Many storylines began to revolve around the new motel owner, Nicola Freeman played by Gabrielle Drake. More long-term characters, such as David and Barbara Hunter, were axed. The theme tune was also updated, and the opening titles replaced with a longer version. Finally, the show was renamed Crossroads Motel - although this fact was never formally announced by the show's production team and the word "Motel" was simply incorporated into the opening titles.
In , a new producer, William Smethurst, took over following the sacking of his predecessor, Philip Bowman. Smethurst, who had been brought in by Central Television's new head of drama, Ted Childs, ordered changes, aimed at creating a wittier, more upmarket serial, and at improving the production values of the show. Smethurst shifted the narrative centre to the nearby village of King's Oak.
Yet more long-running characters, such as Diane Hunter and Benny Hawkins, were dropped; as with earlier changes, this was unpopular with viewers, who telephoned Central in protest. Smethurst gained the nickname "Butcher Bill" but was unfazed; he had, after all, reversed the declining fortunes of the BBC radio soap The Archers.
Smethurst insisted he only got the flak because his was the name the public knew. Michelle Buck guided the show through its final few months on air as series producer, with William Smethurst still on hand as executive producer. Further changes included the series being renamed Crossroads Kings Oak for a time, with the intention in the future of shortening this to merely Kings Oak. Also, the familiar theme tune was replaced by a new theme composed by Max Early and Raf Ravenscroft.
New titles were introduced to accompany the new theme, which featured stills of King's Oak and the new King's Oak Country Hotel. However, this final change was overtaken by the decision in June by Andy Allen, Central's director of programmes, to axe the series.
In January , the series was reduced to only two episodes a week, with Crossroads King's Oak finally coming to an end on 4 April the Easter bank holiday. Asked what name she would give the hotel she would be running in her new life, the character remarked, a little sadly, "I always thought Crossroads was an awfully good name". The first revived episode was broadcast on 5 March with a glossy format Carlton having bought Central back in to the surprise of the wider media.
Initial reactions were favourable;[17] however, changes in story from the original were puzzling for fans and did not help ratings. Kathy Staff left in dismay at the amount of sex,[18] and told ITV Teletext she felt it was no longer the family-friendly show she had originally been part of.
The decision to kill original character Jill Harvey, who was murdered by ex-husband Adam Chance three months into the series' revival, proved unpopular with fans of the original show. At the halfway commercial-break point however, the programme was interrupted to hand over to ITV News for then very sketchy details of the developing situation in the USA. As the afternoon went on and the seriousness of the situation became clear, all ITV Network daytime programmes, starting with CITV transmissions at , were relegated to Digital Terrestrial Television channel ITV2 to continue rolling news coverage.
As a result, the episode remains unseen by most of the programme's regular fanbase, including the entire Channel Islands who could not receive ITV Digital. A short re-cap of events in Episode was screened before both the and showings of Episode on 12 September The episode was included in the Omnibus edition that Sunday; again, however, this only went out on ITV2. The series went into a hiatus from August to January , during which time further changes were made.
The remodelled series, under producer Yvon Grace, appeared to be a self-consciously camp parody, with Jane Asher playing a new central character - the glamorous and bitchy Angel Samson. Yvon Grace admitted she was aiming the new Crossroads towards the LGBT TV audience, but fans were not happy with her ambivalence towards unresolved storylines from the run.
With ratings continuing to decline, the revived series was also axed in March ,[23] with the final episode being broadcast on Friday 30 May The series was criticised by fans who felt the series had moved away from the series and the series, as well as being "too gay". Later, Jane Asher apologised to fans as a result of the way the series went.
The original theme was actually two tunes. Each one represented one of the families and these tunes could be played separately or, because they shared the same chord sequence, together in counterpoint with each other. As the budget was small I decided to use a small rhythm section plus a harp and feature the first theme on a string guitar with the second theme played on the oboe.
Right at the beginning I put the famous 9-note motif - the call-sign which gets the family in front of the TV set. A selection of cues were recorded, including Meg's Theme which eventually became the standard opening theme, Kitty's Theme which was phased out as action focussed on the motel, the closing theme which combined both Meg's and Kitty's themes, and a variety of background pieces.
JILL : Well The motel! It's on fire! Show Spoilers. How well does it match the trope? Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel. Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube. Home » Television » Drama. Previous Article Hippies. Next Article Square Peg, The Dim-witted handyman Benny Hawkins Paul Henry , rarely seen without his iconic blue beanie, once went out for a spanner and returned six months later.
He was beset with a litany of troubles: falsely accused of murdering his gipsy fiancee Maureen — killed on the morning of their wedding — he was then temporarily blinded and lost his best friend, Miss Diane, the manager Sue Hanson , when she died of a brain haemorrhage.
He subsequently commemorated her by naming his pet donkey after her. Motel manager David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen, was an incurable gambler for just one week in , his son Chris was a part-time terrorist and his ex-wife Rosemary shot him.
But motel boss Meg had more than most to endure. One husband tried to kill her by painting the living room with poisonous emulsion and she lost another to a heart attack.
In the story, she sailed off into retirement on an Australia-bound QE2. Actress Jane Asher, who played who played the motel's owner Angel Samson, in the revived version of Crossroads which ran for two years from He had intrigued viewers by apparently never growing any taller during his 17 years in the show, and retaining a perpetually breaking voice.
The height problem was resolved when scriptwriters invented a car crash which obliged Sandy to spend the rest of his time at the motel in a wheelchair. He died aged 35 in — and Sandy was never mentioned again. Virtually anyone who appeared in the series automatically became the victim of some scriptwriter-inspired mishap within six months. There were poisonings, rapes, drug addiction, incest, abortions, nervous breakdowns, kidnapping and even the bomb which blew up the motel.
And if the original cast was scarce, so, too, were many of the quirks that used to make it so endearingly popular. Ronald Allen, right, who starred as David Hunter in the soap who was a shareholder of the Crossroads Motel. The sets no longer wobbled, the actors were better rehearsed and remembered their lines; and there was sex. There was a lot of sex — we would all be exhausted if we had that much sex in real life — but we were quite discreet. It did go out at 5. Not all the cast were happy about the adult content.
Kathy Staff, who played cleaner Doris Luke in both the original series and the revival, left in dismay at the raunchy sex scenes. Viewing figures slumped to below 1. Another would be that Crosswords was the best worst TV show Britain has ever made. But despite it all, the show has lived on to enjoy a continuing repeat life on extra-terrestrial TV.
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