Cos I mean I think that’s where the humour was with Benny he didn’t think there was anything wrong with things. Well, it was very weird really because I didn’t read for the part I just got it! What happened was that I was working for the Birmingham rep, across the road, I’d been there for 8 or 9 years, and I was sharing a dressing room with an actor called John Rollason who had just started writing for Crossroads and he suggested me for the part ‘cos he said: “Paul would be able to play it”. Paul Henry In 1979, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) – then commercial television’s regulator – decided production should be reduced further to three episodes a week from April 1980, with the chairman of the IBA Lady Plowden reportedly describing the soap opera as “distressingly popular”. ATV planned to replace the fourth episode with a spin-off series called A Family Affair, but this idea was dropped. Series star Noele Gordon, who played matriarch Meg Richardson, regularly won the TV Times Most Popular Female Personality viewers award during the 1970s. The original premise of Crossroadswas based on the everyday lives of two feuding sisters, their businesses, staff and customers, specifically in relation to the Crossroads Motel, in the village of Kings Oak near Birmingham. On hearing that Heathbury town council wanted to build a motorway through part of her land, astutebusinesswoman Meg Richardson ( Noele Gordon) had used the compensation money the council offered, and her late husband Charles's insurance money, to convert their large Georgian home into a motel – a motor-hotel aimed at motorists with parking outside their chalet. Crossroads had 16 chalets, a reception, bar, kitchen, office and private sitting room. According to Meg, the clienteleincludedtourists who were journeying to places like "Stratford On Avon, the Lake District or even those breaking a journey going upto Scotland, as well as commercial travellers, people who have their business going up and down the Midlands, andtheatre people." Charles Richardson and Meg had two children: hotel receptionist Jill ( Jane Rossington), born in 1946, andschoolboy Alexander, or "Sandy" ( Roger Tonge), who was born in 1950. The Crossroads Fan Club". www.crossroadsmotel.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2020 . Retrieved 30 January 2020.

Other locations included the canal (including Gas Street Basin) behind the studios in Birmingham; in-story this was the King's Oak Canal, on which hairdresser Vera Downend had a boat. The Chateau Impney Hotel also featured numerous times, most famously when Hugh proposed to Meg in 1973, and it was used to hold their wedding party two years later. The Chateau Impney was renamed the Droitwich Hotel on-screen. St Laurence's Church in Alvechurch was the setting for Jill and Adam Chance's wedding in 1983. Hagley Hall was used for the wedding reception. Helios Health Club based in Brierley Hill was used as the location for the Motel Health Club, filmed on Mondays when the health club was closed.Benny Hill – 18, 2 – This Is Your Life – 17.2, 3 – Coronation St – 16.9, 4 – Coronation St – 16, 5 – Crossroads – 15.1, 6 – Crossroads – 15, 7 – Life Begins At 40 – 14.6, 8 – Play Your Cards Right – 14.4, 9 – Crossroads – 14.3, 10 – Crossroads – 13.9, 11 – Jim Davidson – 13.6, 12 – Hart To Hart – 13.2, 13 – Kenny Everett – 13, 14 – Leave It To Charlie – 12.8, 15 – Emmerdale Farm – 12.5 This Is Your Life – 7.9, 2 – Coronation St – 7.6, 3 – Coronation St – 7.6, 4 – Crossroads – 7.4, 5 – Crossroads – 7.4, 6 – Rising Damp – 7.2, 7 – Bit Of Wisdom – 6.9, 8 – European Cup – 6.9, 9 – Crossroads – 6.9, 10 – The Fosters – 6.9, 11 – David Nixon – 6.8, 12 – Sale Of The Century – 6.8, 13 – Crossroads – 6.7, 14 – New Faces – 6.2, 15 – Hadleigh – 6.1 I think the blues still speaks to kids today", said Ry Cooder, who performed the music with Steve Vai and Arlen Roth. "It's so old that it's new." [7]

Further changes were introduced in March 1985, when new filming locations, sets and characters were introduced. 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. The closing titles, which had scrolled in multiple ‘crossroad’ directions since the earliest episodes, were replaced with conventional scrolling credits. This is the average number of seconds between one wave and the next, 1-2 miles out to sea. A long wave

I was suddenly one of the main characters who’s been in it all the time and of course whereas it could be a bit, you used to get a bit scared in some ways or nervous when it was all the old guard, suddenly it was all the new guard and they were looking at you like you were the old guard and you’ve never gone through it! And when they got rid of Sue, it probably was a toss-up between me and Sue and I think they probably thought “Well, we can get rid of Benny eventually”. Recording for the show ended at Christmas 1987 with the final episode (a feature length finale) broadcast in April 1988 where Jill drives off into the sunset with her lover to open a "little hotel in the West" that she thought they could call "Crossroads". Crossroads Volume 3 was released on 26 February 2007. There are two versions of the DVD, one being a special limited edition, which contains an extra third disc – featuring recently found episodes from 1976. Crossroads Volume 4 was released on 17 September 2007. Over the years the series dealt with storylines which were controversial for the times. A single parent working at the motel was hugely controversial in the mid-1960s, as was Sandy Richardson becoming a permanent wheelchair user after a car accident in 1972. The storyline was developed when actor Roger Tonge had himself become a wheelchair user off screen as a way to keep him in the series, thus becoming the first paraplegic regular character portrayed in a British soap opera. Coronation St – 6.8, 2 –& Mother Makes Five – 6.6, 3 – Coronation St – 6.6, 4 – Crossroads – 6.5, 5 – Crossroads – 6.4, 6 – Three Comedies – 6.3, 7 – Crossroads – 6.3, 8 – Sale Of The Century – 6.1, 9 – Crossroads – 5.9, 10 – Passing Leviathan – 5.9, 11 – News At Ten – 5.7, 12 – Rising Damp – 5.6, 13 – Don’t Ask Me – 5.6, 14 – David Nixon – 5.5, 15 – Sam – 5.5

individual waves out to sea or at the beach can be higher than this number. If you are close to theSpecial Branch – 6.9, 2 – My Good Woman – 6.8, 3 – Hunters Walk – 6.7, 4 – News At Ten – 6.6, 5 –& Mother Makes Three – 6.6, 6 – Coronation St – 6.4, 7 – Six Days Of Justice – 6.3, 8 – World In Action – 6.1, 9 – Coronation St – 5.8, 10 – Crossroads – 5.7, 11 – David Nixon Show – 5.7, 12 – Fenn St Gang – 5.7, 13 – News At Ten – 5.6, 14 – News At Ten – 5.6, 15 – Crossroads – 5.5 Fusco was a traveling blues musician prior to attending New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he wrote Crossroads as an assignment in a master class led by the screenwriting giants Waldo Salt and Ring Lardner Jr. The student screenplay won first place in the national FOCUS Awards (Films of College and University Students) and was sold to Columbia Pictures while Fusco was still a student. I mean I always tried to avoid making him absolutely stupid if you know what I mean, and I didn’t think you had to write material which was silly. You had to write a situation and Benny would make it silly. And sometimes he didn’t have to say anything. My idea of Benny was like if someone came in and said “It’s raining cats and dogs out there” all you had to do is take a look at Benny and you could see in his eyes he was trying to work it out. He took everything literally so you didn’t have to have him saying, “Where’s them cats and dogs?” you just knew. a b Schweiger, Daniel (December 1996). "Partners in Crime". Film Score Monthly. Vol.1, no.76. p.17. Man About The House – 7.9, 2 – The Sweeney – 7.2, 3 – Miss Grt Britain – 7.1, 4 – Stars Look Down – 7.1, 5 – Upstairs Downstairs – 6.9, 6 – Crossroads – 6.8, 7 – Crossroads – 6.6, 8 – Crossroads – 6.5, 9 – Sale Of The Century – 6.4, 10 – Crossroads – 6.3, 11 – General Hospital – 6.3, 12 – Great Zaire – 6.2, 13 – Frankie & Bruce – 6.1, 14 – News At Ten – 6.0, 15 – Coronation St – 5.9