Between November 1964 and December 1981 ATV continued to wipe and reuse the 2" video tape that Crossroads was recorded onto. Once the episodes were aired, they would generally after six months, be wiped and new episodes of the soap recorded onto the same tapes.
It has left large gaps in the archive. The great people at KAL have been for years trying to work through the nightmare that is the Crossroads archive to compile a list of what has been kept, and what is now missing.
It's not just the ATV years that has damaged the Crossroads archive. The closure by Carlton Television of the Broad Street studios in 1997 has been deemed as an equally disasterous era for the soap.
Between 1988 and 1991 CAS released a number of classic Crossroads episodes in association with ITC and Central Enterprises. It has become quite clear since those were released that some of the episodes contained on the videos have also now been "lost" by Carlton.
There was a feeling in the late 1990s that archive material wasn't important. One former Central worker even recalls how one Carlton executive was heard commenting that the film library of ATV and Central News could be melted down, so the silver could be extracted and sold for profit.
Another former staff member recalls seeing a skip outside the Broad Street studios with film cans, stills and photographs - including imagery from Crossroads - being piled into it.
We know for certain that the 1973 episode 1885 (an ITC branded black and white episode), 2300 (the one directly before Meg and Hugh's wedding) and 2814 and 2815 (part of the Asian racist storyline of 1977) have all been lost between 1997 and 2008. Episode 1885 was originally on film, but was put on a 1" tape in 1985 for the BFI documentary series, Open The Box. It appears now both copies have been mis-placed.
Today, thankfully, archive television is now known to have an audience and is being looked after, and even searched for. Of course no one expects to find the master tapes, but over the years fans and viewers have taped episodes on various visual formats. Some lost episodes have turned up from the 1970s on Betamax, N1500 tapes and VHS. Some episodes have even surfaced on audio.
If you think you've got a lost episode of Crossroads, itv.com would like to hear from you. They are interested in any recordings of episodes broadcast before 1982 - on videotape or could even on reels of film! If you think you've got something in your garage or loft, drop the team a line at ITV Lost Crossroads Email.
You might expect one of ITVs longest running - and most popular programmes - would have a rich archive full of information that could be tapped into. The current state of the official archive at ITV is pretty much the opposite of that - hardly anything has been kept.
Lets make it clear from the start - the loss of the information is nothing to do with Granada or Carlton, the items were disowned by Central bosses in the late 1980s. We hope that everything important was sold off in the 1988 auction, but we are not sure if that was the case. We are currently trying to find out what was sold at the end of the shows run, and then establish what was possibly binned due to being deemed unimportant.
We really need your help. If you worked on the programme and have any photographs or documents that could be useful - please do get in touch. Also memories of the show is what we really need document. Back stage stories, tales about the cast and crew. All important to the shows history. In short no matter how small, or how unimportant it may seem - if you have any Crossroads information about the show either on or off screen, we would love to hear from you!
We are also looking for those items that would provide information of interest:
Crossroads Bible - as it was named. This 'book' contained details on every single main character. It was mainly used to keep continuity correct within the series.
Scripts. It is very difficult to get access to the script archive at ITV, and ones sold on Ebay currently cost far more than the club can afford. Photocopies - which CAS can afford would be useful to plug a lot of storyline gaps that are currently there.
Location details, again also the facts/history each location as devised by the storyliners at the time.
Photographs. Especially backstage images, including the kind the make-up department/costume department would take for continuity. Photocards and the like are saught. Also if anyone has any details on who owns the TV World pre-launch photographs.
Props. We'd like to photograph props for posterity. Or scan any Crossroads documents that are worth recording in the archive.
Press cuttings. The Central press and publicity department held every published newspaper and magazine article on the show while it was on air. Since Broad Street closed its believed these items too have been binned. Any Crossroads articles would be very useful.
Other information such as broadcast times and the days of the week that it aired in your region would be useful too.
Any details you feel that would be an advantage to the Crossroads archive, even little things like names of the characters who were extras in the serial. Any information is always welcome - it may be something you think isn't very interesting, but with the state of the archive any tiny little recollection or memory is useful.
Unfortunately the Daily Mirror in 1988 bought up and gave-a-way lots of items from the show to 'fans' of the series. These items are the most likely not to still exsist due to the fact they were given to people who didn't fork out the money for them. This seemingly harmless competition by the Mirror has possibly done the most damage to the chances of rebuilding the archive.
At the time of the auction items were going very cheap, which also means genuine fans of the show who loved the series and wanted to buy an item could. These people are the most likely to have kept the Crossroads items. Can you help?
We do not have a budget, so as usual all your help is done for the love of the show. Its highly important the shows heritage is protected and we thank all the genuine Crossroads fans for their help and support. We may where possible if the item is of great importance arrange to give you a free copy of the book when its released. Email us HERE. Or see other contact details below.
Click here to email us direct or call the Crossroads Fan Club hotline: 0844 8848709. Charges are local rate.
