Our Crossroads Favourites: Beverley Grice

Moaning Beverley Grice featured in the Crossroads saga from 1987-1988. She hated King's Oak, hated her new school, hated her school uniform, but liked the winter - "When everything's dead!"

In its final stages, Crossroads, or Crossroads, Kings Oak, as it became, altered a great deal.

Loved it?

Hated it?

Well, I liked it, and one of my favourite ingredients in the new village brew was the addition of younger characters like Jason and Beverley Grice. Life at kids/teens level was suddenly seen in the saga, and I think it worked extremely well.

Beverley Grice, played by Karen Murden, was a typical working class teenage girl of the late 1980s. She was stroppy. She had terrible hair. She wished she had a more glamorous name. She hated school. She liked spending ages on the phone to her friends.

The Grice family were not terribly happy anyway. Mother Margaret was hardworking and strove for a better future for the family with the village shop. Lazy Dad Ray pulled Margaret back and swilled beer and scoffed Pot Noodles and lounged on the settee as much as possible. Bev's brother, Jason, was heavily into annoying his sister, listening to his personal stereo and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Beverley hated moving to King's Oak and worried about fitting in at her new school. When she met slightly posher Sara Briggs, she lied to her, telling her that her name was "Chloe". 

Beverley was furious when Jason said that Chloe was the name of a smelly old dog belonging to a previous neighbour of the family and denied it, saying the dog was called called "Woofer".

No, said Jason, their grandmother had called the dog "Woofer", but its real name was Chloe.

After this was verified by Margaret, Beverley stormed out of the room.

Oh, those days of teenage tantrums!

Romantically, Beverley was very immature. She originally dated grocer's son Ranjit, then posh Jamie Maddingham, but dropped Jamie like a hot brick when Ranjit offered her a nice engagement ring.

It's unlikely the engagement would have lasted had the serial continued. And pity poor Ranjit if it had!

The character of Beverley was brilliantly acted and observed. She was, for me, one of the best characters of the William Smethurst innovations, which included other personal favourites such as Mrs Tardebigge, Tommy "Bomber" Lancaster and Charlie Mycroft.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Jason Grice

In 1987, Crossroads introduced a young character called Jason Grice, played by Simon Lowe. Jason was about eleven or twelve and in the past such child characters had rarely featured in story-lines, or, if they had, were usually played by older actors or stilted "extra" types, just wheeled on for a few minutes of airtime.

But in 1987 we got to view life in King's Oak from a kid's point of view. Jason was a cynical little geezer - not surprising with a boozing layabout father like Ray and a moaning sister like Beverley (AKA Chloe). Life seldom seemed to surprise him. His family had moved to King's Oak to run the village stores - an enterprising ambition of Jason's mother, Margaret. Jason didn't really help much. His main contribution to the day-to-day running (or should that be ruining?) of the shop was nicking crisps.

But can you imagine the temptation of having a shop full of such temptations on tap?

Jason was happiest plugged into his Walkman or playing Dungeons And Dragons, it seemed. He was bored by Daniel Freeman and Fiona Harding canoodling outside the parish church, scornful of his father's "saucy" videos, and loved annoying his older sister. The sparring between Jason and Beverley was brilliant. So true of many siblings. Jason hated his new school - they didn't even do computer studies until the fourth year!

In early 1988, Jason fell into the river whilst fishing, giving his family a terrible fright. What else he got up to was sadly never known as the show ended in the April of that year.

Jason was an excellent representation of working class 1980s youth, and Simon Lowe's portrayal was inspired.

Such a shame the show didn't continue. The Growing Pains of Jason Grice would have been an excellent ingredient for the continuing saga of King's Oak.