Our Crossroads Favourites: Amy Turtle

Hippies on the telly? Mr Booth's fancy cooking? Amy wasn't impressed. It was juicy gossip she craved.

Ah, Amy Turtle! Some people will snigger, but it's worth remembering that Amy was a hugely popular Crossroads character - in my family she was more popular than Meg Richardson - and from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, many working class folk would have frowned at criticism of the character or of the actress's performance.

And, as Ann George, who played Amy, pointed out, she did become a bit of a scapegoat when other cast members fumbled their lines.

Diminutive Amy was immensely popular not just with the tongue-in-cheek detractors of the show, but with its loyal and loving audience - who took the character seriously and cared for her.

So, Amy lived in the village of King's Oak and was first seen as a Brummie customer at Kitty Jarvis's shop, where she soon went to work. Amy then transferred to the motel as a kitchen hand and char. Gossip was Amy's great love and she wasn't very clever. The character's biography at ATV described her as an 'English peasant' - as were many of us viewers, of course. She dabbled in spiritualism and maintained contact with her deceased husband Fred that way. She was suspicious of big city living and hippies.

Amy Turtle was happy in her own little pond.

Much was made by mockers of the show in later years of an old story-line in which Amy had apparently been accused of being a Russian spy - Amelia Turtlovski. The episode/s no longer exist, and I don't recall the plot from my viewing years, but it has since been suggested that the whole thing was just a jokey comment made by another character, and not a story-line at all. Amy, of course, would have made an excellent spy. If anybody has any further information on this, I'd be fascinated to hear.

After the death of her son in 1975, Amy was caught shoplifting and we were all horrified when she was put in a police cell. She shamefacedly slipped into Meg and Hugh's wedding, and sat at the back. Things didn't improve when a wage packet went missing, and some uncharitable souls suspected Amy was the thief. She fled from the motel, briefly taking a job elsewhere under an assumed name to cover her shame, but was finally found by Jane Smith and brought safely back into the motel fold.

In early 1976, Amy went away to visit a relative abroad, and wasn't seen again until early 1987. Apparently, she'd been quietly living in the village and had come to visit the motel as a friend of its new owner, down-to-earth Brummie cove Tommy 'Bomber' Lancaster.

And she'd hardly aged a day.

Her presence seemed to rather freak out poor Jill Chance, and Amy made a few dark comments about Meg - who apparently would 'bawl like a fish wife' if the chalets weren't spotless, but 'had a heart of gold'. 

Ann George made a few appearances as Amy at this point, and I loved them.

Her disappearance in the mid-1970s had left a huge hole in the show. Apparently there had been problems behind the scenes, and so the viewers lost a cherished character.

Oh well. 

Still, it was great to see Amy again in 1987, brief though her appearances were.

Another Crossroads legend, never to be forgotten. 

Our Favourite Crossroads Characters: Diane Lawton/Parker/Hunter

Diane! Another legendary Crossroads character and another huge favourite of ours.

Poor old Di, played by Susan Hanson, had a terrible time, as do all soap heroines. She'd originally arrived to win a beauty contest in the mid-1960s, then got a job as a waitress and kitchen hand at the motel. By the end of that decade she'd had a nervous breakdown after the explosion of an old wartime bomb which had devastated the motel kitchen.

Di also braved temperamental chefs like Carlos Rafael, Mr Booth, Mr Lovejoy, and Shughie McFee (or Shughie McCradock as she once called him), and the nosiness of the likes of Amy Turtle and Mrs Witton. The kitchen was not a particularly harmonious place, even without a bomb.

If all that wasn't enough, Di had a terribly shifty brother, Terry, who turned up at odd intervals to cause her heartache.

The start of the 1970s saw Di dealing with a drunken landlord and enjoying a heady romance with American film star Frank Adam, which resulted in an out-of wedlock baby, Nicky. Kindly postman and motel barman Vince Parker came to the rescue and married her.

The marriage broke up when Vince discovered that Frank Adam was secretly sending Di money for Nicky, and then Nicky got kidnapped. Di was frantic, thinking that the toddler has suffocated in an old fridge dumped on wasteland at one point, before discovering his father was the kidnapper.

Nicky now lived in America, with Di visiting him regularly.

Di had a brief encounter with the demon drink, but Prince Charming certainly didn't arrive. Clifford Leyton (Johnny Briggs - later Mike Baldwin of Coronation Street) and PC Steve Cater certainly weren't him.

Midway through the decade, Di visited her aunt and uncle, Peggy and Ed Lawton, at Heywoods Farm. Aunt Peggy fell and broke her hip, so Diane stayed on to help. She returned to the farm after her Aunt Peggy died.

It was at the farm that Diane met a simple country lad called Benny Hawkins, who called her 'Miss Diane'. The two forged a lasting bond of friendship, Benny gave her a kid (which caused Vera Downend brief confusion and concern) - of the goat variety - and Diane taught him to read.

Back home, Di experienced another nervous breakdown, prowling around her flat at night committing acts of vandalism, and having no memory of it by daylight. Her flatmate at the time, Jane Smith, helped her to see what was happening.

As the decade ended, Di agreed to marry Chris Hunter so that Chris would receive some inheritance money. It was a marriage purely of convenience.

The 1980s saw Di sharing her flat with motel garage manageress Sharon Metcalfe. She developed an unrequited love for Dr James Wilcox, of the group practice in King's Oak, and her shifty brother, Terry, returned to wreak further havoc on a couple of occasions. On one of these, Benny came to Di's rescue, using his father's inheritance money to pay off Terry's shady money lenders, who were 'leaning on' Diane.

Poor old Benny, who was trying to make her happy, couldn't understand why she cried!

Di briefly tangled with oily restaurant manager Paul Ross - Mr Paul - and regretted it - although the man was supportive towards her later.

Di supported Sharon's efforts to help a local Down's Syndrome child in one of the show's best story-lines in 1983, and also became entangled in the war between J. Henry Pollard and Mr Paul, which ended up earning her demotion - from cold trolley waitress to simple waitress. She icily refused guilt-ridden J Henry's offer of financial compensation - she had her pride.

Various absences from the motel over the years, often seeing Nicky in America, had ended in Di simply walking back into her job, often after many months away. The 1983 demotion story-line came as something of a shock to us viewers, and reality caught up with her again in 1985 when, after a spell away, she returned to find no job available. Or at least not one suitable for her experience. Even her old pal Jill Chance couldn't help. 

On this occasion, restaurant manager Mr Paul's misfortune was Diane's gain, as she walked into his job after he was injured in a wages snatch.

Di finally had the job she wanted, but Mr Right still proved elusive. She settled into a cottage in the village, and endured the tender ministrations of Benny (herbal tea made with dried mixed herbs) when she had the flu at Christmas 1986.

In 1987, Di was involved in a car accident, but was seemingly OK. However, not long afterwards, she suddenly collapsed in the office at work. She had had a brain hemorrhage and died in hospital a few days later.

The nation wept, including me, but although it was meant kindly, Benny naming a donkey 'Miss Diane' was not a very fitting tribute.

Di was magic. She'd been in our living rooms for so many years she was like an old friend or older sister. Once again, that magical quality some Crossroads performers had to make their characters seem real shone through in abundance.

I always wished she'd found true love - married and been whisked away to run a plush hotel in the Caribbean or something with her new hubby.

But poor old Di never was lucky.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Vera Downend

Vera faces another problem on her boat. Actress Zeph Gladstone had the freedom to buy the clothes for her character - but they had to be in bad taste.

Dear old Vera Downend! Played by Zeph Gladstone, Vera is one of my absolute-ultimate-favourite Crossroads characters. I love her.

Ex-tart Vera started out in Crossroads living next door to single mother Diane Lawton, who had a grotty bedsit, in 1970. She was originally quite a slovenly character, but good-hearted and quickly became a hit with us viewers.

So Vera smartened up (in her own way) and came to the motel to open a hairdressing salon and live on the Harvey family's barge on the canal.

Wilf Harvey advanced Vera £3,000 to start the salon so, although we remember him mainly for being a grouse, he certainly wasn't all bad.

Vera was another of those magical Crossroads characters you felt you could confide in and, during my often troubled youth, I could have done with a chat with her on many occasions. In fact sometimes, in my imagination, I did visit her boat to confide in her - and, occasionally, when troubled, still do!

But she worried us. The section of the King's Oak canal (near Wilf Harvey's) where Vera lived looked downright seedy and her attention to security on the boat was, to put it mildly, rather lax. She was often seen wandering off to bed with no effort to 'batten down the hatches' (or whatever one does on barges), with just a flimsy interior door separating her from the despicable characters no doubt lurking on the canal banks.

We were genuinely worried about this.

There were no mobile phones in those days.

And she suffered. Weird and menacing goings on sometimes came Vera's way - and once she was even mugged. Though not on her boat.

Bless her.

The boat once suddenly sprang a leak. Cue dramatic ending of episode! 

In 1976, the salon ran into financial difficulties. The motel took over, but kept Vera on as manageress.

Vera sprouted a long-lost son, Clive Merrow, late in her reign and experienced motherhood problems - and coming to terms with Clive's adopted mother. She came through it all brilliantly.

Romance was never smooth or easy - and all the nice girls love a sailor, including Vera. She dated Doug Randall (Richard Thorp - Alan Turner in Emmerdale Farm from 1982 onwards) for a time, but it came to naught. Doug was eager to escape his unhappy marriage, but his wife had other ideas and the situation was impossible.

And then, in 1977, Vera fell for creepy restaurant manager Max Lorimer, who bought her boat from Sheila Mollison and Stan Harvey, and basically set his cap at her in a most unhealthy way. 

Vera found herself back on dry land, sharing Max's old flat with Diane, but not long afterwards finally departed from King's Oak.

I missed her dreadfully. My memories of her departure are that it was to be temporary and she would be returning. She was apparently working on a cruise ship for a time. I must have dreamt it, but I could swear there was an episode a few years later in which Diane said, 'I've just seen Vera in the village, and she says...' (referring to some ongoing storyline)

And I suddenly had the notion that she would be reappearing. The hope flickered for a few weeks.

It was wishful thinking. A year long 'sabbatical' for actress Zeph Gladstone turned into a permanent departure as she was not asked back.

It was never the same. Pure magic, our Vera. A cherished memory.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Jill Richardson/Harvey/Chance

Having uttered the very first words heard in Crossroads in November 1964 - 'Crossroads Motel, may I help you?' - Jane Rossington as Jill starred in the show's final cliffhanger in April 1988: who would Jill choose? Jolly and just John Maddingham or often amoral Adam Chance?

In the early BBC radio soap Mrs Dale's Diary (later The Dales), central character Mrs Dale was always saying 'I'm worried about Jim' - referring to Dr Dale, her loving hubby. This became something of an affectionate national catchphrase. Many of us Crossroads fans were often heard to say, when discussing the latest events in the serial, 'I'm worried about Jill.'

And we had good cause to be.

Poor old Jill, played by Jane Rossington, daughter of Meg, sister of Sandy, had a fraught life. Nobody could ever accuse Father Fate or Dame Fortune of being kind to her.

If Meg was the caring, coping matriarch of King's Oak, Jill was its Penelope Pitstop.

Jill had an absolutely terrible time. She married John Crane, a bigamist, in 1970 and had a miscarriage. She married down-to-earth Stan Harvey not long after and had a daughter, Sarah Jane, and a few happy years - before having an affair with her step-brother, Anthony Mortimer. This resulted in a son, Matthew, and was the death knell of Jill and Stan's marriage.

Then, Jill, who still loved Stan, had an on/off romance with Adam Chance, which was broken off in 1982, when he dallied with Valerie Pollard, but resurrected in 1983 - when they got married.

The marriage blew onto the rocks in 1985 when Adam made advances to new motel boss Nicola Freeman, and Jill rebounded into the arms of Nicola's brother, Mickey Doyle.

Well, he drank, she had a miscarriage, and it seemed was drifting back towards Adam when a new arrival as landlord at the King's Oak pub, the Running Stag, one John Maddingham, made a few gentle overtures to her.

And, with the motel/hotel up for grabs, and Adam angling for a reunion so he could get his grubby mits on said motel/hotel, Jill took off with John. Perhaps to open a little hotel in the West and call it 'Crossroads'.

During the show's final stages, the William Smethurst-produced era, Jill became a more rounded character. She was still somebody we worried about - or "daffy" as her loving husband Adam once described her, she was still good hearted and lovable, but she also developed a snooty side to great comic effect. Jane Rossington later said she was very happy with the changes made to the character at this time. I enjoyed this Jill era probably most of all, and my admiration for Jane Rossington's acting skills increased tremendously.

Jane said:

'William had run The Archers and he had a fearsome reputation, but after he arrived he was wonderful with scripts. He was not the easiest of people to get on with, but for me, he had some super writers and he made my character much more of a character, I had much better scenes, much better. Whereas before I just had to make what I could out of it, but this was actually written, and it was quite funny and I turned into this dizzy, slightly snooty girl. It was quite funny and it was nice, I really enjoyed that. But I liked William and I was horrified when the programme went because they'd given him a long contract and led him right up the garden path, promising him this was forever, you know, so that he would leave the BBC, they were very naughty.'

Through it all, even her snooty phase, Jill was a compassionate, caring person.

That's why we worried about her - and loved her.

Even after the show ended in 1988, I still found myself muttering, 'I do hope Jill's all right,' from time to time...

Like her mother, Meg, Jill is a soap legend. For very different reasons - she was not a coper, more the damsel in constant distress. But she was a survivor - the only member of the original cast to star in the final episode.

I discount the Crossroads revival series, which saw Jill killed off by a deranged Adam. That was all a dream anyway.

Jill went West with John and probably, out there somewhere, she's bravely manning the reception desk at another Crossroads Motel (established 1988) - and still surviving the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But wherever she is, perhaps she might drop us a quick postcard sometime, because we do worry...