taking place today will sort out some of the problems and anxieties.

Crossroads is due to begin filming very shortly but it'll be up to the residents of Redmile to decide whether their village is to become the new home of the famous soap.

Wednesday 22nd November 2000

The Telegraph

Dead end for Crossroads

TELEVISION executives failed yesterday to placate villagers who object to their homes being used as a backdrop for a new series of Crossroads.

Residents of Redmile, Leics, decided to ballot the whole community on whether they should co-operate after a meeting in which they were addressed by Carlton TV representatives. They are concerned about disruption to village life caused by the filming and tourists.

One of them, Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson, said: "They are looking for a cheap location and will make millions flogging the soap around the world. First, they said there would be 65 episodes but now they are talking of 240 and filming on half a day every week. It's time the villagers stopped to consider what they are getting themselves into.

"It will be very difficult for them to film here if they encounter a lot of ill-feeling and hostility." A Carlton spokesman said: "We are not commenting on locations. I can only confirm that shooting starts in the studio in December."

Novemeber 25, 2000

The Independent

Villagers in a lather over the invasion of TV soaps cameras

THE TELEVISION programme Crossroads will return without many of its defining features - from the woolly-hatted character Benny to the credits rolling diagonally across the screen - but events this week suggest hitches during filming are not all in the past.

Despite having ploughed millions into a custom-built set in Nottingham, Carlton TV will also be filming from Wednesday in the idyllic Leicestershire village of Redmile, where it will run into a campaign of fierce resistance. Redmile is the new setting for the soap's fictional Kings Oak village.

Such is the zest for a remake of the old ATV soap that 240 episodes have been commissioned. That will probably bring Carlton TV to the village every week for a year.

But the people who live there are not pleased with the razzmatazz. A meeting two weeks ago attracted 80 of the village's 240 adults to a local pub, and an anti-Crossroads petition was raised.

On Tuesday morning, the show's producers arrived tomeet the villagers in one of the protester's houses. (There is no parish hall, the church heating is on the blink and the two pubs weren't open.)

The Carlton shilling helped to smooth things over. A pounds 200 contribution towards amenities was promised to the parish council for each of the filming visits. There are also separate financial arrangements with the people who live in the village's beautiful "church corner", where

The parish council says most of the residents are in favour of the filming but object to the number of episodes, of which 65 were expected initially.

And there's a question of content. Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson, a resident and arch- opponent, said: "We were told it will go out before the watershed, but so does Grange Hill, The Bill and Emmerdale and there have been rape scenes and murders in those programmes, which we do not want in this village."

The villagers were apparently unmoved by the wealth brought by the long- running television series Last of the Summer Wine to Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. There, after 27 years of filming, life has begun to imitate art.

Compo's Cafe and the Wrinkled Stocking Tearooms, modelled on the series, compete for 20,000 tourists a year, and a museum to the series has been set up in Compo's "home".

Holmfirth's residents were devastated when Kathy Staff - alias Nora Batty - left the series last year. Sonia Lee, a villager, said."I have no idea if they will still use my house. My back steps have come to be known as Nora's steps,"

But even Holmfirth has its disgruntled locals. A dam in the area was allegedly polluted when two cars were dumped in it for one scene. The resulting protest reflected well the delicate business of location filming.

Twenty miles away in Hadfield, north Derbyshire, tempers were so frayed when a 60-strong BBC crew arrived to film The League of Gentlemen that the Glossop Chronicle ran a story headlined "Plague of Gentlemen". A community meeting was called to discuss what to do if the producers returned for another series.

An inhabitant of Goathland, the North York Moors town where ITV's Heartbeat is set, said she would not have bought a cottage there had she known it was to become the programme's location.

"I have had to put up net curtains because it's like living in a goldfish bowl," she said. "You go to the local shop for groceries and you can't get in for visitors looking for souvenirs."

But there are benefits once the cameras have gone. A research paper last year shows that visitors numbers to a place increase by 77 per cent, on average, five years after the release of a film made there. The number of visitors to Cornwall leapt by 10,000 a year after Poldark came out in the Seventies, while southern Florida saw an almost 20 per cent rise attributed to Miami Vice.

Redmile's predicament best matches that of Esholt, a village near Bradford where Emmerdale was filmed for 10 years until producers announced that three episodes a week were too much and the location was moved to Leeds.

"The TV crews carried a bag of money to persuade people to move their cars," an Esholt resident said. "My friend got terribly irate when they hissed `Quiet on the set'. She said, `It's not a set, it's my lawn'." At one point, there were 500 coach trips a year to the Woolpack Inn in Esholt.

The fact that Redmile's depleted farming industry needs all the help it can get has done nothing to sway the views of residents. But they are beginning to realise they have little legal clout. "Other than the Human Rights Act we have no privacy laws at our disposal," said John Rawling, Redmile's parish council chairman. (Ian Herbert)

FILMING BEGINS

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

BBC News

Cameras Roll on Crossroads Remake

Filming has started on the new version of ITV soap opera Crossroads which was axed in 1988.

The soap is being filmed at Carlton's studios in Nottingham and on location in the surrounding area.

The Series started in 1965, based around a fictional motel, but it was axed after more than 4,500 episodes.

The re-vamped version will feature a number of actors from the original run.

Jane Rossington, who spoke the opening line in the very first episode of the original series, returns as Jill Harvey. She said: "To have been part of a programme which made television history was wonderful. To be back at Crossroads as the series is reborn is really exciting."

The soap's makers have promised a series of powerful new characters and storylines.

No Benny But executive producer Sharon Bloom said it would also retain "many of the aspects that made Crossroads such a well-loved programme for so many years". Street actress Sherrie Hewson will play receptionist Virginia Raven in the Crossroads Motel.

Other confirmed cast members include Kathy Staff, who returns as Doris Luke, and Tony Adams, appearing as Adam Chance.

Former Hollyoaks star James McKenzie Robinson and actor Toby Sawyer have also been signed up.

Fans of the soap will be distressed to hear that handyman Benny, played by Paul Henry, will not return, despite the actor's desire to figure in the new version.

Earlier in the year Henry said he would love to return to the soap.

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Guardian Unlimited / The Guardian

Crossroads confirms star line-up for TV comeback

Actress Jane Rossington, who spoke the opening line in Crossroads 36 years ago, is set to return to the ITV soap as Jill Harvey.

Joining her in the new Crossroads line-up are former Coronation Street actress Sherrie Hewson, who plays receptionist Virginia Raven.

"To have been part of a programme which made television history was wonderful - and to be back at Crossroads as the series is reborn is really exciting," said Miss Rossington.

Other confirmed members of the cast include Last of the Summer Wine actress Kathy Staff, who plays Doris Luke, and Tony Adams as Adam Chance.

Jane Gurnett will play Kate Russell, the owner of Crossroads. Former Hollyoaks actors James McKenzie Robinson and Toby Sawyer have also been signed up.

The new Crossroads has gone into production at Carlton's studios in Nottingham and on location in the surrounding area after a break of 12 years.

Series executive producer Sharon Bloom promised viewers that the new show, which will be screened on ITV five nights a week from next spring, would be well worth watching.

"We'll be introducing some powerful new characters and storylines whilst retaining many of the aspects that made Crossroads such a well-loved programme for so many years," she said.

Wednesday, 29^th November, 2000

Daily Mail

Crossroads turns on the Glamour

Its name evokes an era of creaking plots, creaking dialogue and, best of all, creaking sets.

Crossroads, as even its legions of devoted fans might concede, was rarely renowned for its glamour. But not any more.

The soap set in the giddy world of motel machinations, and which checked out of viewers' lives in 1988, began filming again this week with an injection of high-octane sex appeal.

For example, and fans of the cult soap should brace themselves here, the role as the new handyman at the Midlands most famous motel has gone to a heart-throb actor sporting a mane of long dark hair and fashionable goatee.

Luke Walker, 25, from Birmingham, will follow in the footsteps of Paul Henry's nice-but-dim oddjob man, Benny, whose trademark woolly hat became as famous as the motel itself during the soap's 1970s' heyday.

Luke's character, Bradley Clarke, is one of a host of new faces drafted in to give the new Crossroads, which will boast its own gym and swimming pool, a facelift.

He will be joined by former Price is Right hostess Cindy Marshall-Day who will play beauty salon manager Tracey Booth.

While the bulk of the new Crossroads cast will be made up of fresh faces, three of those featured in the original series, which clocked up 4,510 episodes before its demise, will revive their roles.

Jane Rossington, who spoke the first ever line in the soap on November 2, 1964, will return as glamorous, many-times-married Jill Chance.

She will be re-joined by Tony Adams as her on-off screen partner Adam Chance, and Kathy Staff, best known as Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine, as chef Doris Luke.

A spokesman for Carlton Productions, whose £10 million series will be the centrepiece of ITV's daytime schedule next spring, said viewers would no longer have to make do with the wobbly sets of old.

He added: 'The cast is intentionally a mixture of old Crossroads favourites who are coming back, people who are already household names or familiar faces from elsewhere, and fresh young actors,' he said.

'There are lots of young and talented actors, and they just so happen to be good-looking too.'

Among the others joining the motel are former Hollyoaks stars James McKenzie Robinson and Toby Sawyer, who have been cast as waiters, and Liverpool One actress Rebecca Hazlewood as streetwise waitress Beana Vaz.

The new motel owners Kate and Patrick Russell will be played by Jane Gurnett - nurse Rachel Long-worth in Casualty - and Neil McCaul, whose recent credits include East-Enders and Hearts and Bones.

Filming Starts for New Crossroads

Filming has started on a new version of Crossroads.

A number of actors from the original soap have been signed up for the revived show. It is being filmed at Carlton's studios in Nottingham and on location in the surrounding area.

Jane Rossington returns as Jill Harvey. She spoke the first line in the very first episode in 1964. The original series ran for 24 years.

Former Coronation Street actress Sherrie Hewson will play receptionist Virginia Raven in the Crossroads motel.

Other confirmed members of the cast include Kathy Staff who played Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine. She returns as Doris Luke. Tony Adams appears as Adam Chance.

Jane Gurnett will play the owner of the motel, Kate Russell. Former Hollyoaks stars James McKenzie Robinson and Toby Sawyer have also been signed up.

One omission from the original line-up will be handyman Benny who was played by Paul Henry. Benny's character will be replaced by Bradley Clarke, to be played by Luke Walker.

Miss Rossington said: "To have been apart of a programme which made television history was wonderful. And to be back at Crossroads as the series is reborn is really exciting".

Series executive producer Sharon Bloom promised the new show will be well worth watching. It will be screened on ITV five nights a week from next spring.

"We'll be introducing some powerful new characters and storylines while retaining many of the aspects that made Crossroads such a well-loved programme for so many years," she said.

December 10th 2000

Sunday Mirror

11,000-MILE TRIP TO STAR IN CROSSROADS

A STAR of the revived TV soap Crossroads will be commuting every week to appear in it...11,000 miles across the Atlantic.

Former Price Is Right hostess Cindy Marshall-Day will make the round trip from her home in California to star in the Midlands-based series.

Cindy, 33, who plays beauty salon manager Tracey Booth, said: "Lots of people commute across the Atlantic these days - I don't think it's a big deal.

"I really wanted the part and to be at the start of something new."

She will appear in episodes from Monday to Friday before flying home each weekend.

A Crossroads insider said: "Nobody could believe it when Cindy said she was going to fly in every week from the US.

"We thought she would have to drop out, but she convinced the producers that she could fill the role while living in the US.

"The motel has never had a guest from California - but now we have a staff member from there!"

Cindy, who became a hostess in the hit quiz show The Price Is Right when she was 18, moved to America two years ago.

She met her future husband, marketing millionaire Tony Lane Roberts at a showbusiness party in Los Angeles and they married in Las Vegas only a few weeks later.

A spokesman for the show's producer's Carlton TV said: "We are quite happy for Cindy to commute. Where she lives is entirely up to her.

"There are some great storylines in the script for her which will make the long journey worthwhile."

Crossroads, which was axed by TV chiefs in 1988 after more than 4,500 episodes, will return as a daytime ITV show next spring.

Only three members of the original cast are making a comeback in the new series.

They are Jane Rossington (who played Jill Chance), Tony Adams (Adam Chance) and Kathy Staff (chef Doris Luke, but best known as Nora Batty in BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine). There will be no return for the much-loved handyman Benny, played by Paul Henry.

The new series will be shot at Carlton's studios in Nottingham and on location in the nearby village of Redmile in the picturesque Vale of Belvoir.

The refurbished motel makes its first appearance in the 21st century complete with a new gym and swimming pool.

Crossroads first appeared on November 2, 1964. It was originally scheduled to run for 30 episodes over six weeks.

During its heyday in the '70s the show attracted more than 16 million viewers, rivalling Coronation Street for the title of most popular soap.

However, critics attacked the series for its wobbling sets and wooden acting.

Carlton is spending pounds 10 million on the new series. Among the show's fans is Tony Blair.

He is said to be "delighted" that the programme is making a long- awaited comeback.

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Daily Express

Julia gives up Oxbridge to star in Crossroads

School girl Julia Burchell has turned her back on a glittering academic career and a possible place at Oxbridge to join the new production of TV soap Crossroads.

She has been cast in one of the major roles as Nicola Russell, daughter of Motel owner Kate Russell, months after passing 10 A-star passes at GCSE. Julia, 17, has already started filming at Carlton's Nottingham studio with the blessing of her school, St. Martin's in Solihull, West Midlands.

Her father Alan, 51, said yesterday that Julia had been scheduled to sit four A-levels and her teachers predicted that she would win a place at Oxford or Cambridge. But Mr. Burchell, from Tamworth in Arden, Warwickshire, who runs an engineering company, said yesterday: "We are very proud of her.

"She was born a very, very clever girl. It was forecast by her school that she would be very successful at Cambridge or Oxford. She was going to do four A-levels in English Literature, French, Biology and History. We have all agonised over her decision.

"But I think she has a very good career in front of her. We have collectively worked out the pluses and minuses. It will be great to see her on television, one can't deny that.

"But the important thing is that she continues to keep her feet on the ground. She always has in the past." Mr. Buchell said he and his wife Anne, 50, knew their daughter was destined for stardom when she sang Crazy for You at a karaoke night in Tenerife when she was eight. "She was superb, she brought the house down," he said.

Julia, who was four when the original Crossroads was axed in 1988 after 24 years, said: "It was a very difficult decision because I worked so hard for my GCSEs. I didn't sleep for two weeks but I couldn't let the opportunity pass. I did my first filming on November 22. It was really strange but very exciting."

Julia, who is continuing her A-levels studies in French and English on a part-time basis with the help of her school, landed the part after attending Carlton's Junior Television Workshop.

Mrs. Sheila Williams, headmistress of St. Martin's, said: "Julia is very intelligent and academically able as well as a very talented actor.

"Whatever she chooses to do she will do it successfully. Julia is maintaining her commitment to academic studies, albeit on a part-time basis. The School is doing everything it can to support her."

8^th January 2001

Daily Mail

Cast check in for Crossroads

The cast of hotel soap Crossroads has checked in for filming - 12 years after the series was last aired on TV.

Actors for the show posed in the new hotel built to replace the old motel set, famed for its shaky scenery and creaking sets.

This time round, the soap has been injected with a touch of high-octane sex appeal. Although old favourites such as Jane Rossington, who plays Jill Chance, will appear in the series, slow-witted Benny will be replaced by hunky handyman Bradley Clarke. He will be joined by former Price Is Right hostess Cindy Marshall-Day, who will play beauty salon manager Tracey Booth.

The £10million remake is being filmed in Redmile, Leicester. It will form the centrepiece of ITV?s daytime schedule next spring.

Among others joining the motel are former Hollyoaks stars James McKenzie Robinson and Toby Sawyer, who have been cast as waiters, and Liverpool One actress Rebecca Hazlewood who plays streetwise waitress Beana Vaz.

The new motel owners Kate and Patrick Russell will be played by Jane Gurnett - nurse Rachel Longworth in Casualty - and Neil McCaul, whose recent credits include Eastenders and Hearts and Bones.

Sunday, January 14, 2001

Yahoo Irish News

RTE to screen Crossroads as soap battle goes on

RTE looks set to start screening the updated version of Crossroads in an effort to win back audiences in the "soap battle" with TV3 and UTV. The state broadcaster suffered a major blow with the loss of Coronation Street and Emmerdale. However RTE hopes the Crossroads remake, which is promising a "young, good-looking cast", will be a hit with Irish viewers.

The new Crossroads is being shot at present and promises to be a world away from its predecessor which became famous for its wobbly sets and phones that rang after they were picked up. Carlton Television is spending some 10 million pounds on the remake. RTE plans to show the soap at lunchtime with a possible repeat at teatime, it will fill the gap caused by the move of Emmerdale to TV3.

THE PRESS LAUNCH: VALENTINE’S DAY

Wednesday, 14 February, 2001,

BBC News Online

Nora Batty to join Crossroads

Actress Kathy Staff has quit the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine to rejoin Crossroads, scrapped in 1988 but re-launching on ITV in March.

Staff, who has played the role of Nora Batty for 28 years, said her decision was triggered by the death of fellow Summer Wine star Bill Owen in 1999.

The actress said her final series last year had not been the same without Owen, who played Compo.

"As far as I was concerned it didn't work so I decided not to do any more," she commented.

She will reprise her old role as Doris Luke when Crossroads returns.

Staff is one of just three original cast members asked to rejoin the soap, along with Jane Rossington as Jill Harvey, and Tony Adams, who will play Adam Chance.

Speaking at the Crossroads re-launch in London, Staff said the new version of the soap was more polished and fast-moving than the old series, which ran from 1964 to 1988.

She joked that the sets - once renowned for wobbling during filming - were now more solid, adding: "There's so much going on, I think it will be a great success."

Rossington, meanwhile, blamed the decision to axe the old series on bad feeling from television executives.

"A lot of people in the industry didn't like the show," she said. "They couldn't understand why the public did and because of that there was a lot of antipathy."

Tony Adams echoed her views. "I just think it would be lovely if the show - having deservedly now got the recognition that it's got - is left alone to be a success for everybody," said Adams.

Crossroads, he said, was the "mother of the soaps".

Viewers' favourite Benny, played by Paul Henry in the original series, will not feature in the new show.

Staff said: "Benny was a lovely character, a lovely actor. I don't know that there could be a place for him, that's up to people to decide. It would be lovely to have him back."

Jane Gurnett, meanwhile, will play the hotel boss, with Sherrie Hewson as receptionist.

Crossroads will screen twice a day at lunch times and at 1705 in the old Home and Away slots, from 5 March.

Thursday February 15, 2001

Media Guardian

Soap's melody lingers but sets won't wobble

The sets may no longer shake, but diehard Crossroads fans will be delighted to learn that the producers of the new version have kept the next most recognisable aspect of the original series: the theme tune.

Carlton TV has enlisted Rod Stratfold, art director of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, to ensure that the new reception does not wobble and the bedrooms don't sway. But the programme-makers have stopped short of abandoning the music that introduced Crossroads for 23 years until it was axed in 1988.

February 15^th 2001

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Kathy’s Crossroads

LAST Of The Summer Wine star Kathy Staff has told of her heartache at leaving the UK's longest-running TV comedy programme.

Kathy, who is rejoining the cast of ITV's Crossroads, said it had been "a wrench" to leave the BBC1 series filmed in Holmfirth, but her decision was triggered by the death of her co-star Bill Owen, who played Compo.

The actress, who played Nora Batty for 28 years, said her final series last year had not been the same without Owen, who died in July, 1999.

Speaking at the Crossroads relaunch in London, she said: "As far as I was concerned, it didn't work last year, so I decided not to do any more."

Thursday February 22, 2001

The Guardian

Crossroads reopens on March 5

Crossroads has been closed to the viewing public for more than 13 years - but patient fans have only just over two weeks to wait for the grand reopening.

ITV has announced the once-reviled soap is to return twice a day from March 5, with a special peaktime airing on March 6 to relaunch the series.

The show will go head to head with BBC1's Neighbours at 1.30pm, with a second helping at 5.05pm.

And the network is pulling out all the stops to ensure the show is a hit.

The first two episodes will be rolled together for an hour-long special at 9pm on March 6.

The soap will open with ex-owner-turned-alcoholic Jill Chance returning to claim her share in the revamped four-star hotel.

"We wanted to give as many people as possible a taste of what Crossroads is all about," said ITV director of programmes David Liddiment.

An aggressive marketing campaign is already under way.

The show is being heavily trailed to peaktime viewers as well as to the core daytime audience.

Carlton, which is making the programme, hopes to attract a wide range of viewers to the show.

"There is something for everyone," claimed series producer Kay Patrick.

March 3rd 2001

The Independent

Soaps at the crossroads

The scene: a conference suite at the Great Eastern Hotel on London's Liverpool Street. At least 200 journalists are seated in front of a scattering of television monitors for the launch of the new Crossroads. At the sound of the first notes of Tony Hatch's retained, if rearranged, theme tune, the room erupts in cheers, laughter and applause. A new soap couldn't hope for a better footing - a mix of nostalgic goodwill and brand recognition - nicely primed for some 21st-century gloss and know-how.

The original Crossroads vanished from our screens in April 1988 after 4,510 episodes, with Meg Richardson living in America, the 20- chalet-motel renamed Kings Oak Country Hotel, and the bobble-hatted idiot Benny ("Yes, Miss Diane") a fading memory. At its late-1970s zenith, more than 17 million viewers regularly tuned in for their thrice-weekly dose of wobbly scenery and even shakier acting. Some even saw it as a work of camp genius.

The new Crossroads has been upgraded from a no-star motel to a four-star hotel; it has a cast of 26, compared to the original cast of eight; and more than half the actors are in their twenties, if not younger. This reflects the soap's likely demographic, which, crudely speaking, is going to be housewives and schoolchildren. Showing five days a week, it is screening twice a day, at 1.30pm and 5.05pm. In other words, it's the new Home and Away, the Australian daytime soap that ITV lost to Channel 5.

Channel 5's purchase of Home and Away was interesting in itself as, unlike sporting events, it was the first time a soap had switched TV stations in this country; it was also a reflection of how much simpler it is to take a pre-existing soap than to start one from scratch. Channel 5's Family Affairs (for me, the real Crossroads de nos jours) has had a hell of a time building up its fan base.

Meanwhile, ITV is casting yet another soap, the youthful Trafalgar Road ("more Dawson's Creek than Crossroads"), while Greg Dyke has overridden John Birt's blanket refusal to back a fourth EastEnders episode per week. The question arises: how much more can we take? The truth is that "we" are not really part of the equation.

As an industry, television is far more ruthless today than it was in 1988. As the British TV schedules become more and more like their American counterparts - that is to say, increasingly identical, with stripped scheduling throwing like against like - each channel is going to feel it needs at least two soaps, while existing dramas (The Bill is a prime example) become more and more soap-like. The losers, of course, will be the makers and consumers of original and inventive drama. Welcome back, Crossroads? I don't think so.

`Crossroads' starts on Monday at 1.30pm and 5.30pm on ITV. (Gerard Gilbert)

March 4th 2001

The Sunday Herald

Soap on the ropes

ITV, Monday-Friday, 1.30pm, repeated 5.05pm The resurrected Crossroads is directionless and dead in the water. Our critic has a few reservations

TELEVISION executives abhor a vacuum. That's the only reason I can think of for the revival of Crossroads, a show no right-thinking people liked in the first place and which has since been rendered obsolete by the spot-on parody of Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques and the real-life banality of the docu-soap Hotel. I suppose it was either bring back Crossroads or fill that dead air with yet another resprayed Ross Kemp vehicle.

To be honest, I didn't really watch Crossroads during its Seventies heyday, although I do remember getting rather hot under the collar when a post-Gregory's Girl Dee Hepburn joined the cast in 1987. So for those of you, like me, who can't get all nostalgic at the thought of wobbly sets and wobblier acting, a brief history lesson.

Crossroads began life in 1964 as ATV's response to the success of Coronation Street. It was Britain's first daily soap opera but, by the time it was networked in 1972, had been reduced to four days a week. Rather optimistically, the new Crossroads has been bumped back up to five days.

Set in the Midlands town of King's Oak, Crossroads centred on the eponymous motel which was ruled by Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon), an unfeasibly unlucky woman who, in her 17-year tenure, was variously blown up, locked up, cuckolded and poisoned. But, like some service industry Rasputin, Meg never pegged it. She eventually sailed out of the series on the QE2 in 1981.

Meg's daughter Jill (Jane Rossington) inherited her mother's Jonah gene. She was married three times (once to a bigamist), had a baby by her stepbrother, suffered two miscarriages, became a junkie, traded that in for alcoholism and had a nervous breakdown. A glutton for punishment, she returns to the new series of Crossroads, drink problem intact. For Jill, those walls are still a-wobbling.

While Crossroads was originally a motel, the new setting is a four- star hotel, albeit one which only has cable in the executive suite. It's run by Kate Russell and her son Jake, a handsome cad given to cheating on his wife with the more attractive female guests. He's the Grant Mitchell, the Terry Duckworth, the Marcus Tandy of this tawdry affair.

More hilariously, there's a Scottish chef called Billy. Crossroads used to have a Scottish chef - the gloriously named Shughie McFee - but this one is clearly jelly-moulded after Gordon Ramsay, although it's doubtful that Ramsay would be seen dead in the multi-coloured fez sported by Crossroads kitchen staff . All long locks and short temper, Billy's given to abandoning his post at the carvery if asked to slice beef too thick. It can surely only be a matter of time before he takes a steak knife to Jake, prompting the question, who filleted JR?

On the evidence of the first programme, it's doubtful that Crossroads can hope to compete with EastEnders or Corrie. The acting, unlike the cheese it so resembles, has not improved with age - it's still as stilted as a stilton on stilts. The plotlines, meanwhile, as a bland as a stale cracker. The high point of episode one comes when a mysterious young biker is wrestled to the ground by a Brummie called Bradley. It's hardly The Sopranos.

Mind you, all soap operas are terrible when they start and remain pretty bad throughout their lifetime. The trick is just to never take it off television and, eventually, the structural cracks get hidden as the show becomes so much wallpaper. Crossroads will survive this pasting. (Peter Ross)

March 4th 2001

Daily Mail

New Faces Check in to the Crossroads Motel

The original series had eight main regular cast members, the new series has 28.

New cast:

KATE RUSSELL - Casualty star Jane Gurnett - General Manager, became a single mother to Jake aged 15, she is now married to Patrick, which whom she has two children, Nicola and Mark. Although she is strong and capable, she has a blind spot where Jake is concerned.

PATRICK RUSSELL - Neil McCaul, who had just finished a theatre role as Jane Gurnett's husband when he got the part in Crossroads - Catering Manager, Genial and charming, he has been married to Kate for 22 years and is devoted to his children, particularly Nicola.

JAKE BOOTH - Colin Wells, starred in the remake of The Professionals - Smarmy Jake is a womaniser who has become bored with his marriage to the attractive Tracey, who he was forced to marry when she became pregnant with their son, Scott.

MARK RUSSELL - Grange Hill actor Max Brown - Part-time waiter Mark is 22 and a bit of a slacker who feels he is in the shadow of his charismatic half-brother Jake.

NICOLA RUSSELL - clever Julia Burchill who has put her 4 'A' Levels on hold - 15 year old Nicola is a spoilt princess and a Billie Piper lookalike, but has a strong character behind the bratty facade. Her best friend and partner-in-crime is the flirtatious Chloe.

TRACEY BOOTH - former Price is Right gameshow hostess Cindy Marshall Day, who is commuting weekly from California to act in Crossroads - Beauty Salon Manager, who adores her husband Jake but has been repeatedly hurt by his infidelity.

SCOTT BOOTH - young actor Keiran Hardcastle - 11 year old Scott feels hurt by his parents squabbling and the fact that his father rarely has time for him due to his burning ambition to own Crossroads.

JILL HARVEY - Jane Rossington was in the original series for the full 24 years - Jill is the daughter of Meg Richardson, the original owner of Crossroads, and Jill still owns 30%. She is broken-hearted about the recent death of her husband and her estrangement from daughter Sarah-Jane. She is down on her luck financially and has turned to drink.

SARAH-JANE HARVEY - musical star Joanne Farrell - manipulative and sexy Sarah-Jane is a Meg Richardson in the making, who sees the hotel as her birth-right.

ADAM CHANCE - Tony Adams, who played the same character in the original series - Jill's ex-husband is still resentful after she walked out on their marriage, destroying his chances of becoming the owner of Crossroads. He is now a seemingly flash wine-merchant.

VIRGINIA RAVEN - 'Coronation Street' and 'Barbara' actress Sherrie Hewson - Snobby senior receptionist, Virginia is gossipy and obsessive about protocol. She worships Jake.

ROCKY WESSON - Roger Sloman who has had many TV roles in programmes such as The Vicar of Dibley and The Young Ones - lonely Head porter Rocky has been at Crossroads for years and has a long-held crush on Virginia.

PHIL BERRY - theatre actor Neil Granger - Leonardo di Caprio type of brooding teenager, 17 year old Phil is a runaway with a dark past who gets taken under Rocky's wing.

BRADLEY CLARKE - Luke Walker - Likeable Bradley could not be more different from the original Crossroads handyman, the woolly hatted and woolly-minded Benny. He is in a stable gay relationship with Tom Curtis, cafe manager.

DORIS LUKE - Kathy Staff, best known for playing Nora Batty in The Last of the Summer Wine for 28 years, she reprises her role in the original Crossroads - Doris has worked in the laundry at Crossroads for years. She is Bradley's aunt and surrogate mother to Scott Booth.

TOM CURTIS - Toby Sawyer was in the Kate Winslet film 'Quills' and had two auditions for the part of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, Episodes 2 & 3 - Bradley's boyfriend and manager of the KO Cafe in King's Oak. He has been left to bring up his 11 year old brother Daniel after their parents died in a car crash. Mischievous Daniel is best mates with Scott Booth.

BILLY TAYLOR - Gilly Gilchrist, Peak Practice actor who also had a role in blockbuster film Gladiator - Fiery head chef works hard and plays hard. He can be very difficult, but he is loyal to manager Kate.

JOANNE GIBSON - Rebecca Clarke - Sous chef Joanne, 22, has a love-hate relationship with Billy, she is pretty and hard-working. She is in a relationship with Ray Dobbs.

RAY DOBBS - British RSC actor James McKenzie Robinson - Australian head barman, 28. Often the peacemaker in rows amongst the staff.

DES WHITE - Marc Jordan who played Gilly Gilchrist's son in Peak Practice. He is also in the Spielberg/Tom Hanks film Band of Brothers - Kitchen porter, 18, Des is a wannabe DJ and loser in love

MINTY SUTTON - DJ Peter Dalton - Kitchen assistant, 18, Minty is Des's best friend and another wannabe DJ, who looks more likely to be successful, both in his career and in his love-life.

BEENA SHAH - Actress and Toblerone model Rebecca Hazlewood who has had real life experience as a waitress - Beena is determined not to remain a waitress for long, knowing that with her stunning looks she could be a model. She loves being the centre of attention and can be cruel to those who fawn at her feet - mainly Des and Minty.

KULLY GILL - GCSE student Sarah Nerwal - Room attendant 16 year old Kully is a bright girl who is doing her 'A' Levels part-time and aspires to be a lawyer.

MANDY STOCKS - Natasha Marquiss, who gave up her degree at Nottingham to play the part - Room attendant Mandy, 17, is less bright and more of a romantic, with a crush on

FIRST EPISODE BROADCAST

Monday, 5 March, 2001

BBC News Online

Bad service at new Crossroads

Crossroads re-opened for business with glitz and glamour - but BBC News Online's Darryl Chamberlain will not be paying the hotel a second visit.

Despite all the hype about younger stars helping revive Crossroads, the real star of the show was a balding 50-something head porter with a love of watching security cameras.

Step forward Rocky Wesson (Roger Sloman), an oasis of calm in the new-look hotel's sea of hormones.

But despite his calming influence, it's obvious from the glimpses of flesh in the opening credits (together with re-worked theme) that the inhabitants of the new Crossroads have just one thing on their minds.

Hunky handyman Bradley (Luke Walker) gets a ticking off from boss Kate Russell (Jane Gurnett) for showing too much skin, while her 15-year-old daughter Nicola (Julia Burchell) is throwing herself at thief Phil (Neil Grainger) in the car park.

Meanwhile, everyone's talking about how much they fancy each other - "she was wearing a different sort of bra today!".

In this highly charged atmosphere, it's no wonder that a wedding reception's bridesmaid succumbed to the charms of deputy manager Jake (Colin Wells).

Jake had obviously been declared surplus to requirements when C&A shut down, and now he'd gone from modelling sweaters to ordering chefs around and seducing guests.

"I need to get out of this dress first, but I seem to have left my key-card in my room," the bridesmaid purred, before Jake produced his trusty magic card.

"It opens every room in this hotel," he replied, without any embarrassment whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Bradley was having his own roll in the hay after catching Phil trying to steal some petrol.

The miscreant is dragged to face justice, Rocky-style.

But instead of reporting him to the police, Rocky gives Phil a job as a porter, just to humilate him further.

Crossroads stalwart Doris Luke (Kathy Staff) popped up a couple of times, sadly looking like a relic from the days when it was just the sets that were wobbly. But at least she didn't have to talk about lusting after a colleague, so her dignity remained intact.

While cheesy storylines and bad scripts don't always stop daytime soaps from being a success, it's hard to see how fights over the meat carving are going to bring in the Hollyoaks audience ITV desires.

Indeed, the endlessly suave Adam Chance (Tony Adams) considered it beneath him to even appear in the first episode, although he appears as a wine dealer later on.

Finally Jill Harvey (Jane Rossington) turned up to reclaim her hotel from the Russells, wiping the grin from Jake's face.

Good old Jill looked unimpressed with the hotel's current management, and no wonder - it's going to take a lot of work for her to rescue this establishment.

Crossroads can be seen at 1330 and 1705 each weekday on ITV.

Monday, 5 March, 2001

Daily Mail

Check in Here for the new Crossroads Hotel

At 4.35pm on November 2, 1964, actress Jane Rossington uttered the immortal line 'Crossroads motel, can I help you?' With that, one of television's longest running soaps, Crossroads, was launched, a series which was to become more famous for its shaky sets and wobbly storylines than for any groundbreaking contribution to television drama.

While originally attracting record-breaking audiences of up to 18 million, cracks soon began to show in the no-budget-spared soap. Critics scoffed, viewers turned off and in April 1988, Jill and Adam Chance sold off their stake in the Birmingham motel and drove off to start a new life in the West Country.

But just when you thought it was safe to reach for the remote, 13 years after the Midlands motel last checked out, Crossroads is back today at 1.30pm and 5.05pm. And after a £10 million revamp, viewers who tuned in last time round to see props fall down and actors fluff their lines might just be disappointed.

Gone is Meg Richardson's homely no-star motel. In its place is a four star hotel with executive suites and double rooms costing £110 a night. There's a beauty salon and health spa, cookers in the hotel kitchen which actually work (they were salvaged from the Carlton TV canteen during a recent refit), and Crossroads soap complete with monogrammed towels in the bathrooms.

Despite the new look, some things remain unchanged. Actress Jane Rossington returns as Jill Harvey, daughter of Meg Richardson and part owner of the hotel. Kathy Staff gets back into character as the loveable Doris Luke, now employed in the hotel laundry. And waiting in the wings to return later in the series is Tony Adams who plays Adam Chance, Jill Harvey's ex-husband, who still resents losing his chance to become Crossroads owner after Jill walked out on their marriage.

Other familiar faces include Sherrie Hewson, better known as Maureen Holdsworth in Coronation Street, who plays brusque receptionist Virginia Raven, and Price Is Right hostess Cindy Marshall-Day, who appears as beauty-salon manager Tracey. Handyman Benny's character has also been resurrected, this time with a 21st century twist - he's now a gay 20-something called Bradley.

Carlton's director of drama and co-production Jonathan Powell said: 'We all felt there was a place for Crossroads back on ITV but since we announced its return the public response has been overwhelming. There is a huge amount of affection for Crossroads.

'I hope we have taken its spirit and driven it forward so that it will be enjoyed by a whole new generation of viewers.'

Monday, 5 March, 2001

BBC News Online

Crossroads makes comeback

Nearly 13 years after the death knell sounded for Crossroads it has finally re-opened for business.

The soap returned to UK screens on Monday for what has been a widely anticipated revival.

In its heyday Crossroads attracted an audience of 18 million viewers but was both maligned and revered by fans and critics alike.

Once a shabby motel, Crossroads has been upgraded to a four star hotel complete with executive suites and a health spa.

More famous than its characters and its melodramatic storylines were its wobbly sets and fluffed lines.

The show was axed in 1988 after more than 24 years but Carlton Television has taken the brave step of breathing life into the old soap.

It will go out in the lunchtime and teatime slots vacated by Aussie soap Home and Away, which was poached by Channel 5.

Just three characters have survived the wilderness years.

Jill Richardson, Adam Chance and Doris Luke are being reprised, played by original actors Jane Rossington, Tony Adams and Kathy Staff.

Wobbly walls

Sherrie Hewson joins the cast as housekeeper Virginia Raven, after leaving Coronation Street in October 1997.

Reliving the nightmare of the shaky sets and shaky acting, Rossington said: "Although it was not live, we would film it as though it was live because of the hectic schedule.

"We would record the first half in one take and the same of the second part.

"So if anybody fluffed their lines, missed their cue or the set wobbled it would be kept in."

A bigger investment means the five-night-a-week show should be a slicker product and missing its wobbly walls, say producers.

There will also be a younger cast, with many characters in their 20s or under, to appeal to a youth audience.

March 5th 2001

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Kathy back on TV in Crossroads

Veteran actress Kathy Staff is casting off Nora Batty's wrinkled stockings today to return to Crossroads.

Kathy, who has been famous as Nora in the long-running Holmfirth-based Last Of The Summer Wine series, can be seen again in her old role of Doris Luke.

The low budget soap classic Crossroads was returning to television screens at 1.30pm today with a new up-market look.

The show, ditched in 1988 after more than 4,500 episodes, also features original cast members Jane Rossington and Tony Adams.

The famously creaky sets of Crossroads Motel have been replaced by the four-star Crossroads Hotel, complete with beauty salon, health spa and conference facilities.

March 05, 2001

The Independent

The Deborah Ross Interview: Back after the break

Crossroads. And word association. Me first, because it was my idea and I'm finding it very difficult to contain my excitement, because the Midlands motel soap returns today. Yippee! Hurrah! Here goes: Crossroads. Wobbly sets. Booms caught on camera. The theme music: Dum, dum-dum, de- dum, dum... Teatime. Weekdays. Wagonwheels. Viscounts (mint). Poor Sandy. Always being pushed around. David Hunter. Coloured shirts. White collars. Tip-top plots. Hugh Mortimor's kidnapping. Miss Diane, and her illegitimate baby, which she hid in a chalet drawer. Sandy and his fiancee, who died of a brain tumour. No mind, though, as the following week the same actress cleverly came back in a wig, as the dead woman's twin.

Must rein myself in. This is starting to be sentence association. This is starting to be an essay, even. Or a dissertation. Can't help it. Can't stop. Sorry. Am way out of control. Bring back Jim Baines! Loved those Brummie accents. How "actually" was always "ack-she- loi". Everyone sounded as if their batteries were running out. Amy Turtle? Was she, in truth, Amelie Turtlovski, a Russian spy? And, if so, what secrets did she hope to uncover working as a cleaner in a Midlands motel? Did all information on American nuclear warheads have to pass though the linen cupboard at King's Oak?

Oh look, here comes Tony Adams, who played smoothie cad Adam Chance for 11 years, and is back playing him again. I loved Adam Chance, didn't you? And Tony Adams, who looks like the sort of man who should smell of Lynx, even if he doesn't. As does Adam Chance. Hey, it's like Tony doesn't have to act or anything! Whatever, tell me, Tony, was Amy a Russian spy? Was she?

"No," he says, "she was not a Russian spy. I don't think she was going anywhere very fast, frankly."

And Sandy? Did he get fed up of being pushed around? "The scriptwriters gave him some disease that they thought was curable, but wasn't. So he had to stay in the wheelchair."

Gosh. Bet he was pissed off about that.

"He once got very angry when a woman hit him in the street." Why did she hit him? "Because he was walking. Because she thought he was a sham."

Tony is 60 now. But he looks as smooth and delectably dapper as ever. I tell him so. He says thanks, although he suspects I might be having him on. "I recently made a guest appearance on The Grimleys, and thought I looked rather like Pat from EastEnders. I really did." We both laugh. He can be quite blissfully self-deprecating. I like him from the off.

We meet at the new, pounds 4m Crossroads set at Carlton's television studios in Nottingham, where the new series is being filmed. Sadly, Crossroads is not constructed largely from shaky boards of MDF anymore. Crossroads is now a swanky, four-star hotel. Crossroads now has a beauty spa and gym and landscaped gardens with water features and working lifts and a working kitchen and a chic restaurant and all that. Gosh, what would Meg have thought? "She'd have absolutely loved it," says Tony.

I'm not sure I love it, though. Disappointingly, it all looks horribly solid and nailed down. I say "disappointingly" because, of course, what made Crossroads so good was the fact it was so bad. Thrillingly bad, almost. It would be awful if it came back as not bad enough. Still, I am cheered by the fact that during my tour of the set - I get to "ping" the bell at reception and everything! - I steal one of the flyers offering business customers a great deal. It says: "...check into Crossraods [sic]... and you will receive a wide ramge [sic] of extras and privileges". So, no wobbly sets, but wobbly spelling at least. Which is hopeful. Plus, I do like a hotel that offers a wide ramge of extras, don't you? (Once, apparent-loi, Miss Diane and Meg had to have an intimate chat while Mrs Brownlow was Hoovering noisily in the background, because a scriptwriter had misspelled "hovering".)

But will the scriptwriters carry on with the great tradition of paying no regard whatsoever to continuity?

Tony and I somehow end up playing this as a game of one- upmanship. I start: "Didn't Glenda Brownlow go to the toilet and never come back?"

"Yes. But what about Shughie McFee?"

"Shughie McFee? The chef?"

"He went to get a pork chop from the fridge, and was never seen again."

"OK, then. How about when Roger Tonge [the actor who played Sandy] died in real life? Didn't they get round it by just never mentioning Sandy again?"

"Yes. I was written out once. Went to get my script for the following week on the Wednesday as usual, and it wasn't there. So I phoned the producer and said: `Mags, I haven't got a script for next week.' And she said. `No, dear, you finish next week.' And that was the end of me for a year."

"How did they write you out?"

"Don't remember. Probably, they didn't."

"How did they write you back in?"

"I think I just reappeared as casually as I'd disappeared."

See? See? Marvellous stuff.

I ask Tony how he heard the show was returning. "Oh, there have always been rumours. Like a bad meal, it was always coming back." How did you hear for certain? It was Jane Rossington (who played Meg's daughter Jill, and is also coming back) who told him. "She rang me up to say, darling, I've got the first scripts, and you are in them." Did you have to think twice about returning? "Not at all, not at all. I'd have been a bloody fool not to come back."

He's right - probab-loi. The show originally ran from 1964 to 1988, attracting an average audience of 16 million. Sixteen million! "It was the mother of all soaps," says Tony. Plus, I say, there is still great affection for it, isn't there? "Oh, yes. When we had the press launch, and the theme music started up, 220 people clapped and cheered." Do you still get

recognised? "All the time. I went out for lunch the other day and this woman came up to me and said: `I played Sandy's nurse when Sandy was first ill.' She wanted to tell me how she loved the old Crossroads." Tony doesn't feel he's been typecast.

"Adam has been my passport to the theatre. I've been Henry Higgins. I've been Von Trapp. I've done pantomime with the Chuckle Brothers. I've been on the Gary Wilmot show..." Stop! Please!

It's odd, ack-she-loi, meeting someone like Tony, be- cause at no time have you ever suspected that he's a real person with a real life and real things to talk about. It's like he must be this cardboardy thing, without much else going on. But he's very charming and lovely. And interesting, too. I particularly like the sound of his mother, Winifred. What was she like? "A dinosaur. She did what she wanted, never allowing anything to get in her way." What sort of things did she do? "Well, she won the King's Cup Air Race in 1930, flying a light aircraft around England." Oh. "In 1938, she sailed a boat to the edge of the Arctic Circle. The next year, she navigated a boat to the upper reaches of the Amazon." Oh. "She took up tennis, and was soon playing for England. She took up ice hockey, the only trouble being she couldn't skate, so she knelt in goal. For England." Oh! What an amazing woman. "Yes. I once asked Clare Francis why my mother wasn't more famous, and she said it was because she diversified too much." I know this sounds unlikely. It may even be as unlikely as, say, mute receptionists endlessly handing over keys to mute guests. I mean, how did anyone know what chalet they were in?

Tony was told he was the result of "a wet afternoon on a coil of rope in the boathouse". He never knew his father, "although I had an idea who he was". But you never pursued it? "It just didn't matter to me." Tony was bought up initially on boats. "My mother was full of surprises. I would wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what the hell was going on. I'd look out the porthole and see we were at sea. She'd have cast the boat off and out we were and I wouldn't have a clue where we were going." She wanted Tony to join the Navy. Named him Anthony Adams so he could be Admiral Anthony Adams, which she thought had a nice ring about it. But you ended up as Adam Chance in Crossroads instead. Was she, um, disappointed?

"One day we were on the quay at Brighton marina - she was an old lady - and I heard some people call out to her `Are you Mrs Chance?', and she said: `Yes. Yes, I am Mrs Chance.' So I think she was proud."

He always wanted to be an actor. He can't remember why. He auditioned for the Italia Conti School at eight with a poem learned from his mother. He recites it: "There was a little bird/ who flew away to Spain/ but found it was too hot there/ so flew back home again. On the homeward journey/ he met a bleeding auk/ who plucked his bleeding feathers out and said: `Now, you bugger, walk'." And they let you in? "I think I startled them into letting me in," he says.

He lives, now, on the south coast, with his partner, Christine and their Jack terrier, Ryan. He has never yearned for children, or to play Macbeth. "I've never considered myself a proper actor, which is why I have no burning ambition to go to the Barbican or the National. I couldn't do it." He is enjoying the new Crossroads immensely. "It's a wonderful atmosphere. The new kids are so enthusiastic." He is genuinely fulfilled, I think. And happ-oi.

Here I go again. Miss Diane - wasn't she an alcoholic for a week? Shughie McFee - what would he think of the chic new restaurant? Would he faint into his melon boats? Dum, dum-dum, de-dum, dum...

`Crossroads', ITV, daily at 1.30pm and then repeated at 5.05pm

March 6th 2001

Daily Mail

Crossroads Hailed a Success

The new-look Crossroads was hailed a great success by TV critics today as it returned to our screens after a 12-year absence.

The famously wobbly sets of the Crossroads Motel have been replaced by an up-market four-star hotel - and the critics unanimously agreed that the show was virtually unrecognisable from its predecessor.

The Daily Mail said: 'This is very good, well-conceived and well-executed television which will appeal to both diehard fans and newcomers alike.'

The Guardian said: 'As daytime soaps go, it is polished, promising and prettily packaged. And not a syllable of that sounds like Crossroads.'

The Independent added: 'Viewers who remember the old premises as the Motel You'd Least Like to Spend a Night In (Okay, Apart From The One in Psycho) must have been amazed at how swish it has become.'

The Times described the programme as 'altogether slicker' than in its previous incarnation, while The Telegraph said it was 'pretty sturdy' and The Express praised its 'well-handled' plots and characterisation.

The Mirror went further: 'On the evidence of the first 30 minutes, this is a confident, pacey, funny, sexy little soap which could wash the BBC's tired old Neighbours down the plughole.'

The Sun declared: 'Crossroads has got success written all over it. The old dump has improved since we saw it last in 1988. They've made it a palace fit, if not for a king, then certainly for Alan Partridge.'

The first episode ended with the return of original cast member Jane Rossington, who plays co-owner Jill Harvey.

* Unofficial overnight viewing figures revealed that 2.1 million viewers tuned into the lunchtime episode of Crossroads while 3 million watched the teatime repeat. ITV chiefs hailed it 'a great start'.

Tuesday, March 06, 2001

Ananova

Three million watch new Crossroads, say ITV

Unofficial viewing figures for the new-look Crossroads reveal 2.1 million viewers tuned into the first lunchtime episode.

And 3 million watched the teatime repeat.

But the new-look programme failed to tempt viewers from rival BBC's long established Aussie soap, Neighbours.

A spokesman for ITV said it was a great start for the revamped soap.

"We are delighted viewers have welcomed Crossroads back to their screens," he said.

The lunchtime installment from Ramsey Street had 2.6 million viewers and the teatime edition had 4.4 million.

The second edition of yesterday's Crossroads also went up against the end of Blue Peter which had 1.9 million viewers and Newsround which got 3 million.

An insider at the BBC said: "This seems to be a very shaky start for the programme with famously shaky sets. ITV must be disappointed with these figures because they have put a huge amount of promotional effort into the launch of Crossroads."

But an ITV spokesman dismissed the remarks stating it was unfair to compare the two as Neighbours was a long-running programme with an established audience.

Crossroads was brought back to replace the Australian soap Home And Away which was poached from ITV by Channel 5 last year.

But the opening of the Crossroads doors did not prove as big a pull as the goings on in Summer Bay which regularly attracted 4 million viewers in its teatime slot.

Its final appearance on ITV in June last year saw 4.3 million viewers tune in, representing a 39% share of the audience.

Home and Away will return to our screens on Channel 5 in the summer.

Tuesday, March 06, 2001

The Sun

Comments from Brian Park - Ex-Corrie Producer

I'd definitely watch it again. On first impressions it is ambitious, energetic and it has good production values, reflected in the lighting and camera work.

They are certainly putting their where their mouth is. It was very adventurous, if not audacious, to introduce 30 characters in the first episode.

Some look interesting immediately although you can't get much character depth in a 30 minute episode.

At that rate, nobody gets much more than five lines.

It was a broad sweep and a successful one at that.

At that time of the day it is having to appeal to two fairly contradictory fan bases.

One is the home and Away crowd who are youth orientated and into the teenage romance.

The plotline of the guy on the motorbike and the kiss with the stranger will hook them.

Then there's the fans who remember Crossroads the first time round. And there are old faces among the new to appeal to them.

It was good to see Jane Rossington make her entrance towards the end and fans who remember Crossroads first time round will have appreciated that.

The motel has become a hotel with CCTV cameras that weren't even there 30 years go when it was last launched.

But the ultimate test is if people across the generations will watch it. I know my mum will start to watch it as well as me, so they've done the trick so far.

6th March 2001

The Independent

First Night: Lots of froth and plenty of dirty linen as new, improved

GIVEN ITS status as a classic British television soap, how apt that the new, improved Crossroads is being sponsored by Surf washing powder. The first episode of its new incarnation offered 30 minutes of churning activity, a lot of froth, a fair amount of dirty linen and several characters in a temporary spin.

As the TV-watching world knows, Crossroads closed for business in 1988 after a 24-year reign, in which it had become legendary for its coarse, one-take acting and painted-chipboard production style. Despite much public demand that it be buried in a lead-lined casket and forgotten until Judgement Day, Jonathan Powell and his colleagues at Carlton Drama deemed it worth a pounds 10m refit and a move upmarket. The old motel had no stars, deservedly; the new hotel boasts four stars, despite having a water feature that suggests several small urchins are vigorously peeing through a Perspex wall.

Viewers who remember the old premises as the Motel You'd Least Like to Spend a Night In (Okay, Apart From the One in Psycho) must have been amazed at how swish it has become. There are security cameras, beauty salons and Thai fishcakes. The rickety old reception desk has been replaced by a pine high altar, manned by the refined glamourpuss Sherrie Hewson (last seen in Coronation Street). The kitchen is the size of the River Cafe, run by Billy, the volatile head chef, who yells at the management and humiliates his staff by making them wear ludicrous tartan pillbox hats. Where the old motel would have been stretched to host a three-man stag party, the new hotel lays on a wedding reception for 100 (mostly invisible) guests. Why, you could almost imagine the cast of a Seventies American soap such as Dynasty actually deigning to spend an afternoon here. And so hands-on is the management style, so urgent is their desire to make the staff-guest ratio more one-on-one, that the oily, unscrupulous deputy manager, Jake, is soon upstairs introducing a sexy guest to his multi- purpose master key.

Sex seems likely to be a key ingredient in this five-times-a-week show. Sex and ambition, sex and money, sex and disputed shareholdings, sex and towel maintenance, but mostly sex. It is partly because half the 26-strong cast are in their twenties or younger (a very determined bit of audience- targeting) and partly due to a cleverly evoked atmosphere of things-about- to-happen. Crossroads Hotel is where spoilt 15-year-old girls ask total strangers "Fancy a snog?", where the chambermaids dream of marriage, the kitchen porters discuss the waitress's new bra, and Jake's dastardly attempts to wrest control of the place from his mother will always be thwarted by his howling satyriasis.

Even the alfresco moments seem charged with lust. When the swarthy gay handyman Bradley (a welcome replacement for that woolly-titfered halfwit Benny) chases a young petrol-robber and rugby-tackles him to the ground, you almost expect him to inquire "Fancy a snog?" as well.

Bradley is the possessor of the only authentic Brummie accent in this Tower of Babel. The barman is Australian, the chef is Scottish, the waitress is Iranian, the housekeeper (the admirable Kathy Staff, formerly of the Crossroads kitchen) is broad Yorkshire, the new porter is a Geordie, and Kate the hotel's owner (Jane Gurnett, who used to be Rachel in Casualty), appears to have dropped in from Bristol.

All the mix'n'matching of veteran actors, accents, plotlines and upstairs- downstairs character-drawing may suggest an over- determined drama, desperate to appeal to everybody. Well, yes it is, actually, but it is still a hoot. And though the scenery doesn't wobble any more, there is a spindly staircase whose banisters look a bit iffy.

Tuesday, March 06, 2001

The Sun

Comments from Sue Lloyd - Ex-Crossroads Star

The new series started off too fast. It was much too racy and seemed to go at 70mph, jumping from scene to scene.

The actors had a very hard job trying to establish their characters, with only a couple of lines per scene.

In spite of that, they all did very well, considering. I just think it all needs to settle down and relax a little bit, and I am sure it will.

I fear that there are too many young faces.

The characters are all the same kind of age. There needs to be more variation.

The scenery has improved .

When we started recording the old series we were working on a nasty purple set and then you could never get proper lighting.

The new hotel is much smarter and glossier.

I loved their red jackets and uniforms. They have obviously spent a lot of money on lighting and scenery.

I also liked the new sex scenes - although they were all over a bit quickly!

It was brilliant to see some of the old faces, including Jane Rossington, but there should be more of them. It is a great shame that Benny isn't in it.

He was an institution. Everyone loved him and he created that fantastic role himself.

I haven't been approached, but I would be happy to return for a stint, as long as the storyline was good.

Tuesday, 6 March, 2001

BBC News Online

'Slick' Crossroads a hit with critics

TV critics have been pleasantly surprised by the revamped soap Crossroads after tuning in on Monday for the first show in 13 years.

Although Carlton Television has invested millions in resurrecting the daytime soap, TV pundits were hoping the walls still wobbled and the phone rang after it was picked up.

But the first showing of Crossroads at 1330 GMT reached an audience 2.2 million, while 2.7 million watched the popular Australian soap Neighbours on BBC One at 1345 GMT.

However the later Crossroads showing attracted 2.6m viewers at 1705 GMT, with 3.8 million tuning into Neighbours at 1735 GMT.

Critics tuned in to ITV on Monday to see how a 13-year absence had changed the old motel.

Ben Walters of The Express said: "What a disappointment.

"Thanks to its double-edged heritage as the epitome of pap, the refurbished motel soap was only going to be any good if it was really bad.

"But yesterday's show turned out to be distressingly solid."

Agreeing, Charlie Catchpole in The Mirror said: "What have they done to Crossroads?

"It's a total travesty. An utter disgrace.

"They've completely ruined one of TV's legendary landmark programmes.

"They've made it good.

"Not in a jokey 'so bad it's good' sort of way. But in a good as in, well... good.

"On the evidence of the first 30 minutes, this is a confident, pacey, funny, sexy little soap which could wash the BBC's tired old Neighbours down the plughole."

Nancy Banks-Smith of The Guardian has long been a proud Crossroads fan and was delighted with its return.

She said: "As daytime soaps go, it is pretty polished, promising and prettily packaged. And not a syllable of that sounds like Crossroads."

Joe Joseph of The Times thinks it may have been a mistake to make it look too professional.

He writes: "The new Crossroads is altogether slicker. Maybe too slick.

"The producers are clearly taking a gamble, since viewers' affection and nostalgia for the show largely rests on its amateurishness."

And Garry Bushell in The Sun raved about the resurrection: "The new Crossroads has got success written all over it.

"We haven't seen much of dear old Doris Luke but just hearing the new version of that famous Tony Hatch theme tune will have made millions smile.

"We can but hope the soap-crazed BBC don't try to hit back by resurrecting Albion Market."

Tuesday, March 06, 2001

The Sun

...and the set didn't even wobble once!

Crossroads returned to TV screens yesterday for the first time in 13 years following a £10 million revamp.

The soap was known for wobbly sets and plots that were even wobblier - but the motel saga boasted 18million viewers at it's peak when it ran from 1964 to 1988.

In the new Millennium it has a sexy cast and has gone up market. But will it earn the right to battle with Eastenders and Corrie - or again become a national joke? Here are the verdicts on show one of Sun TV critic Gary Bushell, former Corrie producer Brian Park, Sue Lloyd, who played Barbara Hunter in the original, and the soap's number one fan, Peter Kingsman.

A little piece of TV history was made yesterday as Crossroads came back to life, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of soap legend.

And the first face we saw was head-porter Rocky Wesson - grabbing a crafty kip.

Face number two was scarier, belonging to Kate Russell, the hotel's new general manager who is both world weary and efficient.

The old dump has improved since we saw it last in 1988.

They've made it a palace fit, if not for a king, then certainly for Alan Partridge.

But what impressed most was the tight economy of Deborah Cook's opening script. She had umpteen characters to introduce and crucial relationships to establish and managed it with ease.

Above all, ITV have remembered the first rule of soap: thou shalt not omit adultery. Randy deputy manager Jake Booth is married to long-suffering health spa boss Tracey but that didn't stop him making a beeline for a beautiful brunette bridesmaid.

Before long, he was enjoying some extra-marital heaven in room 207.

Once it was David Hunter who copped off with the guests, now it's Jake the Peg with his over-active middle leg.

Billy the temperamental Scottish chef (is there any other kind?) stormed off rather than be "a performing monkey" carving meat for wedding guests.

Phil the teenage tear away tried to nick petrol, only for gay handyman Bradley to tackle him forcefully from behind.

The kid is sure to stay, he already has the start of an Upstairs Downstairs thing going with Kate's teenage daughter Nicola, a proper little madam.

While Asian Babe waitress Beena Shah is lusted after by pilfering kitchen staff Des and Minty.

Naturally, ITV saved the big bombshell till last. Jill Harvey (Jane Rossington), who said the soap's closing line in '88, still owns a 30 percent share of the hotel. She has moved into an executive suite and she's not going to sell.

Today we learn she's also a man-hungry lush and by next Monday she's in hospital after a murderous cocktail of drink and drugs.

Sherrie Hewson is going to be a scream as snooty receptionist Virginia Raven. And Rocky (Roger Sloman) is already my favourite, boring everyone with his "When I was at the Hilton..." anecdotes.

The new Crossroads has got success written all over it. We haven't seen much of dear old Doris Luke but just hearing the new version of that famous Tony Hatch theme tune will have made millions smile.

But we can hope the soap-crazed BBC don't try to hit back by resurrecting Albion Market.

Tuesday March 6, 2001

Media Guardian

Crossroads makes steamy comeback

The reincarnation of Crossroads Motel as Crossroads Hotel has not pleased all the critics. For Charlie Catchpole of the Mirror, it's a refit too far.

"It's a total travesty. An utter disgrace," claimed the affronted critic. "They've completely ruined one of TV's legendary landmark programmes."

The problem is, it's just too damn good to be Crossroads.

And the Sun's Garry Bushell agreed. "The set didn't even wobble once" shrieked the page six headline.

Both critics were taken with the speed it took the writers of the new-look Crossroads to introduce some sex as the lantern-jawed deputy manager Jake Booth (Colin Wells) absconded into a bedroom with a gorgeous young bridesmaid - in the middle of the wedding celebrations.

And Mr Bushell has already taken a liking to head porter Rocky Wesson with his "When I was at the Hilton" anecdotes.

Most of the critics - including former Coronation Street producer Brian Park writing in the Sun - thought the Carlton production team had expertly handled the introduction of 30 new characters in the first episode.

Gone are the drab 1970s soft-furnishings to make way for a slick new reception area, a water feature and - to the Independent's horror - Thai fishcakes. This is definitely a rebranded hotel for the 21st century.

And there was more sex in the first 30 minutes than in Crossroads' previous 24-year history, with all of the young, glamorous characters veritably pulsating with hormones.

As the Sun declared, "the old dump has improved since we saw it last in 1988. They've made it a palace fit, if not for a king, then certainly for Alan Partridge."

The Times described the programme as "altogether slicker" than in its previous incarnation while the Telegraph described it as "pretty sturdy".

The well-publicised gay handyman Bradley Clarke managed to imbue his tussle with a young petrol thief with enough lust to put Blake and Alexis to shame.

On the other hand, there is enough soap history to please the real trainspotters.

Crossroads veteran Jill Harvey has been dusted down and moved to an executive suite. Played by Jane Rossington, she had the closing line of Crossroads back in 1988 and appropriately cropped up in one of the closing scenes last night.

But, as Jaci Stephen of the Mail pointed out, such is the stress "it takes her only until episode two to hit the bottle".

Some of the new actors are household favourites, such as Kathy "Norah Batty" Staff as Doris Luke and former Corrie star Sherrie Hewson in a new, glamorous guise.

On the basis of first impressions, it's too good to be true. As Jaci Stephen observes: "Meg Richardson will doubtless be turning in her grave - not least because of the extra cash Carlton has thankfully ploughed into the remake."

And the Mirror's Mr Catchpole? "On the evidence of the first 30 minutes, this is a confident, pacey, funny, sexy little soap which could wash the BBC's Neighbours down the plughole."

Tuesday 6th March 2001

This is York (From the Evening Press)

Take two

It's the same old theme tune - but spruced up and much less tacky. There's a glossy, new feel too: the sets don't shake, and the Crossroads Motel has been upgraded to the four-star Crossroads Hotel. But at least fans of the original Crossroads didn't have to put up with any advertising puff for the sponsors which now precedes too many prime-time shows on commercial TV.

In the case of new Crossroads, it's Surf - a square deal washing powder that seems strangely at odds with the resurrected soap's glitzy new image.

One person who was impressed by the new-look Crossroads despite its Surfy wrapping, was 59-year-old housewife and mother of two grown-up children Pauline Johns.

Pauline, from Stockton-on-the-Forest, admits she enjoyed the soap in its early days first time around. One of the big attractions, she says, was the motel (or hotel) setting.

"When I was younger, working in a hotel was one of the things I would have been quite interested in doing," she admits. "It's a good place for a soap. They're never going to be short of storylines."

The new Crossroads opened with a glitzy wedding reception - and the son of the hotel's general manager seducing one of the guests in a hotel bedroom. Pauline's verdict?

"I enjoyed it," she says. "I think it was a very good idea to introduce it with a special celebration like a wedding. My first reaction was that they have chosen a dashing fellow (Colin Wells as Jake Booth, hotel manager Kate Russell's philandering son) who's going to catch on with the females. He's very attractive, but right away he's obviously not faithful to his wife. He's going to be one of the baddies."

Jake has also, Pauline notes after just the first episode, clearly got ambitions on running the hotel himself. His mum had better look out.

She's intrigued, too, by Neil Grainger as Phil Berry, a mysterious young man on a motorcycle who turns up at the hotel trying to steal petrol, and is promptly offered a job as a porter. And the ending of the first episode - in which Jane Rossington's Jill Harvey, daughter of original motel matriarch Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon) turns up out of the blue to claim her inheritance - was a real jaw-dropper, Pauline says.

The biggest difference between the new-look Crossroads and the original - apart from a gesture towards multi-culturalism in the form of a number of ethnic-minority hotel employees - is the money. Crossroads mark one was famous for its shaky sets and wooden acting. The sets, at least, don't shake second time around.

"It's very glossy," admits TV consultant Chris Wood, director of York-based film and video production company W3KTS. "It's much glossier than either EastEnders or Coronation Street."

Pauline likes that. She confesses she was never a big fan of Coronation Street. She did watch EastEnders in its early days, but says it `got depressing' and admits she's more of a sucker for the glossier soaps. She was a big Dallas fan at first, until it got too over the top, then she switched her allegiance to Neighbours and the Dallas spin-off Dynasty.

What she's looking for in a soap, she says, is a `bit of escapism' - humour and romance, and not too much violence. "They have to reflect life, but I don't think when a lot of people sit down to the TV they really want that. Crossroads is quite light, but I don't want anything too heavy."

She's pleased, too, with the scheduling: daily on weekdays at 1.30pm, repeated at 5.05pm, with an `omnibus' edition at 9pm on Tuesday. "That's a good idea," she says. "Not everybody who really wants to follow it can watch at the same time."

Chris Wood agrees it is a clever piece of scheduling. There is a huge lunchtime audience, especially among older people, he says - and the 5.05pm screening is ideally timed to catch the post-Countdown audience.

After the first episode, Pauline is certainly looking forward to keeping up with events at the Crossroads Hotel.

She's `done her bit' now that her grown-up children have left home, she says. "There's a bit of time for me now. So I should be able to sit down and watch Crossroads and I'll be interested to see how it progresses."

* Crossroads is on ITV every weekday at 1.30pm, repeated at 5.05pm. There is also an omnibus edition on Tuesday at 9pm.

Wednesday 7th March 2001

The Telegraph

Neighbours bypass Crossroads

THE first episode of Crossroads, ITV's resurrected daytime soap, was watched by a third of lunchtime viewers but still failed to beat Neighbours on BBC1.

Crossroads, which generally impressed critics who remembered the shaky sets and bad acting of the original version, won 2.1 million viewers compared to 2.6 million for Neighbours on its first showing at lunchtime. A teatime repeat attracted 3 million compared to 4.4 million for Neighbours and 4.7 million for The Weakest Link on BBC2.

ITV said it was the best lunchtime viewing figure for 15 months, although BBC insiders claimed it was a "shaky start for shaky walls".

Wednesday, March 07, 2001

Ananova

Crossroads wobbles in the ratings

Crossroads has pulled in fewer viewers on its second day.

The newly revived soap drew an audience of 2.6 million for its early evening slot, down 400,000 on its Monday debut.

The lunchtime show was down by the same number, drawing 1.7 million.

The 5.05pm screening drew the same number of viewers as Channel 4's Pet Rescue, which was shown at the same time.

A one-off omnibus edition of the first two episodes drew just 4.7 million viewers at 9pm. This compared with BBC1's In Deep drama, for which 6.7 million tuned in.

Saturday, March 10, 2001

Ananova

Benny disappointed not to be in new show

The actor who played Benny in Crossroads says he is disappointed he is not in the new show.

The soap returned to TV screens this week after being axed in 1988.

Paul Henry played Benny for 13 years.

"I'm disappointed I'm not in the new show so far," Henry told the Daily Mail.

"It's strange that it's me everyone's ringing up to ask about the new show, It's the name of Benny which is giving it the greatest publicity, even though I'm not in it.

"I've still got the woolly hat in the attic somewhere."

March 10, 2001

The Spectator

Justified Anger

…The new, sexy Crossroads (ITV) with self-standing sets began this week. (My brother Paul Hoggart of the Times, a partner in Hoggart & Hoggart, Television Critics to the Quality, once visited the old set and says that the scenery really did shake if you touched it.) It was a bit like that Fawlty Towers the Americans tried to make without the Basil character. I enjoyed it more than I expected, though in a sort of post-- ironic way, whatever that means. I liked spotting the clunkiest lines. Rocky: `They told me it's going to be tough, it's all down to you. Still, I've never been one to shy away from a challenge,' was one. Or the wicked, womanising Jake Booth: `If we play our cards right, next year we can be running this place.'

The jokes, too: `That's the new porter.' `Mmm, he can carry my bags any time!' Or, `Would you like to come out with me on Friday?' `I'd rather die.' `So, how about Thursday?'

I like the clumsy way little nods are made at the past. `Oh, the famous Meg Richardson! You know, people still talk about her!' someone improbably said. Even the new Crossroads four-star hotel, upgraded from the world's worst motel, is horribly familiar. You can see the individual sachets of Nescafe and UHT milk on the hot drinks tray, and the trouser press, designed to make a crease almost parallel to the one already there.

My main anxiety is that there is nobody there to like. They're all either bossy, or lecherous, or thieving, or drunk, or ill-tempered, or incompetent, or scheming, or nasty prissy little madams, or sometimes a combination of all those. Every soap, even Dallas, needs someone for us to identify with, or sympathise with, or even like, and I can't yet see one here.

(Simon Hoggart)

Sunday March 11, 2001

Sunday Mirror

Down the tube: Wry Beena makes a wobbly start with Crossroads

UNLIKE most TV critics I watched all five episodes of Crossroads (ITV, Daily) because I wanted to give it a fair Adam - that's "chance" to those of you who don't speak Crossroads non-rhyming slang.

And while it's true the sets are no longer wobbly, all the other howlers for which Crossroads is fondly remembered soon showed themselves.

My favourite came when Jill slapped Jake on Thursday...and the sound effect was so late it still hadn't arrived by Friday.

On Wednesday Kate announced: "I think it's important that we start acting as a family." No, no Kate. First, you need to start acting.

While it's not fair to single anyone out, Rebecca Hazlewood (Beena) deserves special mention for being particularly bad.

There's no denying she has lovely hair, but that was no reason to spend the whole week acting as if she was in a shampoo ad.

She was almost beaten by Tracey (Cindy Marshall-Day), who spent most of the week lowering her cleavage but managed to shine with the silliest line I've heard in soap since Fizz was allowed to speak in Eldorado.

"I may be stupid," she said. "But I'm not dumb."

Who needs Benny? (Ian Hyland)

Sunday March 18, 2001

Sunday Mirror

Down the tube: Crossroads Jill's an unconscious talent

WEEK two and Crossroads Hotel is still standing. And it was high drama all week as Jill recovered from her drugs and vodka binge (ITV, Daily)

"Jill's on the mend - she's not unconscious anymore," someone announced on Wednesday. I'm glad they did because Jane Rossington (Jill) is so subtle an actress _ I have to admit the difference between unconscious and conscious was too slight for me to spot. Newly awake, Jill set about appeasing her long-lost daughter Sarah Jane.

"I'm sorry I had to put you through all this. What a terrible way for us to meet after all these years," Jill told her, although she could easily have been addressing any younger viewers who were witnessing the show for the first time.

But I don't care about that. All I want to know is whether Hayley is aware that Roy Cropper has taken to wearing women's clothes and working as a cleaner at Crossroads under the name Doris? (Ian Hyland)

Sunday March 25, 2001

Sunday Mirror

Crossroads

IT looks like they are heading for a nasty accident at the Crossroads. The born-again soap is slipping so badly in the ratings that some ITV insiders predict it will be axed within three months. After just three weeks on air the viewing figures are down to 14 per cent of the tea-time audience, only just above the 12 per cent that led to the demise of Public Property - one of the shows that used to occupy the same slot.

Sunday, 1 April, 2001,

BBC News Online

Steps check into Crossroads

A member of the pop group Steps is to check in to the famous Crossroads hotel as themselves.

It will be the first celebrity appearance in the relaunched soap.

Steps will be staying at the fictional hotel in two episodes from 4 April ahead of a 'concert' nearby.

Although all five will be included in the script it will only be Lee Latchford Evans who appears on screen.

Word gets out about the group's stay and fans and paparazzi lay siege to the hotel.

Latchford Evans is said to be a big fan of the show since it relaunched in March.

Crossroads reopened for business after it was axed 13 years ago because of dwindling audiences.

To give the show a wider appeal at least half the cast are in their 20s.

A spokesman for the show said: "Crossroads has a lot of appeal among the teenage audience and as far as pop goes Steps are the top of the tree, so obviously we were delighted when Lee agreed to take part in programme."

Crossroads goes out twice a day, at lunchtime and teatime.

Friday 13th April 2001

Digital Spy

Crossroads to stay, say ITV

ITV have denied reports that daytime soap Crossroads is to be axed due to low ratings since its return.
Nick Elliott, ITV Controller of Drama, said: "These stories are utter rubbish. We are quite happy with Crossroads. It's not being shelved.
"The aim all along has been to get it established, then turn up the heat and get more people to watch it in the summer, especially kids who'll be off school."
He also denied reports that it is to be replaced by new soap Trafalgar Road. "We have high hopes for both shows. Trafalgar Road will be on at a different time to Crossroads," he added.
An ITV spokesman said: "The initial viewing figures were never going to be sustained but now they've stabilised."
"Last week Crossroads' audience share went up by 5% to 25%. Now we think it will grow, but we're not expecting it to match Neighbours' seven million."

May 7th 2001

The Independent

The cast is younger, the sets more solid, but the `Crossroads'

CROSSROADS, the 1970s television soap opera revamped with a pounds 10m refit, risque storylines and a cast of trendy young things, appears to be heading for a dead end.

The show, which used to attract more than 16 million viewers in its heyday, has failed to secure a big enough share of the ratings and now faces the chop just two months after its return.

More than five million viewers tuned in when the classic British television soap returned to ITV in March after a 13-year absence but figures for last month were less than half that number while further losses were recorded for last week. Just 1.4 million viewers switched on for the 30-minute lunchtime show and 1.8 million in the afternoon while rivals such as EastEnders on BBC continue to attract closer to 20 million viewers each episode.

Now television insiders are predicting the early demise of the show, which was once legendary for its coarse, one-take acting and painted-chipboard production style, after describing the soap's viewer figures as "appalling". Crossroads, which first appeared on TV screens in 1964 running until 1988, could now be replaced by a new show called Trafalgar Road, starring Lesley Joseph from the BBC's Birds of a Feather and ex- Avengers' star Gareth Hunt.

Fans of the old motel seem to have been unimpressed with a refit that brought in security cameras, beauty salons and Thai fishcakes. It is now portrayed as an upmarket, four-star hotel with a gym, landscaped gardens, working lifts and a chic restaurant. The rickety old reception desk has been replaced by a pine high altar, manned by Sherrie Hewson (the former Coronation Street star) while half the 26- strong cast are now in their twenties or younger.

Despite the drop in viewer numbers, executives at ITV have insisted that the show is attracting a loyal audience

8th May 2001

The Telegraph

Dark days at Crossroads

VIEWING figures for the new Crossroads have, alas, nearly halved since its re-launch two months ago. Its future is now said to be in jeopardy.

When it returned to our screens at the beginning of March, five million viewers sat glued to their sets, myself among them. I am ashamed to say that I was also one of the first to jump ship, put off by far too many exciting new characters and needlessly gripping story lines.

The joy of the old Crossroads was that things happened even more slowly than they do in real life. A new guest to the motel would appear in the reception area on the Monday, but it would not be until Friday that he would be shown to his room, and only on the following Tuesday would he begin to unpack.

By contrast, in the new Crossroads everything is speeded up to a terrifying extent. Within five minutes of checking in, a new guest will be having an affair with a chambermaid, who will be announcing her pregnancy ("I don't know how to put this, but") by lunchtime the next day; before the week is over, the chambermaid will have been knocked down and killed by a shadowy hit-and-run driver, who, on the following Monday will turn out to be her baby, now a grown man of 21.

Many will blame the failure of the new Crossroads on the continued refusal by the powers-that-be to implement my proposal that Meg Mortimer be brought back as the proprietor of the motel. The character of Meg was, of course, originally created by Noele Gordon who died some years ago. Some would say that her death is no reason to disbar her from reviving the role. A skeleton behind the reception desk might give the series a Bergmanesque quality rare in daytime television, as well as acting as a sharp warning to any new characters who may be thinking of behaving in too hasty or lustful a manner.

Failing that, I still hold out the hope, even at this late stage, that Margaret Jay could be persuaded to take over. Not only does she have time on her hands, but she also has something of Noele Gordon's brusque, almost haughty quality; and what more suitable place could there be for Baroness Jay than behind the reception desk of a three-star motel on a ring-road on the outskirts of Birmingham?

Oddly enough, with his sharp suits and spruce hair-do, Peter Mandelson bears an uncanny resemblance to Meg's dapper deputy, David Hunter. Faced with the possibility of a challenge in Hartlepool, Mandelson might welcome the chance to take on the crown vacated by the late Ronald Allen. But one nagging question remains. Who will play Benny, the benevolent odd-job boy? At first sight, Nicholas Soames might appear too grand for the role, but there is no telling the miracles a bobble-hat can work. Also, Soames has a benign, puppy-dog quality rare on the Conservative back benches, which are full of people losing their temper.

Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Ananova

Crossroads is not checking out, says TV bosses

Rumours that Crossroads is to be axed have been strenuously denied.

Central Television says it has no plans to drop the series.

Viewing figures for the resurrected soap are currently very good, it claims.

The show attracts between three and four million viewers each day.

A Central spokeswoman says: "There is no truth in the rumour that Crossroads is to be dropped. Last week's viewing figures were back up to the levels of the original first week, and pulling between three and four million viewers each day is very good for daytime TV."

Actress Jane Rossington, whose character Jill is being killed off in the series, says she is looking at one or two other projects.

Among them is an appearance on BBC Radio 4's test match special during the England v Australia Ashes cricket match, when she will be interviewed for the View from the Boundary feature on July 7

Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Ananova

Jane Rossington glad to be leaving Crossroads

Jane Rossington has admitted she's glad to be leaving Crossroads after her four-month stint.

The actress has told Ananova that having to get up at 5am isn't much fun.

Her character Jill Harvey has been killed off in the ITV daytime soap.

"Crossroads is too much to do all year round," she says.

"I wouldn't want to do any more than the 17 weeks I've done. I don't know how they do it - it's barmy."

Jane also says she is excited about featuring on Radio 4's Test Match Special during the England v Australia Ashes series.

She will host the View from the Boundary feature on July 7.

"It's a great honour and I'm absolutely thrilled," she says.

"I'm really swotting up on the cricket - I'm quite knowledgeable but not totally."

Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Ananova

Crossroads actress hits back at critics

Jane Gurnett has hit back at Crossroads critics, saying the soap has a core fanbase.

She says she hopes Crossroads will be in the running for an award at next year's British Soap Awards.

The actress plays manager Kate Russell in the ITV daytime soap.

"People knock it but I think the show will build and build and build. It's much more of a family than other soaps," she says.

"When I was in Casualty with 13 or 14 million viewers no-one ever stopped me in the street but now I meet people all the time."

Jane says ITV's new soap Night and Day is unlikely to prove a threat to Crossroads, when it launches later this year.

"Crossroads will probably work well as a warm-up for Night and Day," she says.

"There's no animosity between the two shows. They're totally different.

The British Soap Awards 2001 will be broadcast on ITV on Wednesday, from 8pm to 10pm.

Thursday, May 31, 2001

Ananova

Former Minder star to join Crossroads

Former Minder star Gary Webster is to join the cast of Crossroads.

Gary will join the daytime soap as a shady businessman during a six-week stint on the show, according to press reports.

He starred in Minder as Arthur Daly's nephew Ray, taking over from original star Dennis Waterman.

The Sun Claims Gary's character will have a fling with Crossroads waitress Beena Shah, played by Rebecca Hazlewood, when he joins the cast in July.

Gary, 37, said: "Friends have given me stick about wobbly sets but it has improved a lot. It's great to be back with a character I can get my teeth into."

July 22, 2001

Sunday Mirror

Ian Hyland's TV Week: Dogged stuff

THE Crossroads lot's day out was ruined when their coach broke down (ITV, Thursday). They ended up going to the dogs instead. Which must have been a familiar feeling for them.

20^th August 2001

Daily Mail

Crossroads awarded four-star rating

TV's Crossroads hotel has been given the seal of approval by tourism chiefs with a four-star rating, it was announced today.

Producers of the show wanted to enhance realism on the show and contacted the English Tourism Council to get hold of a sign to display the quality ranking.

And so impressed were ETC bosses by standards at the fictional establishment in the revived show that they decided to award it a plaque.

The hotel replaced the old Crossroads Motel, which disappeared when the series was axed back in 1987.

But with the relaunch of the show by Carlton TV in March this year, a new place was created for the weekday soap.

Programme-makers actually consulted the ETC when designing the new-look hotel and used the four-star standards as a blueprint for the facilities - just one below the rank expected of a luxury hotel.

Sherrie Hewson, who plays snooty receptionist Virginia Raven, said: "It's nice to see the hotel get the official seal of approval as the old motel always looked a bit tatty.

"We've gone up in the world these days - we even change the sheets more than once a week."

"Although the Crossroads hotel is make-believe, if you're claiming to be of four-star quality it's important to get as close as you can to the real thing."

Assessors visit thousands of establishments around the country to check that standards are being maintained or to see if owners have sufficiently improved standards to increase their quality rating.

20^th August 2001

Ananova

Crossroads awarded four-star hotel rating

TV's Crossroads hotel has been given the seal of approval by tourism chiefs with a four-star rating. Producers of the show wanting to enhance it's realism contacted the English Tourism Council to get hold of a sign to display the quality ranking. ETC bosses were so impressed by standards at the fictional hotel they award it a plaque.

The hotel replaced the old Crossroads Motel, which disappeared when the series was axed back in 1987. But with the relaunch of the show by Carlton TV in March this year, a new place was created for the weekday soap.

Programme-makers actually consulted the ETC when designing the new-look hotel and used the four-star standards as a blueprint for the facilities - just one below the rank expected of a luxury hotel.

Sherrie Hewson, who plays snooty receptionist Virginia Raven, said: "It's nice to see the hotel get the official seal of approval as the old motel always looked a bit tatty. We've gone up in the world these days - we even change the sheets more than once a week."

David Stanbridge, head of Quality Standards at the English Tourism Council, said: "Crossroads was a big influence on my decision to pursue a career in the hospitality industry and coming from Nottingham, where Crossroads is filmed, I was really pleased when they got in touch. Although the Crossroads hotel is make-believe, if you're claiming to be of four-star quality it's important to get as close as you can to the real thing."

CROSSROADS REDUCED TO FOUR EPISODES A WEEK.

Thursday, August 30 2001,

Digital Spy

Crossroads cut back

Revived soap Crossroads has been cut back to four episodes a week, it was announced today.
The last Friday edition will air on September 7, after which the soap will run from Monday through Thursday only, at the later times of 14.05 and 17.30.
The move is the first sign that ITV1 is concerned about ratings for the show, which pull an average of just 3.5m a day.
"Establishing a soap is a long-term game. We're very happy with the way Crossroads is performing," said a spokeswoman for the network. "The decision was about strengthening the afternoon schedule, not about Crossroads."
A new gameshow, The Biggest Game in Town will air weekday afternoons at 13.35, which bosses hope will provide strong inheritance for the early edition of the soap.
On Fridays at 14.05, regional programming will air for an hour.
"We wanted to create a consistent afternoon schedule," the spokeswoman continued. "Maureen Duffy wanted to create a consistent run of regional programming."

Thursday August 30, 2001

Media Guardian

ITV cuts back Crossroads

ITV has reduced the five-day run of the new-look Crossroads series to four days a week as the soap struggles to make its mark.

Just five months after launch, the network has decided to dispense with the Friday edition and reschedule the lunchtime and afternoon shows.

There will be just two more Friday editions of the soap before it disappears. The four other weekday editions will be pushed back half-an-hour to 2.05pm and 5.30pm respectively.

The move is the first public sign that the broadcaster's plans for the programme have not worked out.

The network had high hopes when it decided to revive the soap, which ran for 23 years until it was axed in 1988.

The revival was one of Lord Alli's last big ideas before he quit Carlton TV as head of production.

The new Crossroads bears only a passing resemblance to the original although when it launched there was much fanfare about a cast that included Jane Rossington, the actress who opened the first episode in 1964.

But with a combined average viewing figure of 3.5m for its two daily showings, the soap has failed to attract the sort of following of its Aussie predecessor, Home and Away, which drew up to 8m.

ITV said today it was standing full-square behind the soap, declaring that Crossroads needed time to establish itself in viewers' affections.

"Establishing a soap is a long-term game. We're very happy with the way Crossroads is performing," said a spokeswoman.

Launching to mixed reviews, Crossroads has failed to win over the critics, with the News of the World's Ally Ross describing it recently as "death in the afternoon".

An ITV spokeswoman said the move "was about strengthening the afternoon schedule, not about Crossroads".

A new daily game show, the Biggest Game in Town, will air in the 1.35pm slot previously occupied by Crossroads and, if successful, will boost audiences for the soap, which will follow immediately in the schedules.

The quiz show will offer viewers at home and at work a "big cash prize" ranging from "a hundred to several thousand pounds" every lunchtime.

On Fridays the 2.05-3.05pm slot will be dedicated to regional programmes.

"We wanted to create a consistent afternoon schedule," the spokeswoman said. "Maureen Duffy [ITV's daytime programming chief] wanted to create a consistent run of regional programming."

She pointed out that the soap, originally commissioned by ITV network until March 2002, had been recommissioned for a further four months.

A spokesman for Carlton also denied the changes represented a loss of faith in Crossroads

August 31, 2001

The Independent

ITV’s Crossroads finds Fridays fully booked

ITV'S TROUBLED soap Crossroads has been cut from five episodes a week to four in a reflection of the strong competition faced by the tale of an everyday West Midlands motel.

The Friday afternoon edition is to be replaced by a live interactive game show, called The Biggest Game in Town, which will also become a staple of lunchtime viewing, shunting Crossroads to a slightly later time-slot.

An ITV spokeswoman insisted the move was not because Crossroads was failing to win audiences, even though its combined lunchtime and tea-time figure of 3.5 million makes it nowhere near as popular as its predecessor, Home and Away, now on Channel 5.

The revival of Crossroads, 13 years after it was axed following a 23- year run, was one of the last brainchilds of Lord Alli before he left Carlton Television. Despite the disappointing audiences, it has just been re-commissioned for a further four months.

Maureen Duffy, ITV's controller of daytime television, said she was making the changes because the channel needed to increase its afternoon audience to match its popularity before noon.

8^th January 2002

Ananova

Doris Luke Leaves Because Crosssroads “It’s Too Sexy

Kathy Staff says she is quitting Crossroads because the storylines are too sexy. She says many scenes are "sex for the sake of sex", which she can not agree with. Staff says she was disappointed when she first saw the scripts for the re-launched soap.

The 73-year-old recently announced she was leaving the four day a week programme. Bosses at the Central TV drama put her decision to quit down to long hours demanded by the soap. But in a religious programme recorded for Granada TV, the committed Christian discloses that the real reason behind her departure has been the racy plots which have been developed.

Staff, who appeared in the motel based show between 1978 and 1985 and then again when it relaunched in the summer, said: "It wasn't the Crossroads I was in originally. I mean that was a really happy family show and anybody could watch it. I was a bit disappointed when I got in and saw the scripts and the storylines. I mean you've got a girl of 16 pregnant right away and I mean she didn't really know who the father was, which makes it even worse."

In the programme called, My Favourite Hymns, Staff said she believed viewers were often influenced by the way they saw actors behave on screen. Broadcasters were not always as responsible as they should be.

A spokesman for Crossroads said: "She has never said anything to us about being unhappy with the storylines and has always been very supportive of the show. We are doing a soap for today and some of the storylines would not have been seen as appropriate 20 or 30 years ago, but we are huge fans of Kathy and will always welcome her back when storylines allow."

Monday 21st January 2002

Ananova

Crossroads boss says it has suffered from "bad press"

Crossroads producer Peter Rose has blamed the media for contributing to the soap's uncertain future. He has praised viewers for being loyal despite seeing the show moved around the schedule. Rose insists no decision has been made on whether it will be recommissioned in September.

He told unofficial website Return To Crossroads: "We have suffered from a very negative press, most of whom I don't think even watch the show. So we rely on word of mouth and what is a very loyal audience, who have stuck with us despite the moves in the schedule."

Carlton has denied reports Crossroads is to be taken off the air. "The current situation on the recommission is that no decision has yet been made by the Network Centre. Therefore I can't be definite either way," said Rose.

However, he thinks the soap has done well in the face of stiff competition from other channels. "We currently attract over three million viewers per day, which considering we are up against Neighbours, The Weakest Link and Richard And Judy, I don't think is too bad."

Tuesday 22^nd January 2002

Ananova

Crossroads To Introduce Three New Characters

Crossroads will introduce three new faces in April to mark the anniversary of its relaunch. They are Emmerdale's Raine Davison, ex-This Life actor Ramon Tikaram, and Clocking Off star Jonathan Wrather. Davison currently plays teenager Eve Birch in the Yorkshire soap. The newcomers will play a chambermaid, a local psychiatric nurse, and a handyman. No decision has yet been made whether Crossroads will be recommissioned in September.

Thursday, 24 January, 2002

BBC News Online

Crossroads faces uncertain future

ITV soap Crossroads could face the axe if ratings do not improve, according to reports.

The show - which returned to the screens after a 13-year absence - will air until September.

A decision will have to be taken in the spring or early summer as to whether it will continue.

The daytime soap was originally commissioned by ITV for one year and will celebrate its first anniversary in March.

ITV has already recommissioned Crossroads from Carlton for shows up until September.

But ITV's head of drama, Nick Elliot, told the Guardian the future of the programme will be seriously considered if ratings do not pick up soon.

Crossroads was relaunched in a blaze of glory in March 2001, promising a mix of new and old characters, ensuring an audience of 5.5 million in its opening week.

But according to a Crossroads spokesman, ratings dipped and quickly levelled off to its current figure of about 3.5 million across its evening and lunchtime showing.

He added: "At present we have be commissioned up until September and we would like to see the ratings go up in that time so its future is secure."

Shelved

It first went out five times a week but this was then cut to four to cut down on expenditure.

The same also happened to the original soap, before it was eventually shelved in 1988.

In its heyday Crossroads attracted an audience of 18 million viewers but was both maligned and revered by fans and critics alike for its wooden acting and wobbly sets.

Once a shabby motel, Crossroads was upgraded to a four star hotel complete with executive suites and a health spa.

Its BBC One rival Neighbours draws about 6.3 million viewers over its two daily showings.

But the newest daytime soap Night and Day is struggling to attract viewers despite being billed as a totally new style of soap.

Since its launch in September 2001 it has been averaging audiences of 1.4 million for its teatime edition.

Thursday January 24, 2002

Media Guardian

Crossroads faces axe

Crossroads will be axed unless ratings improve over the next three months, the head of ITV drama has admitted for the first time.

Nick Elliott has said time is running out for the soap, which was resurrected last year after an absence of 13 years.

The Carlton-produced soap has only a few months to convince ITV executives it is worth recommissioning.

"We'll look at it across the spring," Mr Elliott said. "It depends on how it does. If it gets a bit of spring in its ratings it could go on."

His candid admission that Crossroads was on the critical list follows reports in a Sunday newspaper that the show was going to be axed.

A final decision on whether it should be recommissioned will be taken by early summer.

Crossroads returned with a combined audience of 5m viewers for the first two showings on March 5 last year.

And there were high hopes it would once again capture the hearts of the public with racier storylines and three of the original cast including Jane Rossington, who briefly played Jill Richardson before she was killed off.

The four-star hotel was also updated with a gym, landscaped gardens and upmarket restaurant.

However, critics derided the poor scripts. One veteran programme-maker within ITV said the problem was that "Crossroads was made by people who didn't know how to make soaps".

Since the new year ratings have slumped, with an average audience of just 3.3m watching the soap, according to unofficial overnights.

However, Crossroads is still doing better in the ratings than ITV's other daytime soap, Granada's Night and Day.

Night and Day, which goes out before Crossroads at 5.05pm three days a week, has averaged just 1.3m viewers.

The evening edition of Crossroads averaged 2.3m viewers over the same period.

However, Night and Day is commissioned until November and has had a more positive critical reaction than Crossroads.

27^th January 2002

Sunday Mercury

Now Even The Fans Turn on Crossroads

Under threat Crossroads has been given a big thumbs down - by two of its biggest fans.

TV Insiders claim the Midlands soap could face the chop in the autumn because of a ratings disaster. Critics have repeatedly panned the £10 million revamped show which returned to our screens last March. Now lifelong fan Peter Kingsman and media lecturer Dorothy Hobson, who has written a book on the famous motel, have laid into the programme - and say it must change to survive.

They claim storylines are aimed at too young an audience and plots are too far-fetched and confusing. They also believe ITV has boobed with its scheduling. Programme-makers Carlton have denied the soap, which has been commissioned until September, is facing the axe.

Crossroads has an average audience of 3.5 million for both its afternoon and evening episodes. But in its heyday the series, famed for its shaky sets and wooden acting, was regularly watched by 16 million people.

Dorothy Hobson, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Wolverhampton, is author of the book 'Crossroads: The Drama of a Soap Drama'.

She said: "The show does have a few problems. For a start it needs to define who its audience is because it seems to be trying to attract younger viewers which I don't think is right. It also seems to have a lot of different storylines, all at the same time.

"And some characters could be better used. The actor Gilly Gilchrist, who plays the chef Billy Taylor, is a very interesting actor but they should develop his character and give him a proper part.

"The time it goes out doesn't help either as putting it up against Neighbours is not the right thing to do. The programme is just starting to iron out its problems and it would be a shame if it left our screens again. But I have been watching it and I think it has improved considerably since its relaunch last year."

Suffolk-base Peter Kingsman, who used to run the now defunct Crossroads Appreciation Society, said he still loved the show - but it had flaws.

"Crossroads was commissioned as a daytime show but it would be a lot better if it went out in the evening. It should be back at its original timeslot of 6.30pm which I am sure would bring in lots more viewers. Personally, I love the new show. But I would like to know what has happened to the actress Sherrie Hewson, who played the receptionist Virginia? She has just disappeared.

"And I did not like the storyline when Jill did not realise her own daughter was an imposter. They had only been apart eight years - surely she would have recognised something was amiss before now! But I am still a big fan of the show and I think it is going from strength-to-strength. There is no reason why it should be axed."

Both the experts agree the addition of new characters has helped Crossroads - especially the appearance of Vic Barnes, played by actor Ray Lonnen.

Carlton announced last week that even more characters were to be created. Raine Davison, formerly Eve Birch in Emmerdale, has joined as Abbie Baker, a quiet and innocent young chambermaid. Former This Life star Ramon Tikaram will appear as Eddie Weaver and Jonathan Wrather, star of Clocking Off and Bob and Rose, will join the hotel as Sam Delaney, a rugged new handyman.

Earlier this month veteran Crossroads actress Kathy Staff revealed she was quitting the soap because the new storylines were too sexy. The 73-year-old star had been an original cast member between 1978 and 1985.

Tuesday January 29, 2002

Media Guardian

Doctors threaten to kill off Crossroads

The pressure on ITV to ditch Crossroads is mounting after it emerged that the BBC has decided to make Doctors a permanent fixture of the schedules.

The daytime soap, starring Christopher Timothy and Corinne Wicks, is one of the most successful new drama launches since Holby City was spun off from Casualty.

With a regular audience of 2.5m viewers, it has double the ratings of Crossroads and BBC bosses have decided to make it a regular weekday feature.

It is due to return to the screens for its regular run in March but BBC Birmingham has been told it will run all year round without a break.

The go-ahead to production means that Birmingham, once a centre of excellence and synonymous with daytime flagship series Pebble Mill, will have its own "mini soap factory" for the first time.

The two-year-old quasi-soap, produced by Carson Black, is regularly screened head to head against Crossroads at 2.20pm.

ITV's head of drama, Nick Elliott, admitted last week if the ratings for Crossroads didn't improve the soap would be axed for a second time.

Thursday March 14, 2002

The Guardian

Can ITV soaps make it through the day?

ITV daytime soaps Crossroads and Night and Day are fighting for their future, as ITV prepares to gives its daytime schedule a makeover.

Liam Hamilton, the daytime chief who returned to ITV two months ago, plans to radically reshape the channel's daytime output in the face of disastrous ratings.

And he has postponed a new commissioning round while trying to decide whether the two ailing soaps should be given another chance or killed off altogether.

"We need time to look at all the options," said an ITV spokesman.

But ITV is understood to have pencilled in the end of March as the deadline by which to decide on the future of the soaps.

"Liam wouldn't have been brought in to do the job if a root and branch overhaul of ITV daytime wasn't needed," said a senior ITV source.

The source added it was "highly likely" ITV would try to resolve the thorny issue of Crossroads and Night and Day before the next commissioning round.

Crossroads, the revamped version of the long-running ITV daytime drama, and Night and Day, aimed at south-eastern upwardly mobile sophisticates - have both failed to set the schedules alight.

Average audiences for Crossroads are about 1 million for its lunchtime edition and 2 million for the early evening edition, while Night and Day averages just over 1 million viewers per episode.

Mr Hamilton is introducing a new nostalgia quiz show presented by Matthew Kelly to the ITV1 teatime schedule, which is currently dominated by the two soaps.

Never Had it So Good, a Yorkshire Tyne Tees show, is expected to go out daily from around the time of the football World Cup in May.

ITV DELAYS DECISSION TO RECOMMISSION CROSSROADS

2^nd May 2002

Media Guardian

ITV At a Crossroads Over Crossroads

ITV could be left without a cast for its afternoon soap Crossroads if it doesn't hurry up and recommission it. ITV is due to make a decision about whether or not to recommission struggling daytime soap Crossroads in the next month.

The network has delayed ordering more episodes of the Carlton-produced soap for so long that options ([contracts]) on the majority of the cast have lapsed, leaving them free to seek other work. If they sign up to other productions Carlton may not be able to secure them for further episodes, leaving the show in limbo.

A senior Carlton insider said: 'If the actors have found other work then that's tough. We don't have any contracts as there currently is no show. The cast are out of their options at the moment and some have taken short-term theatre contracts while we're waiting to hear [whether Crossroads is recommissioned by Network Center]. But this doesn't necessarily prevent us going back into production. The cast have shown a willingness to return.'

Carlton ceased production of Crossroads on 28 March, but left ITV with a surplus of episodes to run until August. However, it is still incurring costs as it has studio space devoted to it in its Nottingham production centre. Axing Crossroads would threaten the studios' future as the soap takes up the bulk of production.

ITV has already axed Granada soap Night and Day. Both Night and Day and Crossroads have garnered disappointing ratings in comparison to ITV's previous daytime soap, Australian import Home and Away. Crossroads returned in March 2001 with 2 million viewers at lunchtime and 3 million at teatime. But recently the show has only been averaging 0.8 million at 1.40pm and 2.4 million at 5.30pm.

An ITV spokeswoman said: 'Actors contracts are a production issue for Carlton to deal with.'

Thursday May 2, 2002

The Guardian

ITV at crossroads over soap

ITV is due to make a decision about whether or not to recommission struggling daytime soap Crossroads in the next month.

Carlton actually ceased production on the show, which goes out at 1.40pm and 5.30pm four times a week on ITV1, at the end of March.

But by then the company had already delivered enough Crossroads episodes to ITV to keep it on air until October.

The soap's cast are now out of contract and some have taken work in the theatre to tide them over until a decision is made on the programme's future.

"The cast are out of their options at the moment and some have taken short-term theatre contracts while we're waiting to hear," a Carlton spokesman said.

"But this doesn't necessarily prevent us going back into production. The cast have shown a willingness to return," he added.

Crossroads returned in March last year with 2 million viewers at lunchtime and 3 million at teatime.

But recently the show has only been averaging 0.8 million at 1.40pm and 2.4 million at 5.30pm.

ITV dropped its other daytime soap, Night and Day, from its teatime slot at the end of March because of poor ratings.

Night and Day now goes out in a late-night slot on Thursday.

Wednesday 29th May 2002

Croydon Guardian

Spitting image for 007? (Extract)

Currently appearing in Skin Deep, award-winning actor Colin Wells, is perfectly cast. He is the dark, dashing, handsome Michael, caught up in the mystery thriller that surrounds his girlfriend Chloe Smith,played by Rae Baker.

Our interview is over lunch at the Warehouse Theatre and, as we are finding seats on the tiny sun-drenched terrace, heads are turning at Colin. The women are staring, as he is exceptionally good looking, and the men because his face is a familiar one.

At present he is Jake Booth in the revived daytime soap Crossroads for Carlton Television. The day after our lunch he is appearing at the Best of British Soaps ceremony in London, as he's nominated for several awards including Best Actor and Villain of the Year.

Jake's not a very nice chap it seems, and Colin has played him convincingly. So well in fact that in Nottingham, were the series is filmed, he is often accosted in public.

"In the shopping centre one woman ran up and spat at me! I'd been particularly nasty in the previous episode. She missed, luckily, and I suppose you have to take that as a compliment for doing the job so well," he said.

Other jobs well done have been television roles in Peak Practice, The Hello Girls, Casualty, The Bill and Birds of a Feather. Colin played Sam Curtis in CI5: The New Professionals alongside Edward Woodward, a huge international television success.

He was Anthony Hopkins' son in the film Titus, which also starred Jessica Lange. And heavy gossip surrounds Colin, as it is rumoured that he is a contender to slip into that tuxedo when Pierce Brosnan steps out of the line of fire as James Bond.

"I don't really know where that came from," he said as our lunch arrived. "I did the series CI5 which went round the world and was a huge hit, and at the end of that somebody put a vote on the website Who Do You Want To Be The Next James Bond? and following my role as Curtis, I was up there. I've not been interviewed for Bond and I've never had any contact with Bond people, but they do know of my existence."

Tucking into a veggie chilli dish he added: "It would be a laugh, wonderful! I'd be made up for life. But you never know what's round the corner. After CI5 I went into Titus, and then I had seven months without the phone ringing."

What did he do in between jobs'?

"I spent a lot of money and ended up skint!" he replied. Speaking this phrase, I caught a hint of an East End dialect.

"My voice isn't how it used to be, I had a broad Cockney accent. It's now Standard English and most people can't tell where I'm from. I felt I didn't suit my old voice and at drama school I changed it.

"I have no theatrical back ground. I did my A levels and went into banking. I hated it! I left the bank and became a member of the Greenwich Young People's' Theatre. They had a call for extras needed for Francis starring Kenneth Brannagh being presented by Citizens' Theatre Glasgow. I worked for them and convinced them that I was so essential that they had to take me back to Glasgow and give me a real part. I got my Equity card and the rest, as they say, is history."

Now aged 34, married to actress Joanna Macleod, he has a four year old daughter Rachel, whom he tells me, is giving him a hard time as he's working away from his home in Nottingham.

" She's missing me at the moment and is refusing to talk to me on the phone to punish me," he said.

He's a family man, and feeding the family is what made him take on Jake in Crossroads.

"It's nice to have a steady income for a while. We have set up home in Nottingham, it's a great place to bring a child up. There's a bit of a camp element in Crossroads, and it's knocked in the press by people who probably never watch it. Filming for now has finished and the series is running up until September. After that, with Carlton's problems, we don't know if it's being recommissioned."

CROSSROADS RECOMMISSIONED: BUT THERE ARE CHANGES AHEAD

17^th June 2002

Media Guardian / The Guardian

Crossroads Takes New Bookings

ITV has ordered 240 new episodes of Crossroads even though its audience is only 3 million, writes Jason Deans.

It had been widely expected to bite the dust, again, but today courageous ITV chiefs took the decision to carry on with the motel soap Crossroads even though it is winning audiences of just 3 million. After months of procrastination, ITV's new controller of daytime TV, Liam Hamilton, has commissioned 240 new episodes. It means the soap, which is on four times a week, will remain a fixture of the schedules until the end of 2003.

ITV last year resurrected Crossroads, renowned for its shaky sets and shakier acting, after a 13 year absence. The show originally ran for 24 years from 1964. Nearly 5 million tuned in when it returned in March but the updated show, which follows daily life at a four star hotel in the midlands, now fully equipped with a gym, landscaped gardens and a classy restaurant, failed to impress large numbers of viewers and ratings have dropped to around 3m.

Today, however, ITV hinted at a major revamp when it hired Yvon Grace, who became known as "Evil Yvon" as a panellist on ITV1 reality show Soapstars last autumn, to be the new executive producer. She has worked for both ITV and the BBC on soaps and other long running dramas, including Holby City, EastEnders, The Ward and Revelations.

"I absolutely loved Crossroads when I was growing up," said Ms Grace. "I remember rushing home from school to sit down and watch it with mum. I have great plans for Crossroads to make it a 'must see' daytime show," she added.

The company responsible for making Crossroads, Carlton, actually stopped production on the show at the end of March. But by that time Carlton had stockpiled enough episodes of the soap, which goes out four times a week at 1.40pm and 5.30pm, to keep it on air until October. Crossroads is off air during the World Cup, but in the final week of May was averaging 0.8 million viewers at lunchtime and 2 million at teatime.

June 17th 2002

The Evening Standard

Crossroads beats axe with promise of new storylines

CROSSROADS, the classic Seventies soap revived last year to dismal ratings, has narrowly avoided the axe, but has brought in a new executive producer in a last-ditch bid to turn its fortunes around.

Yvon Grace, one of the judging panel in Soapstars, will replace Sharon Bloom and will be charged with creating new characters and storylines.

The series has been given the green light for a further 240 episodes.

ITV's new head of daytime TV, Liam Hamilton, has agreed to continue with the show even though the actors' contracts have expired and the show has ended production.

Carlton's head of drama Jonathan Powell said programme makers would "alter the emphasis" of the drama to concentrate on guests and staff.

Monday, 17 June, 2002

BBC News Online

Crossroads given more time

ITV executives have given ailing soap opera Crossroads a vote of confidence by commissioning it to continue for at least another year.

There had been reports that it could be axed due to poor ratings.

It is watched by just three million people per day, half the amount that tune in for its competitor, Neighbours, on BBC One.

But another 240 episodes - which will last for 60 weeks - will be made by Carlton and shown when the current contract runs out in October.

A new executive producer, Yvon Grace, will take over and has said that she has "great plans" to turn it into a "must-see" show.

Ms Grace, who has worked on EastEnders and Holby City, became known as Evil Yvon when she was on the panel in the Soapstars TV talent show.

Jonathan Powell, Carlton's director of drama and co-production, said: "Over the past 15 months, Crossroads has built up a very loyal audience and we now want to build on that fan base."

"Yvon has a fantastic track record in popular drama and will help Crossroads realise its potential."

The show returned to UK screens with a fanfare in March 2001 after 13 years away. It had been a fixture in ITV schedules between 1964 and 1988.

Slumped

With its storylines and notorious wobbly sets updated, its return was watched by five million people, and critics gave it a warm welcome.

But its viewing figures have slipped to one million for its lunchtime slot, and about two million for an early-evening repeat.

It first went out five times a week, but was then cut to four to cut down on expenditure.

The original soap was also cut back over the years before it was eventually shelved.

Memories

Neighbours, which goes out at the same time as Crossroads, gets about six million viewers per day.

But Carlton points out that Crossroads attracts more people than soaps like Channel 4's Hollyoaks and Brookside, as well as Family Affairs and Home and Away on Channel 5.

Crossroads was originally meant to partially replace Home and Away when Channel 5 bought the rights to the Australian drama in 2000.

Ms Grace said: "I absolutely loved Crossroads when I was growing up. I remember rushing home from school to sit down and watch it with mum.

"I have great plans for Crossroads to make it a 'must-see' daytime show."

London-based drama Night and Day, which was also meant to replace Home and Away, lost its daytime slot soon after being launched last November, and is now only shown late at night.

Wednesday, July 17 2002,

Digital Spy

Shake up for Crossroads

Following falling lunch time ratings, ITV bosses have decided it is time for a change of image For Crossroads. Viewers for the lunchtime episode of the show dropped from 2 million in 2001 to 0.8 million this year, with the evening show dropping from 3 million to 2.4 million over the same period.

Earlier in the year production was stopped while bosses made decisions about the future and the show has recently dropped it's lunch time show focusing on the evening slot.

The hotel based soap is in for drastic changes that may involve the departure of up to ten characters.

At the present time there are a lot of soaps all trying to attract younger viewers, but Crossroads writers intend to target an older age group. Speaking to Inside Soap magazine, Carlton's director Jonathan Powell said "The show is slightly too young at the moment. The middle-ranking age group needs to be solidified."

As well as a change in cast the show looks likely to change in format, moving from it's current long running plots to shorter weekly storylines.

The changes seem to be intended to give the soap a last chance at sucess.

Wednesday 14th August 2002

Digital Spy

"Crossroads" to take an Autumn break

ITV is to give Crossroads an Autumn break before relaunching it in December.
The network recently re-commissioned the show, despite ratings falling to just 3m as of late.
The last episode in the current run will go out on August 30, and production of a further 240 episodes will begin in October, for transmission starting December.
A Carlton spokesman told Ananova: "We have great plans for Crossroads to make it a must-see daytime show. It's going to be back bigger and better than ever."

ITC Annual Report

Programme Complaints 2001

During 2001 the number of complaints about violence fell. However, 23 complaints about violence in seven programmes were upheld. Eleven of these were for the programme, Crime Caught on Camera where it was felt that the level of violence was unsuitable in a pre-watershed programme. Complaints about sexual portrayal and language also fell during 2001. In these categories, 37 complaints about the excessive use of bad language in the medical drama A&E, were upheld. However, seven complaints about sexual portrayal in an episode of Crossroads were not upheld

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