The two producers, Phillip Bowman and William Smethurst both changed everything in Crossroads, amongst other people behind the scenes at Central Television who helped to slowly kill off the Midlands soap opera after 24 years.
No wonder a few actors from The Archers ended up in Crossroads - Lisa Lancaster (Alison Dowling) was - and still is - Elibazeth Pargetter, née Archer, Graham Seed (Charlie Mycroft) was Nigel Pargetter and Trevor Harrison (Eddie Grundy) played a character in Crossroads! Incidentally, Graham Seed was also one of the jurors in Helen Tichenor’s trial in The Archers!
To be fair though, that wasn't really anything new. William Avernell (I believe - forgive the spelling!) Patricia Greene and even Jane Rossington appeared in both Crossroads and The Archers
The reality was when ATV was transformed into Central Television in 1982, the new management had no interest in Crossroads and let it run because it was an institution by them. However come 1986 to 1987, with Central preparing for the upcoming 1991 ITV franchise round, they gave it one last chance, but axed it in 1988, as it felt it's heritage looked wrong for Central Television to have when approaching the 1991 franchise round.
4:30 he’s wrong about that. Crossroads was the British equivalent of an American daytime soap and they have very limited budgets, doing no exteriors and confined merely to the tv studio.
The two producers, Phillip Bowman and William Smethurst both changed everything in Crossroads, amongst other people behind the scenes at Central Television who helped to slowly kill off the Midlands soap opera after 24 years.
No wonder a few actors from The Archers ended up in Crossroads - Lisa Lancaster (Alison Dowling) was - and still is - Elibazeth Pargetter, née Archer, Graham Seed (Charlie Mycroft) was Nigel Pargetter and Trevor Harrison (Eddie Grundy) played a character in Crossroads!
Incidentally, Graham Seed was also one of the jurors in Helen Tichenor’s trial in The Archers!
To be fair though, that wasn't really anything new. William Avernell (I believe - forgive the spelling!) Patricia Greene and even Jane Rossington appeared in both Crossroads and The Archers
The reality was when ATV was transformed into Central Television in 1982, the new management had no interest in Crossroads and let it run because it was an institution by them. However come 1986 to 1987, with Central preparing for the upcoming 1991 ITV franchise round, they gave it one last chance, but axed it in 1988, as it felt it's heritage looked wrong for Central Television to have when approaching the 1991 franchise round.
That old guy seemed quite cool, had a good sense of humour :)
The host is Ludovic Kennedy - he was a well known broadcaster and also a former Liberal politician. He died in 2009 aged 89.
4:30 he’s wrong about that. Crossroads was the British equivalent of an American daytime soap and they have very limited budgets, doing no exteriors and confined merely to the tv studio.
On the other hand, Eastenders was a masterpiece... :-)
EastEnders has been truly awful ever since somewhere in the mid to late 1990’s and it’s gotten worse every year even up to the present time.
Also, Canded Carrot?
Bit boring because there was only view expressed.
I am no fan of any Soap Operas. But Crossroads was truly awful. But it did give the likes of Jasper Carrot some very funny material for years.