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.
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.
