Our Crossroads Favourites: Jill Richardson/Harvey/Chance

Having uttered the very first words heard in Crossroads in November 1964 - 'Crossroads Motel, may I help you?' - Jane Rossington as Jill starred in the show's final cliffhanger in April 1988: who would Jill choose? Jolly and just John Maddingham or often amoral Adam Chance?

In the early BBC radio soap Mrs Dale's Diary (later The Dales), central character Mrs Dale was always saying 'I'm worried about Jim' - referring to Dr Dale, her loving hubby. This became something of an affectionate national catchphrase. Many of us Crossroads fans were often heard to say, when discussing the latest events in the serial, 'I'm worried about Jill.'

And we had good cause to be.

Poor old Jill, played by Jane Rossington, daughter of Meg, sister of Sandy, had a fraught life. Nobody could ever accuse Father Fate or Dame Fortune of being kind to her.

If Meg was the caring, coping matriarch of King's Oak, Jill was its Penelope Pitstop.

Jill had an absolutely terrible time. She married John Crane, a bigamist, in 1970 and had a miscarriage. She married down-to-earth Stan Harvey not long after and had a daughter, Sarah Jane, and a few happy years - before having an affair with her step-brother, Anthony Mortimer. This resulted in a son, Matthew, and was the death knell of Jill and Stan's marriage.

Then, Jill, who still loved Stan, had an on/off romance with Adam Chance, which was broken off in 1982, when he dallied with Valerie Pollard, but resurrected in 1983 - when they got married.

The marriage blew onto the rocks in 1985 when Adam made advances to new motel boss Nicola Freeman, and Jill rebounded into the arms of Nicola's brother, Mickey Doyle.

Well, he drank, she had a miscarriage, and it seemed was drifting back towards Adam when a new arrival as landlord at the King's Oak pub, the Running Stag, one John Maddingham, made a few gentle overtures to her.

And, with the motel/hotel up for grabs, and Adam angling for a reunion so he could get his grubby mits on said motel/hotel, Jill took off with John. Perhaps to open a little hotel in the West and call it 'Crossroads'.

During the show's final stages, the William Smethurst-produced era, Jill became a more rounded character. She was still somebody we worried about - or "daffy" as her loving husband Adam once described her, she was still good hearted and lovable, but she also developed a snooty side to great comic effect. Jane Rossington later said she was very happy with the changes made to the character at this time. I enjoyed this Jill era probably most of all, and my admiration for Jane Rossington's acting skills increased tremendously.

Jane said:

'William had run The Archers and he had a fearsome reputation, but after he arrived he was wonderful with scripts. He was not the easiest of people to get on with, but for me, he had some super writers and he made my character much more of a character, I had much better scenes, much better. Whereas before I just had to make what I could out of it, but this was actually written, and it was quite funny and I turned into this dizzy, slightly snooty girl. It was quite funny and it was nice, I really enjoyed that. But I liked William and I was horrified when the programme went because they'd given him a long contract and led him right up the garden path, promising him this was forever, you know, so that he would leave the BBC, they were very naughty.'

Through it all, even her snooty phase, Jill was a compassionate, caring person.

That's why we worried about her - and loved her.

Even after the show ended in 1988, I still found myself muttering, 'I do hope Jill's all right,' from time to time...

Like her mother, Meg, Jill is a soap legend. For very different reasons - she was not a coper, more the damsel in constant distress. But she was a survivor - the only member of the original cast to star in the final episode.

I discount the Crossroads revival series, which saw Jill killed off by a deranged Adam. That was all a dream anyway.

Jill went West with John and probably, out there somewhere, she's bravely manning the reception desk at another Crossroads Motel (established 1988) - and still surviving the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But wherever she is, perhaps she might drop us a quick postcard sometime, because we do worry...

Cast Axings In The 1960s And 1970s...

Much has been written about the axing of cast members and popular characters from Crossroads in the 1980s.

It's not surprising.

But what does surprise me is the fact that so little is written about the axings of cast members and popular characters in the 1960s and 1970s.

Of course, there were not nearly so many, but still it is odd that Crossroads was chopping popular characters well before the 1980s began.

Sometimes there seemed to be reasons. Sometimes not.

Noele Gordon took the view that in a real motel staff and guests were always changing, and I suppose she was right, but with some of the characters it didn't quite wash. One, for instance, was the motel's chef, happy in a sought-after senior position. Another ran the motel's hairdressing salon.

And anyway Crossroads was not a real motel. I have heard of no other soap with the tendency to write out the viewers' favourite characters in this way.

The first popular character to be axed was Anthony Morton, who played the motel's original temperamental chef Carlos Rafael in the 1960s.

Carlos was killed off, and Anthony Morton sent Crossroads producer Reg Watson a mourning card, with "Wish you were here" written on it.

Other less high profile Crossroads folk got the chop before and after Carlos, but the next biggie to go was Amy Turtle, motel cleaner, kitchen hand and gossip, played by Ann George.

I have to say that Amy, on-screen from 1965 to early 1976, was more popular with my mother and aunts, and many other women in my neighbourhood, than Meg Richardson!

Her axing came after reported difficulties between herself and leading lady Noele Gordon.

Ann was invited back to make a few guest appearances as Amy in 1987.

In 1977, "tart with a heart" Vera Downend, played by Zeph Gladstone, was chopped.

Introduced by the (then) producer Reg Watson in the early 1970s, Vera was a charming character and a great favourite of mine. Her love-life was a disaster, but she was always around to provide sympathy and a listening ear to those in trouble. At the time, her leaving was a puzzle - did she decide to go, or was she dropped? In her 1988 book, Soap Box, TV journalist Hilary Kingsley revealed that Zeph had been dropped.

A year long 'sabbatical' resulted in Zeph not being asked back.

In 1975, Meg married her long-term suitor Hugh Mortimer (John Bentley). After a short period of married bliss, the character was dispatched to Australia on a "big business deal" and then, in 1978, killed off - dying of a heart attack whilst in the custody of international terrorists.

Hugh was very popular with viewers, and his wedding to Meg had been a tremendous spectacle, greatly enjoyed.

As if his departure wasn't enough, we suddenly learned that Hugh was not such a great businessman. He was in serious debt at the time of his death. Meg had to sell off motel shares, thus ceasing to be a majority shareholder, to pay off those debts.

Edward Clayton as Stan Harvey was part of the family at the Motel - he'd married Meg's daughter, Jill, and was one of the show's dependable and likeable characters - part of its stability. He was dispatched around the same time as Hugh Mortimer.

And like Hugh, the character was presented in rather an unsympathetic light upon his departure.

It was all a great shame.

And I still find it a puzzle.

As for me personally, I particularly missed Zeph Gladstone as Vera Downend.

Vera had become like an old pal through many evenings of me munching my dinner, whilst watching her endure the ups and downs of life on her boat and at the motel salon.

To end on, we'll look at the strange case of Miss Tatum of the King's Oak Post Office. A highly popular character and setting, both Miss T and the Post Office were chopped in the mid-1970s. Elisabeth Croft, who played Miss Tatum, asked new producer Jack Barton, who made the decision, if Miss Tatum could have a retirement storyline, but Mr Barton said that was the last thing he wanted. Miss Tatum would still be at the Post Office in the storyline, but unseen onscreen the vast majority of the time. Elisabeth Croft was from then on only asked back to make occasional appearances, the last in 1983.

A vast diminishing of the input of a highly popular character and the disappearance of a popular setting.

I'm sure Mr Barton had his reasons and a 'new broom' producer will always have new ideas and want to make changes, but, and no disrespect to Mr B, this is one I simply could not understand.

So, when next you are reading about the Crossroads cast axings of the 1980s, spare a little thought for those who were given the chop years before.

The axings I've outlined here did absolutely nothing for the show, and were as puzzling and downright distressing as any made later.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE 2010 - UPDATED JULY 2014

Our Crossroads Favourites: Stan Harvey

 Stan Harvey and Jill Richardson discuss their future in 1971.

Working class Stan Harvey, played by Edward Clayton, the son of pigeon loving Wilf and brother of elocutionist/hairdresser Sheila back in the 1970s, was a surprising suitor for posh young Jill Richardson, but the two fell deeply in love and married. Jill was keen for Stan to get on in life, and an interest in the motel garage proved lucrative.

The Harveys' daughter, Sarah-Jane, further cemented the couple's happiness, as did a move into a large, comfortable house called Chimneys. Those were good days.

Still, many viewers disapproved of Jill marrying 'beneath her' and Edward Clayton received letters from various disapproving snobby pillocks as a result.

In 1977, Stan spent some time on business in Germany and it was during his absence that Jill had an affair with her step-brother, Anthony Mortimer. She became pregnant, and the situation pushed her marriage onto the rocks and eventually destroyed it. Stan ended up with custody of Sarah-Jane, and married a German woman. 

At this time, Stan was made out to be a bit of an insensitive git in the Crossroads scripts. It was suggested that Jill had only drifted into Anthony's arms because of Stan's dedication to getting on in business and that she'd been neglected by him. But in at least one existing episode from the early-to-mid 1970s, Jill is seen pushing a resisting Stan on to succeed in business, so the later story-line seems simply an attempt to vilify the character as he was being written out, and the production team obviously wanted the viewers to sympathise with Jill.

Jill was still in love with Stan deep down. She tearfully confessed this to him on the phone at Christmas 1980. Stan hung up. There was no going back.

A couple of years later, Stan, his wife, and Sarah-Jane left England to live in Germany. He returned briefly to the motel in 1985, a happy man, seemingly with no regrets. He proved to be a bit of an anchor for poor old Jill, who was beset by anxiety at the selling of the motel to Major International Hotels at that point.

Stan was another of those Crossroads characters, like Vince Parker, who would probably have been good company for a pint down the local. He had that all important aura of believability - a nice, everyday bloke. He grounded Jill - who could be more than a little topsy-turvy when left to her own devices - and the couple seemed to work well together.

I was sorry when the character was written out. But if he hadn't been then Jill's marriage to Adam Chance in the 1980s would not have happened, so every cloud...

Our Crossroads Favourites: Sheila Harvey

Sheila with the other Harveys back in the day.

Sheila, played by Sonia Fox back in the early-to-mid 1970s, is a fondly remembered King's Oak resident here at the blog. There was something about the character we particularly liked, something indefinable which placed her above many other King's Oak residents in our affections. Some performers simply have the ability to make their characters believable and invest them with a likeable warmth, and Sonia Fox certainly did that with Sheila.

Sheila was the daughter of pigeon fancier Wilf Harvey, the unlikely father-in-law of Jill Richardson. She was once an elocutionist, and later worked as a hairdresser. Her romance with married man Harry Wade caused Crossroads fans much angst back in the early 1970s.

The character then caused Crossroads followers further angst by getting pregnant out of wedlock after a dalliance with Roy Mollison, and having her baby delivered at the motel by Meg Richardson.

Sheila gave her baby to sister-in-law Jill to bring up. Later, she married Roy and they took the baby back.

After this, I recall Sheila working at Vera Downend's hairdressing salon. The two had a humdinger of a row  - and Sheila got the sack - when it was discovered she'd been moonlighting at home.

The Mollisons soon faded from the King's Oak scene. Where did they go? I can't remember, but Sheila remains in our affections as a gem of a character from Crossroads way back then.