Our Crossroads Favourites: Glenda Brownlow/Banks

Happiness for Glenda and Kath as the news arrives that Glenda can begin her IVF treatment.

Glenda Brownlow, played by Lynette McMorrough, arrived at the Crossroads Motel in 1976 and was a bit of a wild child until the early 1980s. Waitress Glenda ran off to London in 1976, and got raped by a lorry driver. This was a powerful story-line for early evening Crossroads, and quite powerfully depicted - with poor Glenda being discovered unconscious by the side of the road.

It was revealed that Glenda's home life hadn't been happy - she'd arrived in King's Oak to escape her parents up north.

Glen's troubles weren't over after the traumas of 1976 as she was attracted to horrible Gerry Hurst in '77, which also meant problems for dear Vera Downend, as Glenda was staying on her boat.

She was young and headstrong, our Glen.

Glenda finally began to settle down when she met painter and decorator Kevin Banks in 1980. Her parents, Kath and Arthur, had moved to King's Oak in late 1979 and, although initially unhappy at the prospect, it seemed that Glenda was about to find happiness with the man of her dreams, and that all rifts with her parents had been healed.

Enter Glenda's wicked cousin Iris Scott, who burst onto the scene in 1980 with all the drama of a force ten gale, and wasted no time in bedding Kevin.

Poor old Glen!

But, despite Evil Iris, love found a way, and Glenda and Kevin were married in 1981.

Glenda was increasingly unhappy about her inability to have children. In 1982, she latched on to the idea of having a test tube baby. This was a new and startling concept at the time, expensive and likely to arouse fear and suspicion amongst some people. Kath, Glenda's mother, thought it highly unnatural, but Glenda's grumpy dad Arthur backed the idea. Kevin was initially reluctant, and Glenda had to leave and move to London, staying with her Auntie Rose and the aforementioned Evil Iris (now a lot less evil, thankfully), before Kevin capitulated.

Then, grumpy old Arthur was killed in a hit-and-run accident, turning life in the Brownlow/Banks household upside down. But finally, in early 1983, Glenda's IVF treatment began and she was lucky first time.

She and Kev soon had a baby daughter, Katy-Louise, and all seemed set fair, until Percy Dobson, Kev's business partner, died suddenly. The business was in dire financial straits and Glenda and Kevin lost everything.

The couple emigrated to Canada in 1985. Things were going well, Glenda reported when she flew back for Kath's wedding to Stephen Fellowes later that year.

After that, we never saw Glenda in King's Oak again.

A terrific character, powered by that magical everyday quality some Crossroads performers managed to bring to their roles, Glenda was utterly believable. She talked about that last minute coach party arriving at the motel restaurant from Stratford-On-Avon, her aching feet - and Mr  Paul's moods. She wondered if there was enough hot water for a bath when she got home. She liked to watch telly. Like most Crossroads characters, she lacked the glittering repartee of the Coronation Street characters (fabulous, but often rather too witty to be real) and had I met Lynette McMorrough at a bus stop, it would have been hard not to say: 'Oh, hello, Glen! How's things? Mr Paul still being a pain?' or something similar.

Great natural acting from Lynette McMorrough. Glenda, particularly during the era of her marriage to Kevin (1981-1985), was one of my top favourite Crossroads characters, and now ranks as one of my all-time favourites.

Now, put the kettle on, Mum, I'm dyin' for a cup of tea. Ooh, you should've 'eard Mr Paul today! Oh, and Mrs Chance has been on  to the laundry about them table napkins...

Our Crossroads Favourites: Walter Soper - "Uncle Wally"

Kath Brownlow tried to look pleased when Walter Soper turned up for his second visit.

Played by the late great comedian Max Wall, Walter Soper, known to Glenda and Kevin Banks as "Uncle Wally", was a cousin of Arthur Brownlow who turned up in King's Oak in late 1982, apparently to "pay his respects" to Arthur's widow Kath and her daughter Glenda. Perhaps that was part of the reason for his visit - who knew with Uncle Wally, but another motive quickly became apparent: he wanted a long-term cosy billet with three square meals a day, and the odd drop of booze.

Kath actually enjoyed Uncle Wally's company, but Glenda and her hubby Kevin most certainly did not. They wanted him out and made no bones about it. Uncle Wally dreamt up a cock-and-bull story about having loaned Arthur some money years before which had never been paid back. The hint was that perhaps he was owed at least a little hospitality because of it. He spent many a pleasant evening with Kath, reminiscing about Arthur and watching wonderful films on the telly - like The Beast of Clapham Junction. His stay stretched on into 1983.

Finally, a job as a car park attendant threatened Uncle Wally's idyllic existence (well, it would have been idyllic if hadn't been for Glenda and Kevin) and he beat a hasty retreat. Before he left, he told Kath that he'd made up the tale about Arthur and the loan. Knowing Arthur as she did, Kath was already well aware of that fact.

With Uncle Wally gone, Kath sailed close to a nervous breakdown as the impact of Arthur's death and the resulting loneliness finally hit her. But Glenda and Kevin were able to advance their plans for a test tube baby, and Glenda actually was pregnant when Uncle Wally turned up again later in 1983.

Of course, he was the same as ever. But this time other accommodation was soon found for him at Mavis Hooper's boarding house, and she was most sympathetic about his bad back, suggesting brown paper on it and a hot iron run over that for pain relief.

Finally, Uncle Wally succumbed to the inevitable evils of work when a job as night watchman at the Crossroads Motel was offered to him. He made it plain that he expected certain conditions, but then acquiesced. He was finally beaten, it seemed.

I'm not sure what happened to Uncle Wally after that. Or even if he appeared again. Perhaps he changed his mind about the job and scarpered? In 1984, Mavis Hooper simply mentioned in passing that he had "moved on". 

I liked the character. It was all a little sad really. Uncle Wally may have been a bit of a pain but, lacking any descendents, he had nobody to look after him in his old age (not that kids and grandkids are any guarantee - far from it!) and he really wasn't asking for a lot.

Mind you, he was a bit of a pain in the neck.

Still, as he was played by Max Wall, I couldn't help liking him!

Our Crossroads Favourites: Kevin Banks

 Kevin Banks on his wedding day in 1981.

Painter and decorator Kevin Banks, played by David Moran, first appeared on the King's Oak scene in 1980. He was soon dating motel waitress Glenda Brownlow. 

Kevin was a nice, down-to-earth lad with a faintly Brummie accent, which made his posh family background rather surprising. His mother, Sally, was a social climbing and, quite frankly, bloody awful snob. Father Oliver was a respectable, middle class businessman. Kev's sister Penny was "frightfully" well spoken too. We can't recall seeing Joyce, Kevin's other sister, on-screen - she was living in Canada, but we're willing to bet she was posh as well.

However, being a bit of a rebel and having a bit of a rift with his parents, Kevin slotted in very well with the working class Brownlows, and even better with Glenda's cousin Iris Scott, another 1980 new arrival in King's Oak, who seduced Kevin at his Auntie Marian's house. Oh yes, the very wonderful Mrs Owen, receptionist at the village's group practice, was the sister of Kevin's awful mother.

Kevin married Glenda in 1981, and married life was hardly plain sailing. Kevin fell in love with young Carole Sands, David and Barbara's housekeeper. This was no lecherous frolic, in fact, it was a very pure and sweet little tryst, but the pair's feelings for each other ran deep and Kevin left the district and worked away to help save his marriage. 

Kevin didn't mind the fact that Glenda couldn't have children, but Glenda did and when the idea of having a test tube baby occurred to her in 1982, Kevin was horrified. Glenda left him to live with her Auntie Rose in London, and he was forced to agree. The result was first time lucky - a daughter, Katy Louise.

Financial troubles abounded, and Kevin's father Oliver, keen to build a relationship with his son, bought him a partnership in the local building firm belonging to one Percy Dobson. Percy was an old adversary of Kevin's, but the partnership seemed to be working out well, until Percy's sudden death in late 1984. Kevin was shocked to discover that the business was in debt. He and Glenda lost all their savings and the business folded.

Kevin tried his hand at being a house husband - looking after the house and his daughter whilst Glenda went out to work at the motel. When his father Oliver invited Kev and family out to visit him in Canada, the young Bankses eagerly accepted. On returning to England, Kevin briefly had a job as a salesman - which didn't suit him at all, courtesy of Kath's boyfriend John Latchford.

Kevin had wanted to leave for Canada permanently. After the salesman fiasco and continuing tensions with John Latchford, Glenda agreed.

The young Banks family left England and made a successful fresh start in Canada in early 1985.

Kevin was a likeable everyday character and a bit of an anchor in the Brownlow/Banks household. Story-lines about the family abounded in the first half of the 1980s, and, although sometimes absent whilst working away, Kev was usually there, coping with Uncle Wally, his father's affair with Sharon Metcalfe, Kath's depression after Arthur's death, and Glenda's ups-and-downs. Another of those believable characters it would have been good to have had a pint with down at The Running Stag.