Our Crossroads Favourites: David Hunter

David Hunter had a very contrasting 1980: the horror of being shot in the motel office by his deranged ex-wife, Rosemary, and marriage to the lovely Barbara Brady.

David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen, was Meg's partner in the motel through most of the 1970s. He was a close friend and confidante of hers for years but, in the early 1980s, suddenly began to resent her sentimental regard for the motel as a 'family business' (which, in reality, it hadn't been since she first sold shares to Mr Lovejoy and Mrs Hope in the late 1960s), and became determined to get more profit out of the place.

David was an absolute boon both to Meg and the motel for a decade.

But he wouldn't have featured that highly in my personal Crossroads greats list if it hadn't been for his final three years in the show. I always liked David, but I always saw him as a bit of a background character - the main emphasis being on the Richardsons. If David had a romance, it always felt a bit like filler to me - simply to give the character something to do.

In the main, I saw him as Meg's friend, business partner and supporter.

Let's canter through David's Crossroads era...

David arrived at the motel circa 1970 as a director and quickly became Meg's closest ally outside of her family - despite her initial suspicions about him. She feared he was pals with her murderous ex-hubby Macolm Ryder. 

But David was not, and quickly proved his worth to Meg. Whenever a crisis threatened he was there for her, and vice-versa.

David's family life was a disaster - his wife, Rosemary, was a drunk and a neurotic. Son Chris seemed a nice enough lad, although not unaffected by his mother's influence, but a change of actor and direction saw him becoming a pain in the neck and, inadvertently, positively dangerous. And then there was David's rascally Uncle Timothy.

David was hugely popular - when he struck Rosemary in one storyline, viewers' opinion backed him, which is pretty unheard of.

David searched for love. Was Laura Marshall the one? Or Kate Hamilton, mother of truculent Lucy? Or what about journalist Kelly ….? No. None of them were.

Having divorced Rosemary, David seemed destined never to find true love again.

Rosemary still lent on him. Whenever she had a crisis, David flew to her aid.

And on at least one occasion she tried to interfere in the running of the motel, even suggesting she bought some shares.

David had no luck in love and found plenty of other angst in the 1970s - including awful Jim Baines and his wife, Muriel, squatting in his cottage. He also had a brush with a gambling addiction.

And then Hugh Mortimer died in 1978 - while being held captive by a terrorist group with links to David's son, Chris.

In 1979, Meg ceased to be an equal or majority shareholder in the motel (I can't remember which), with Adam Chance holding the balance of power.

The 1980s began hopefully for David as he became engaged to Barbara Brady. However, the very night of their engagement party, he was shot in the motel office by the deranged Rosemary.

Adam sold David some of his motel shares, making David the majority shareholder - and this led to a clash with Meg.

1981 saw David facing a huge crisis. He learned that Rosemary had married him bigamously and that Chris was not his biological son.

David colluded with millionaire J Henry Pollard to sell the motel to him, but when that failed, didn't mend his bridges with Meg.

And finally, in November 1981, Meg departed on the QE2.

David's marriage to Barbara nearly collapsed, but the two were reconciled and faced the future together.

For me, now, David entered his greatest era.

I loved his relationship with Barbara; his prickly (but rather droll) relationship with J Henry Pollard; the way he saw through Valerie's accusation of sexual assault against Mr Paul (David described the Pollards as 'deadly Daddy and murderous Mummy' in 1982); his chivalry when Kate Hamilton turned to him in a crisis; his distrust of, and occasional alliances with, Adam; and his fatherly attitude towards Jill. I once had a fascinating conversation with Peter Ling, co-creator and storyliner for Crossroads, on that last subject and will talk about that in a future post.

And then, in 1984, the serpent entered paradise and swept David straight into a passionate kiss.

This particular serpent was one Sarah Alexander - an old love of David's - and very soon she was pregnant.

Sarah made it clear - she wanted both David and the baby - or just the baby. She'd make access rights for the child's father extremely difficult if David did not join her.

But David didn't love Sarah and did love Barbara.

In 1985, the couple left to start life afresh elsewhere.

Poor David. Finding out that his son was not his biological son, that his first wife was a bigamist, and being denied access to a child that was biologically his.

We wished the Hunters well - and those final three years of David's reign at Crossroads will always be remembered as a golden era for us here at the blog.

And a golden era (one of many) for the show.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Valerie Pollard

Valerie in 1982: 'Birmingham? Darling, where on earth's that?'

Valerie Pollard, played by Heather Chasen, only appeared intermittently in Crossroads from 1982 to 1985, but she certainly left her mark on the motel - and our affections.

We adored Valerie.

Naughty but capable of being very nice, Valerie popped a button off Adam Chance's shirt upon her arrival in April 1982 - and bore him away to his boat for a night of 'lurve'.

This resulted in the breaking of Adam's engagement to Jill Chance - and the departure of Adam on the midnight plane to Paris - to avoid the wrath of Val's husband, J Henry Pollard.

Val had only done it to get up her hubby's nose.

Valerie, of course, was a millionaire's wife, leading an elegant beach bum life abroad with a host of 'pneumatic young men' - as her husband put it.

And when J Henry imprisoned her in a grotty motel in the English Midlands, well, darling, you surely couldn't expect her to take that lying down, could you?

The motel bored Valerie so much she once ordered a Pussyfoot Special in the bar.

While Valerie and J Henry were at loggerheads, they actually DID care about each other. J Henry even told her how to spell 'grotesque' - 'q-u-e, not k'.

Poor Miranda, the couple's daughter, dodged the bullets flying between her parents.

Valerie once told Miranda she thought J Henry was the only member of the family who really knew how to love - and she didn't mean sleeping around.

What was so wonderful about Valerie was that you didn't know what to expect from her. Here was a rich super bitch who was also kind and considerate enough to give pregnant motel waitress Glenda Banks a lift home to save her catching the bus, and hand-hold distressed Kate Hamilton as she awaited a court appearance.

But she was also willing to falsely accuse motel restaurant manager (and her husband's spy) Paul Ross of sexual assault. Fortunately, David Hunter saw right through that - and Valerie just reacted as though she had been caught out in a piece of trivial mischief.

She also sent her own daughter an anonymous letter in an attempt to stop Miranda's romantic pursuit of Mr Paul - which caused much angst and resulted in police bribery.

Valerie lit up the screen. Her bitchery, her languidness, her kindness - she was fascinating and very witty to boot.

A Crossroads legend to us at the blog, she made Joan Collins of Dynasty look like Hilda Ogden after a bout of flu and sixty fags.

Fabulous.

Now, we're off to the bar to toy with the peanuts - and perhaps even order a Pussyfoot Special. Unless, of course, you'd like to show us your boat...

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: J Henry Pollard

J Henry tells Val his plans for her in 1982. This was Valerie's debut scene in the series. J Henry had first appeared in 1980.

I was never sure what the "J" stood for in J Henry Pollard, the millionaire businessman who first breezed into the Crossroads Motel in 1980 and was a frequent visitor (and a shareholder from 1982 onwards) until midway through the decade.

J Henry, played by Michael Turner, had not got where he was by being soft hearted. When David Hunter offered to sell him the motel in 1981, J Henry made it plain he expected Mr H to honour the offer. When it fell through, J Henry threatened to take legal action, though soon confessed to Meg Mortimer that he had no intention of carrying out his threat.

There was a human side to the man.

In 1982, he turned up again - stating that the motel must make good on its offer to let him have any new shares in the company. This caused complications as a Mr Malik was already in-line for the new share issue, but J Henry soon sorted that.

Just why was he so interested in a little motel in the Midlands, an international businessman like him?

It soon became plain that one of the reasons J Henry wanted a stake in the place was so he could imprison his faithless wife Valerie there.

Valerie, of course, forced away from her exotic beaches and "pneumatic" (J Henry's word) young men, was not going to take that lying down, and wreaked havoc.

J Henry was keen to install Paul Ross at the motel, ostensibly as restaurant manager, but really as his spy.

And that little move wreaked havoc too, finally rather blowing up in J Henry's face.

J's "dickie heart" helped bring about a reconciliation between himself and Valerie, and they left together, returning late in the year.

After a family set-to about an anonymous letter Valerie sent to Miranda in 1983, Valerie sadly told her daughter that she thought J Henry was the only member of their little family who knew how to love - and she didn't mean sleeping around. 

Although J Henry and Valerie clearly had deep feelings for each other, their marriage gusted back onto the rocks in 1984 and divorce was in the offing.

A surprising character was J Henry - the hard-nosed millionaire businessman could occasionally be very kind - even sensitive. He championed Iris Scott against the rest of the motel board of directors in 1984 when she was refused a job, and developed a paternalistic affection for the girl. His anger at the board was, no doubt, part fuelled by an old score - the fact that Adam Chance had bedded Valerie in 1982.

But mixed in with J Henry's desire for revenge were his genuine feelings of concern for Iris.

He also contributed to some humorous scenarios - several conversations with Valerie, encounters with David Hunter, and the Councillor Berry complications were particularly appreciated by our good selves. 

A memorable and interesting character, J Henry and his family kept the motel buzzing with gossip and intrigue in the early to mid-1980s.

Fondly remembered.

1982: Heather Chasen As Valerie Pollard...

1982 - a new arrival at the Crossroads Motel... 

In the wake of Noele Gordon's departure from the Crossroads serial, Jack Barton, producer, made it plain that the show couldn't revolve around a single character in the future. 

 And so, at the motel, we had Barbara (Sue Lloyd) and David Hunter (Ronald Allen) running things with Jill Harvey (Jane Rossington) and Adam Chance (Tony Adams). Not a particularly cosy set-up as David and Adam did not get along, and David could not shake off his suspicions that Adam's interest in Jill was not entirely honourable. 

 The closest we came to a Meg-style linchpin in this new set-up was Barbara - but she had other fish to fry, like writing best selling novels, and refused to be tied totally to the motel. 

  Elsewhere, we had the Brownlows - lovable, motherly Kath (Pamela Vezey), grumpy Arthur (Peter Hill), frumpy Glenda (Lynette McMorrough) and her newish husband, Kevin Banks (David Moran) - the couple had married in 1981. 

 The not-so-cosy boarding house belonging to Mavis Hooper (Charmian Eyre) had been introduced in 1981- Mrs Overall, who was first seen in Acorn Antiques in 1985, was Mavis's "lookey likey". 

 With waitress Diane Hunter (Susan Hanson) cleaner and kitchen help Doris Luke (Kathy Staff) and the Crossroads Garage staff - including Sharon Metcalfe (Carolyn Jones), Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry) and Joe MacDonald (Carl Andrews), the motel marched on post-Meg. 

 And then came a stroke of genius on the part of the writers and production team. 

 Businessman J Henry Pollard (Michael Turner) had first appeared in the Crossroads saga in 1980, along with his daughter, Miranda (Claire Faulconbridge). 

 In April 1982, we finally got to meet Mrs Pollard. Mrs Valerie Pollard, J Henry's wife, who apparently loathed him dearly and had been forced to travel from her home in Bermuda to England when J Henry suddenly cut her funding. 

 Val, played by the very excellent Heather Chasen, enjoyed the good life - luxurious accommodation, travel-on-a-whim, wonderful food, lots of beach romeos... 

 And then, suddenly, there she was trapped at the Crossroads Motel, where she would stay, her ever-loving hubby informed her, and become a good and loving wife. Otherwise, J Henry would divorce her and she could rest assured that, with his best lawyers on the case, she wouldn't be getting any wonderful divorce settlement. She would get nothing. 

Valerie hit back - and hit back hard, seducing and bedding Adam Chance on his boat. Jill was devastated and Adam left the motel. 

What a bitch was Valerie... But she wasn't only a bitch. Languid and witty, she was also capable of good deeds... And, of course, under the veneer of vehement dislike, she actually cared for J Henry very much indeed... 

 And he cared for her. 

With daughter Miranda on-and-off the scene, the Pollards were a complicated family. J Henry was not keen on showing his feelings, Valerie could be devious and Miranda was often headstrong and immature. But they livened up Crossroads no end! 

I hadn't been particularly impressed by the father/daughter J Henry/Miranda set-up we'd been treated to (on occasion, the characters were not permanent regulars) since 1980. But with Val on the scene from 1982 onwards, the Pollard "thing" really got some zing! 

And, with her huge wardrobe of swish clothes, plus her tendency to toy with the peanuts and her "Pussyfoot Special" at the bar, Valerie was a very stylish person indeed. 

Although the character only appeared (intermittently) from 1982-1985, the memory lingers...

From the Sun - £10 telly-view reader's letter, 29/5/1982: 

Heather Chasen has brought a refreshing touch of good acting to "Crossroads". Her haughty but not over-acted Valerie Pollard makes the show worth watching for a change. Mrs DL, Norfolk.