"Rather than watch it die slowly with a smaller and smaller audience we decided to end it while it was still popular." -Ted Childs, Central Television controller of drama. "The show was always despised by the executives. They got rid of all the best characters, and did everything they could to make the public turn against it before they pulled the plug." -Tony Adams, Adam Chance, 1978-1988.
	"Well it was a funny time, Crossroads was extraordinarily popular with ITV's mass audience in those days. Very successful, completely harmless - but the IBA.. ..were rather sniffy about it and in those days it was rather a predacean bunch of the great and the good. And they were rather embarrassed as they couldn't really be proud of Crossroads at dinner parties and so on. And they didn't like the fact that ITV's top ten every week was dominated by episodes of Crossroads and they tried to either get its episodes reduced per week or get it canceled. This is the regulator, who are supposed to be looking after the interests of the public, and when they were pressed as to why they wanted it axed, the IBA Chairman said to a gathering of ITV Chiefs that 'the authority finds it distressingly popular.' What an age that was!" - Michael Grade, Chairman of ITV, 2007+ and former boss of LWT. "To be honest, I don't watch Crossroads regularly but I am very impressed by the way they deal with human problems which are introduced from time to time. For example, the storyline surrounding the handicapped boy and the business of malaria cases in Britain. This last issue was based on my own personal experience and I acted as an advisor for Crossroads on that storyline for a short while. Crossroads went to enormous trouble to get all the fact just right and won the respect of an eminent professor at the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool." - Mary Whitehouse, Former President of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association. "I think it is [popular] because it portrays life as people like it to be. It is escapist enough for that. It doesn't offend. It doesn't over stimulate. And it does go along in a way that people can recognise and accept what is happening without making them think terribly hard. In short, it appeals to a large section of the tea-time viewing public." - Michael Hart, Crossroads Director, 1960s-1980s
	"I love singing. I met my husband when we both sang in 'Iolanthe'. I wish Mrs T had a better voice. Still her heart's in the right place even if her musical notes aren't.. ..If ever they create a musical version of 'Crossroads', I'd love to direct it. I enjoy being involved in the theatre. I've been able to pass on my passion as I was head of drama at the Elliott-Clarke School in Liverpool until recently.. ..I was given the part in 'Crossroads' after a former student of mine put my name forward for the part!" - Elsie Kelly, Mrs Tardebigge, 1986-88 "At TV Times we have always recognised what a fantastic show Crossroads was. TV Times has always had a great relationship with Crossroads and has featured it on the front cover many times. We certainly would not want to poke fun at one of the most important show's in television history." - Ian Abbott, TV Times Editor, 2006
	"If Crossroads was shown throughout the country on the same days and at the same time - preferably 7pm - we would be numbers one, two and three in the ratings all the time." "I was surprised that they did [axe] it when they did. Because it was doing terribly well, it had very good ratings and they'd done all the advertising and stuff. And we'd met all these targets in terms of "audiences between the ages of" and all that. So, yes I was surprised." [by the time the last episode aired the show had started to appeal to the younger audiences that ITV wanted.] - Jane Rossington, Jill Richardson, 1964-1988 "Soap opera goes back a long way, I'm sure critics from time in memorial up to Dickens criticised 'the serial' which has now assumed the title of 'soap' due to the involvement of Proctor and Gamble, back in the early days, back in America in the 1930s. Soap opera will always be criticised at various levels, its the rate of time we have to produce it, the frequency of which it is shown and the sheer volume precludes excellence one may wish for in say a single play or a film. But soap opera has its own standard of excellence; by the way it engages everyday people in the lives of everyday people on the screen. It must have been a very successful format, or it wouldn't have lasted this long." - Phillip Bowman, Crossroads Producer, 1985-86 "When I had to play some very hot love scenes with April Clark, Nolly felt it was really going a bit too far.  She told the producer so, but he wouldn't change it.  Afterwards she said to me, 'I don't mind you doing it, Ronnie, but I wish you hadn't done it on my sofa! .. Very often, newcomers to Crossroads would act as though she [Noele] was the Queen, a star who was difficult to approach.  But she wasn't.  She just wanted to be treated like the rest of us." - Ronald Allen, David Hunter, 1969-85
	"It is a dilemma which could come from a prime-time serial: it's no good having 12,000,000 loyal viewers if they don't have the spending power." [on the demise of the programme being put down to 'the wrong type of audience'] - Reg Watson, Original Producer, 1964-74 "I first joined Crossroads just before Noele was sacked so sensationally, she wasn't easy.  She wanted everything to be right and when half the time it was wrong she would say:  'I'm going back to my dressing room until.' But on my first day when I was feeling nervous and unsure, she was the only one who wished me luck.  The last time I saw her before she died of cancer was at a Crossroads celebration.  Tony Adams carried her in his arms up the stairs.  However difficult she might have been she is remembered with a great deal of affection." - Charmian Eyre, Mavis Hooper, 1981-1986
	"Crossroads was the kind of show that generated a lot of myths and stories but, as one of its actors, I never once saw the set wobble." "'I'm the character everyone remembers and I think the [new 2001] show wouldn't stand a chance without me." - Paul Henry, Benny Hawkins, 1975-87 "Whatever the critics in the press said, Crossroads did a very good job! It did the job it was designed to do. Its ratings were amazing and a heck-of-a-lot of people still like it." - Noele Gordon, Meg Mortimer, 1964-83 "A television milestone, Crossroads has enjoyed a new lease of life on DVD and has become one of our best-selling ranges over the years. Due to popular demand this ongoing series of releases has been created to showcase all the remaining episodes, in transmission order. In its day Crossroads was one of television's most popular and enduring soap operas.." - Network DVD, producer of Crossroads DVDs, 2005+
	"For me it was a tremendous experience.  I was really thrown in at the deep end.  It was my first television part and it was very difficult.  The pressure is tremendous.  At first I was like a rabbit caught in headlights.  I didn't know what to do or what to think.  But I was lucky, nothing drastic went wrong.  The great thing was that, unlike Play of the Week, if something was not so good in episode one you could always try to do better with episodes three and four." - Jan Todd, Lucy Hamilton, 1977-79/82 "Until Charlie appeared on the television screen I've been able to hop onto buses if I wanted and go anywhere. Now if I get on a bus people want to discuss the latest developments in Crossroads. It's a good way to make friends but often I can't stop chatting and miss my stop." - Graham Seed, Charlie Mycroft, 1986-88
	"It wasn't Crossroads they took off. Crossroads had been killed off years before. You cannot suddenly say I'm going to play to a totally different audience, to ignore the existing loyal viewers.. ..you can't slaughter the cast and take out all those old familiar friends. It was never a chore for me or the people I worked with. We loved it, that's why it hurt when people slagged us off. My aim was to make viewers happy, to help them while entertain them. After all these years I still derive satisfaction from the fact that there's a four-bedded unit in a Birmingham hospital for people suffering from kidney disease that Crossroads founded. We gave Downs Syndrome children a sense of pride when we showed a [DS] child and gave an idea what her life was like. Parents wrote in to say they held their heads up high after we did that. My successors took a totally different outlook. They weren't interested in the family aspect, the caring aspect. It was all pretty pictures and smart speeches. Smethurst has changed it beyond all recognition. ..I can hardly believe what was done." - Jack Barton Crossroads Producer, 1974-85 "The sex movies ruined my career. But you know how it is. I was out of work, the birds were smashing, and I've always been a born flasher". Speaking on his sex films after leaving Crossroads. - John Hamill, Dave Cartwright, 1967-68/1973-1974 "The over-55s are a growing section of the population and a valuable market because they frequently have no mortgage to pay and no children at home to support. It is still a very popular programme. If Central were able to change the audience profile to younger viewers then that could be of interest, but I would want to look very closely at what is going to replace it." [In response to the fact many Crossroads viewers were over 50] - Donald Byles, media director at the advertising agency, J Walter Thompson, 1987
	"I told them [Coronation Street] to forget it. I didn't plan to do any more soaps, not after Crossroads. You slammed the door and all the pictures fell off the wall - it was too embarrassing." "It was when I was in Crossroads playing taxi firm boss Clifford Leyton that the Coronation Street producer, Bill Podmore, wanted a Londoner. He said to the Crossroads producer, Jack Barton, 'That Johnny Briggs, is he alright?' Jack said 'Yeah, he knows his lines, he turns up to the set on time,' so I was asked to do it and I said 'Ok, I'll do three months.' Then the years have just crept up.." - Johnny Briggs, Clifford Layton, 1973-76 "A TV show would give its eye teeth for that kind of viewership today. Each episode only cost £10,000 to make and brought in £100,000 worth of advertising revenue. I think the truth is that they were ashamed of it. They axed it because it affected their egos. I think it was a very short-sighted decision.. ..I simply consider the criticism to be dreadfully insulting to our huge following of viewers." - Sue Lloyd, Barbara Hunter, 1976, 1978-85
	"Demographics is what it is all about these days, any future serial would have to attract a large, young audience with substantial disposable incomes. Crossroads was beaten by its image. My predecessor, Phillip Bowman, worked hard for two years and improved the technical quality enormously. I brought in National Theatre actors and wittier writers. But the audience profile refused to budge and media people still slated Crossroads without watching it." - William Smethurst, Crossroads Producer, 1986-88
	"In Mile High I had a bit of a conscience so that wasn't too bad but Crossroads was a baptism of fire. It was tough. "I was in a Jacuzzi at 7am of a Monday morning with Emma Noble, Freema Agyeman, Lucy Pargeter and just about any other girl who set foot on the show. And now I'm on to Patsy Kensit [in Holby City]." - Luke Roberts, Ryan Samson, 2003

© Crossroads Appreciation Society 1988-present
Written by Mike Garrett