For many years it has been said by numerous people that "Crossroads was ahead of it's time." Which may be some of the reasoning as to why the show wasn't liked much by TV critics. It covered taboos, it covered issues that people would rather not know about. Here you'll find some of those firsts, and a few other facts about the soap too.

Storylines were planned three months in advance, and although during the 1980s only three episodes aired a week, four were still produced, giving the crew long summer and Christmas breaks.

1979 figures concluded that Crossroads had employed thus far 15,000 actors and issued over 20,000 ATV contracts. The stats men had also concluded that 52 tons of script paper had been used and over half a million words written.

Between November 1964 and November 1986 over 1,230 characters had been created for the series.

Landmark dates: Episode 500 aired in November 1966, episode 1500 aired on May 25th 1971 and the 3000th edition was broadcast on August 18th 1978. Edition 4000 was transmitted on November 20th 1984.

By the end of the 1970s over 3200 episodes had been recorded, although less than half that number had been kept in the archives. Every Central Television version of the soap was kept, but prior to 1982, there is at least some missing episodes for every year, rendering it impossible to repeat its most popular era.

Up to 1984 when the original format of the series came to an end, there had been six babies born in the series.

Sheila Harvey's illegitimate son, Jill Harvey's son and daughter, Diane Lawton's love child, Joe and Trina MacDonald's son and Kevin and Glenda Bank's test tube baby.

Of these children, only two were 'conventional' births, those being Jill and Stan Harvey's Sarah-Jane and Benjamin for the MacDonalds.

In the first 20 years, there had been 25 Crossroads deaths. The first on-screen death was that of Victor Amos, businessman and part owner of the Night and Day Car-Hire service in the village.

Some characters have been written out due to the unexpected deaths of the actors. The first Crossroads star to die was Beryl Johnstone, who played Meg Richardson's sister, Kitty Jarvis. She fell ill during the night, and died at home, the cast only discovered her fate when she didn't turn up for filming later in the day. Kitty was killed off some weeks later with a heart attack. Joy Andrews, as Meg's best friend, Tish Hope took over the storyline's that were due to be Kitty's.

The last actor to die while in the series was Roger Tonge, who played Meg's son, Sandy Richardson. He had been suffering from Cancer since the mid-1970s, but continued to work on Crossroads right up until the week before he died in 1981. Fellow actors Ronald Allen and Noele Gordon had told him he should leave the studios, and visit his doctor due to an infection. He died five days later.

Meg had three adopted children: Stevie Harris played by Wendy Padbury, Melanie Harper played by Cleo Sylvestre and Bruce Sorbell-Richardson played by Paul Aston.

Between 1964 and 1988 there had been 29 weddings in the series. In 1965 the first was that of Tom Yorke to Joyce Hepworth swiftly followed by waitress Christine Fuller and village Milkman Ralf Palmer in the same year.

The first to mark an off-screen celebration was the marriage of Andy Frazer - Meg and Kitty's brother - in 1966 to Ruth Bailey. It was to mark 500 episodes.

The next milestone one was that of Motel Housekeeper Kath Brownlow to Stephen Fellows in November 1985. That wedding was to celebrate 21 years of the soap. The last one was Sid Hooper's marriage to Ivy Meacher in 1987.

Crossroads was the first show to put a telephone help line on the end of the programme for people to seek help in similar situations as the characters.

Unlike other soaps where ‘ethnic’ actors were added for simple race storylines, Crossroads added all kinds of actors of all creeds and colours with the basic idea that these people were characters and colour was not the principal reason for casting them. This made Crossroads one of the first soaps to employ many Asian and African actors in the UK.

These include the long-term black actors; Cleo Sylvestre in the 1960s and Carl Andrews and Merdelle Jordan in the 1970s.

First to use OB Videotape units on UK soap opera.

Covered the taboo issue of teacher-pupil affairs in 1977 when teacher Richard Lord seduced his pupil, Lucy Hamilton.

First soap to do location filming abroad. In 1965, the team flew to Paris, for a school trip storyline with Sandy Richardson.

Covered illegal immigration in 1970 when Melanie Harper tried to help smuggle her French boyfriend into Britain.

Introduced a gay character in 1983. It was made clear Gloria Tilling had a lesbian lover in Greece. Gloria was Edna's daughter - who was the sister of Doris Luke.

In 1984 the soap dealt with immigration issues, resulting in a Polish character being deported. She had married motel restaurant manager Paul Ross to stay in Britain, but the authorities exposed her con.

Crossroads looked at racist abuse, but from a different angle. Ground breaking for the 1970s, but the soap developed a storyline where an Asian family living in the village were very opinionated and greatly disapproved of their daughters relationship with a man who wasn’t of the same religion or race.

Crossroads bravely ventured into the world of unmarried mothers in 1964, this caused fury on the ATV switchboards.

Another storyline which caused furious viewers was the 1969 witchcraft storyline taking place in the village church yard.

Was the first soap to have a Welsh family where the entire ensemble of actors from Wales playing the family.

The programme made UK history by having the most episodes for any programme.  It held the record for the UK soap with most episodes up until 1997 when finally Coronation Street caught up over-taking 4524.

In 1980 the nation went into a campaigning state for Benny in Crossroads when he was  wrongly jailed. "Free Benny" saw t-shirts, banners and petitions across the UK to get the character released.

EastEnders has been recently hyped up as the soap that went out of its way in playing cat and mouse with the press. In 1981 Crossroads staged numerous fake recordings to put the press off up-and-coming plots.

Crossroads covered the issue of underage sex numerous times. In 1984 the show went as far as to look into whether it was right for doctors to give young teenagers contraception.

Drugs were never too far away from the motel. From being addicted to prescription drugs to the harder illegal habits, Crossroads looked into the UK’s drug problem years before Brookside.

The first to cover test tube pregnancies.

The programme, just like witchcraft and ghosts, also carried a storyline concerning Spiritualists. This 1983 story featured Ma Flood, local medium to Kings Oak.

"Crossroads, unlike other soap operas, has a strong and active social conscience, illustrated by the topical and often controversial subjects it covers" - Central press release.

The soap also helped found a ward in a Birmingham hospital dealing with Kidney disease after a storyline featured the issue.

1966 saw blood donation covered in the soap, which also tied in with a blind girl's storyline.

Anti-smoking may be a part of everyday life now, but back in the 60s it was un-heard of pretty much on television. In 1968 Crossroads covered the issue of smoking related illnesses, although no character died - due to the IBA not allowing characters to smoke in Crossroads!

Diane Hunter taught Benny Hawkins to read and write, this lead to a national literacy campaign.

Decimalisation was covered in the soap, which the Post Office praised in Parliament.

Won much praise for its handling of the Downs Syndrome story of Nina in 1983.

In 1981 Doris Luke was attacked in her own home after answering a door to a stranger, this lead to an awareness drive to get the elderly to fit chains on their doors and to always ask for ID from callers, such as gas and electric board officials.

Crossroads also covered to name only a handful: Alcoholism, agoraphobia, gambling, squatters' rights, sexual harassment, adoption, bigamy, illegitimacy, abortion, test-tube pregnancies, handicaps - physical and mental, suicide, murder, blackmail, homelessness, unions, strikes, terrorism, abductions, cults, ghost haunting and political issues to name only a few.

© Crossroads Appreciation Society 1988-present
Written by Douglas Edward Lambert