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

CROSSROADS ON LOCATION PAGE 1 – CLICK HERE FOR PAGE 2…

Can I visit the hotel?

The simple answer to the question is “No” as the building used in the series was not a hotel at all. The 2001 series of Crossroads was made by Carlton Television for the ITV network. The hotel interior and exterior were filmed in Nottingham at the now closed Lenton Lane Television Studios. You can find out more about the construction of the exterior set HERE.

Since the end of the series all traces of the exterior have been removed and the building sold to the University of Nottigham. You can see what the exterior set looked like in January 2005 by clicking HERE.

Left: The entrance to Carlton Studios.

Right: It doubles for the hotel (note the staircase and the architecture of the brickwork)

Can I visit King’s Oak?

King’s Oak is a fictional village though the locations used are real enough. Various different villages around Nottingham were used to double up for the exterior scenes including Bingham and Redmile. You can find out more about some of the real-life locations used HERE.

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Obviously the arrival of a film crew in the middle of any village is going to cause a disruption to the people that live and work there. We have collected together several articles from local newspapers and the minutes from parish meetings to try to give some idea of what it might be like to be that close to the action…

BEFORE FILMING… 

The minutes from the Redmile Parish Council meeting held on Monday 13^th November 2000 describe the complicated process involved in filming (relatively few) scenes outside the confines of a TV studio.

A public meeting was called by Carlton, and held on 17th October at the Windmill Inn to discuss filming in the village. The meeting was attended by between 70 and 80b residents. There was "overwhelming support" for the project, with only 2 residents raising any concern.

The council had been assured that off road parking would be arranged and that the police would be consulted. It was also stated that there would be no road closure.

Filming was scheduled to start on 29th November 2000, with Carlton agreeing to pay owners for the use of their buildings, and to make a payment to the Parish Council for the village as a whole. At least one councillor asked that the payment should be spent for the benefit of Redmile, and this was agreed.

So everything was fine....? Not if you read the "Newark Advertiser" which claimed there had been a "Row over soap shoot"

Sharon Hodgkin reported that the plans "have angered residents who fear that filing would infringe on their privacy and village life would be disrupted both by filming schedules and tourists."

"Representatives from the programme makers, Carlton Television, met with residents on Tuesday to outline their plans and discuss any concerns but they failed to placate the villagers and the entire community will now be balloted to decide whether to co-operate with the company."

"A spokesman...said "I should think 98% of the programme will be done in studio in Nottingham and only a very small part will be filmed on outside locations.""

The minutes from the Parish Council meeting from 8th January continue the story...

Two residents asked for an update on Crossroads filming, and complained about restriction of movements during filming. The police confirmed that they had received two letters of complaint but were satisfied that traffic flow had not been interrupted.

The minutes also state that Carlton had paid for police attendance to control traffic and anticipated crowds.

FILMING BEGINS…

"TOWN ON TV" says the Newark Advertiser in March 2001.

"Bingham Market Place was a hive of activity on Monday when a crowd gathered to watch the new series of Crossroads being filmed.

About 40 cast members and production staff from Carlton Television arrived at about 10am to film a key episode."

Finally, the same paper reported in June 2001 that "(the) takes were continually interrupted by the sounds of traffic as producers were unable to reach agreement on having surrounding roads closed.”

So there you have it - a brief account of filming on location. Only the ROADS made people CROSS!

The market square in Bingham where Jill accepts Adam's proposal.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A MORE SERIES LOCATIONS

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