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: Paul Ross - "Mr Paul"

Of British/Swiss parentage, Paul Ross, known to his subordinates as Mr Paul, played by Sandor Elès arrived at the Crossroads Motel in 1982 to take on the role of restaurant manager. He aimed to rule with 'subdued charisma', but was not quite what he seemed.

The 'un-spot changing leopard' (as Kate Hamilton once called him), Mr Paul (I always felt subordinate to him) soon turned out to be trouble. He was secretly in the employ of wealthy businessman J Henry Pollard, and worked as his spy at the motel, undercover of the restaurant manager role.

He acted abominably at first - breaking down Diane Hunter's defences by taking her away for the weekend and then treating her like dirt after she'd fallen under his spell. But Mr Paul was to mellow. A year or two later, he was instrumental in securing Diane a job back at the motel after she'd gone off on some daft training scheme devised by J Henry Pollard, and comforted her when she bemoaned the fact that she'd lost her cold trolley job and come back as a lowly waitress. A lowly waitress?! Being a waitress was no such thing!

Mr Paul's love life was a disaster. He was pursued by that young high flier Miranda Pollard, which led him into trouble with Daddy and Mummy Pollard. Then he fell for the lovely young Georgina Moran, but suave Richard Lord soon saw him off.

Mr Paul had a past - a long-lost daughter called Lisa Walters. She didn't know he was her father, and after he secured her a job as a receptionist at Crossroads, she became attracted to him. Mr Paul had to acquaint her with the facts. He was later distressed when that nasty smoothy Douglas Brady hurt Lisa dreadfully. This was an interesting story, two of its components being that Douglas intended to emigrate to South Africa, and that Lisa was of mixed race parentage.

Lisa left and Mr Paul soon fell for Polish dissident Anna Radek. But she fell in love with Douglas Brady too - and poor Mr Paul married her so that she could stay in England because he was so devoted to her.

When the authorities got hold of the facts, Mr Paul and Anna were both in the soup. Anna was deported, but Mr Paul extracted revenge on the female immigration officer by spurning her when she revealed she had feelings for him.

One of the joys of Mr Paul was the way he spanned breathless high drama to the mundane, teasing Jill Chance with the notion he might sack Shughie McFee, upbraiding the waitresses because their hair was straggling, moaning about the presentation of the restaurant table cloths - surely they could find a better laundry service? - and so on.

In 1985, Mr Paul moved in to a cottage with his old love Miranda Pollard. Purely platonically. The motel staff were sceptical. And, sure enough, very soon the flame between them was rekindled.

Poor Mr Paul. His perfectionist zeal was his undoing in the end. Having decided that the restaurant flowers were not up to par one day, he went into the village for more, and came upon some robbers, intent on stealing the motel staff's wages, on his way back. He got whacked over the head, went into a coma and emerged with an impaired memory.

It was all very sad because in the meantime Miranda had decided she definitely loved him.

But the post-coma Paul had other fish to fry, and soon left King's Oak to work elsewhere.

I missed him and the era of wondering whatever Mr Paul would do next remains one of the shining highpoints of my Crossroads viewing years.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Shughie McFee

Shughie McFee, magnificently played by Angus Lennie, was a chef at the Crossroads Motel from the mid 1970s until around 1984/85 - although he was invisible for several years at the end! 

Shughie was not the chef he made himself out to be when he arrived at the motel. He... er... told a few pork pies. But he improved.

A proud Scotsman, Shughie drew a squawk of disgust from Amy Turtle when she saw what was going into the haggis he was preparing. Sadly, Scot though he was, he couldn't really play the bagpipes, although he did once try to hoodwink everybody into thinking he could.

In the best traditions of a Crossroads chef Shughie, once called 'Shughie McCradock' by waitress Diane Parker, was highly temperamental. He could puff himself up and bluster with the best of them. But underneath it all, Shughie was actually quite a sad and lonely little man. And there was a slight whiff of the Walter Mittys about him. Remember his wonderful flat, which turned out to be anything but?

Romance eluded Shughie although he tried (remember Avis Tennyson?), but Doris Luke did turn his shirt collars for him.

So that was nice.

Shughie worked with Bernard Booth for part of his tenure in the motel kitchens, and called him 'Bern-ard'. Why? I think Shughie was trying to sound posh. But, whatever the reason, it was very funny.

The highly strung chef had a nervous breakdown in late 1980, putting spiders in a dessert served to a motel guest, hiding the store cupboard keys in the food mixer, and then attempting to wreck the motel kitchen. He was caught in the act by Kath Brownlow. Shughie was consumed by guilt as he hadn't been there when his mother had died, and this had triggered his strange behaviour. Mrs McFee had had a brief but unhappy stay at the motel just before her death and had tried to persuade Shughie to return to Scotland, as she was unwell. Shughie suspected her of malingering, a doctor's examination suggested only indigestion, but she'd died just after returning home.

Shughie recovered from his breakdown and was there in 1981 when the staff drank a toast in reception to the newlywed royals, Charles and Diana.

And he had a big fall-out with Diane Hunter, the majority share-holder's daughter-in-law, who was briefly left in charge of the kitchen, which nearly resulted in his departure. But that was soon patched-up.

However, 1981 did see Shughie's last on-screen appearance, although he continued to work at the motel for several years after.

The reason for Shughie's disappearance from our screens seems to lay with the production team, which decided not to build a new kitchen set after the motel fire in the November of 1981.

No kitchen scenes. No Shughie.

But although he was off-screen, Shughie was often mentioned and indeed even had a couple of storylines, bizarre though that may seem! Remember Kath Brownlow packing him off to the dentist? Mr Paul telling Jill he wanted rid of him and a new chef (preferably Swiss) for the kitchens? I was quite worried about that! 'Shughie can't leave!' I muttered. I was mightily relieved when Mr Paul revealed that he'd only been teasing.

And yet, at the time, we hadn't laid eyes on Shughie for at least two years!

I loved Shughie. Sadly, Angus Lennie is no longer with us, but I still treasure a lovely letter and some photos I had from him many years ago. 

And Shughie is my all-time favourite Crossroads chef.

1984: Model Knits At Crossroads

It was the King's Oak fashion event of the decade when, in 1984, a well-known knitwear company used Crossroads Motel staff and management to model their latest ultra-fashionable designs for a new pattern book. Mr David Hunter (Ronald Allen) and his wife Barbara (Sue Lloyd), pictured above, last made the local news in 1980 when Mr Hunter was shot in the motel office by his deranged ex-wife, Rosemary.

Sid Hooper (Stan Stennett) and Joe "Mac" MacDonald (Carl Andrews) work together in the motel garage. Mac likes Sid's sleeveless cardigan but isn't too sure about the pink shirt. Sid can't wait to get down to The Running Stag to show off his exciting new look.

Here's catering manager Paul Ross (Sandor Elès), known to the staff as "Mr Paul", who arrived at the motel in 1982 to act as a spy for one of the directors. A real "one for the ladies", Mr Paul could be described as an "un-spot changing leopard".

"Oh darling, that pullover is so you!" trills Mrs Jill Chance (Jane Rossington), one of the motel's directors.

"The woman gets daffier by the day," mutters her husband Adam (Tony Adams). "Fortunately, this should be great publicity for the motel and the knitwear people are paying us on top of that. Not a bad day's work..."

Glenda Banks (Lynette McMorrough), motel waitress, was thrilled with the rustic jumper: "I think this really suits me - can't wait for Kevin to see it!"

"Ooh, it does suit you, Glen, it's ever so nice - just the thing for the winter evenings." - Kath Brownlow (Pamela Vezey), motel housekeeper, and Glenda's mother.

"Quite right, Kath, it's turning right parky out - I said to Benny, 'Time you 'ad a new 'at, my lad'..." - Doris Luke (Kathy Staff), motel cleaner.


Bringing back Motel memories - the YouTube 1983 cliffhangers selection...