Crossroads Motel

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Crossroads was a UK soap series which originally ran during the 1960s and 70s based on a motel in the middle of England, somewhere around Birmingham in a fictional village called Kings Oak. The series was produced in the ATV television studios, based in Birmingham and was on in the early evening 5 nights a week.

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The motel was run by Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon), daughter Jill (Jane Rossington) and son Sandy (Roger Tonge). The guests either said nothing at all (cheap, like the mute barmaid who did nothing but grin between 1978 and 1986), or stayed three months, the standard length of a contract for the series (indeed, even the regulars were only on three month contracts, which explains a lot of mysterious disappearences for lengths of time divisible by three months).

Other staff included various chefs (Carlos, Shughie McFee) and waitresses (Miss Diane) and there was a cleaning lady - the gossip centre of the motel, Amy Turtle . The manageress of the local post office, Miss Tatum who always wore tweed skirts, hair in a bun. Who could forget Benny (Paul Henry - for a photo see The Sweeney - Famous People in Series 1) who apparently owned a dog called Moses, a goat called Starry and a donkey named Miss Diane. (Thanks goes to Angie Welford for these last two items of information) In later years there was a garage, run by Jill's first husband, Stan Harvey who left for Germany after Jill had an affair with her own step-brother, Anthony Mortimer. .

In the 70's Meg appointed a General Manager - Adam Chance. After Noele Gordon was sacked from the show (causing a public outcry in the UK), a husband and wife team David and Barbera Hunter (played by Ronald Allen and Sue Lloyd) took over the role of managers. The show then seemed to go into a decline or at least some major cast changes - finally the last managers were Nicola Freeman, played by Gabrielle Drake (sister of Nick Drake) and the very last one was Tommy "Bomber" Lancaster, played by Terence Rigby.

Theme music was by Tony Hatch and Paul McCartney & Wings did a memorable version on an LP - Venus And Mars which was often used as an episode closer, particularly if that episode had a particularly poignant ending.

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