The Crossroads Bloopers Files - 1) Shughie McFee, 1980

Crossroads was often mocked for its wobbly scenery and fluffed lines. Well, I wasn't aware of much of a wobble, but the occasional fluffed line did creep in. Not surprising, considering the rate at which episodes were recorded. Coronation Street, with its much more leisurely production schedule, was not fluff-free, either.

But some Crossroads fluffs stick in my mind as favourite moments. They added a touch of likeable human fallibility and colour at times. So, in this occasional series on the topic, I'll recount my top fluffs.

In 1980, there were strange doings afoot in the motel kitchen - like spiders in the trifle and grease placed deliberately on the floor. Shughie McFee confided in Meg Mortimer that lately he'd been concerned by 'certain behaviours of pattern.' 

Yes, really.

Bless him!

As it turned out, the 'certain behaviours of pattern' were his own. He was undergoing a serious nervous breakdown and Kath Brownlow caught him in the act of vandalising the kitchen one dark night.