My Vera Downend Fantasy...

As regular readers know, one of my absolute top-favourite Crossroads characters EVER is Vera Downend,  played by Zeph Gladstone.

Vera was the motel's hairdresser for much of the 1970s.

Vera was a confidante to many, and gave good advice, but was not so good at running her own life.

Well, many of us have a similar problem.

When Vera was at the motel, I was having a very unhappy, dog rough, 1970s childhood. I won't go into details, but sometimes, in my mind, I used to visit her on the boat, and talk over my problems with her.

And, occasionally, I still do.

Yep, give me a pressing problem or a crisis, and I sometimes still find myself clambering aboard the boat, where I find Vera and tell her what's wrong. I find her, usually, listening to a transistor radio. The 1980s and 1990s haven't happened, of course, and there are no mobile phones or computers or whatever.

My wife thinks it's very funny, as I usually 'visit Vera' when there is trouble in my life and I can't sleep.

'Why don't you confide in the other woman?' she laughs. 'That usually helps!'

And I do.

And usually, very soon, before I even get through telling Vera what's keeping me awake, I'm asleep.

It's amazing the impact soap characters can have on our lives...

Vera: 'Yes, luv, it is amazing. Do you fancy a cuppa and a chat about it? I was just going to put the kettle on.'

Our Crossroads Favourites: Vera Downend

Vera faces another problem on her boat. Actress Zeph Gladstone had the freedom to buy the clothes for her character - but they had to be in bad taste.

Dear old Vera Downend! Played by Zeph Gladstone, Vera is one of my absolute-ultimate-favourite Crossroads characters. I love her.

Ex-tart Vera started out in Crossroads living next door to single mother Diane Lawton, who had a grotty bedsit, in 1971. She was originally quite a slovenly character, but good-hearted and quickly became a hit with us viewers.

So Vera smartened up (in her own way) and came to the motel to open a hairdressing salon and live on the Harvey family's barge on the canal.

Wilf Harvey advanced Vera £3,000 to start the salon so, although we remember him mainly for being a grouse, he certainly wasn't all bad.

Vera was another of those magical Crossroads characters you felt you could confide in and, during my often troubled youth, I could have done with a chat with her on many occasions. In fact sometimes, in my imagination, I did visit her boat to confide in her - and, occasionally, when troubled, still do!

But she worried us. The section of the King's Oak canal (near Wilf Harvey's) where Vera lived looked downright seedy and her attention to security on the boat was, to put it mildly, rather lax. She was often seen wandering off to bed with no effort to 'batten down the hatches' (or whatever one does on barges), with just a flimsy interior door separating her from the despicable characters no doubt lurking on the canal banks.

We were genuinely worried about this.

There were no mobile phones in those days.

And she suffered. Weird and menacing goings on sometimes came Vera's way - and once she was even mugged. Though not on her boat.

Bless her.

The boat once suddenly sprang a leak. Cue dramatic ending of episode! 

In 1976, the salon ran into financial difficulties. The motel took over, but kept Vera on as manageress.

Vera sprouted a long-lost son, Clive Merrow, late in her reign and experienced motherhood problems - and coming to terms with Clive's adopted mother. She came through it all brilliantly.

Romance was never smooth or easy - and all the nice girls love a sailor, including Vera. She dated Doug Randall (Richard Thorp - Alan Turner in Emmerdale Farm from 1982 onwards) for a time, but it came to naught. Doug was eager to escape his unhappy marriage, but his wife had other ideas and the situation was impossible.

And then, in 1977, Vera fell for creepy restaurant manager Max Lorimer, who bought her boat from Sheila Mollison and Stan Harvey, and basically set his cap at her in a most unhealthy way. 

Vera found herself back on dry land, sharing Max's old flat with Diane, but not long afterwards finally departed from King's Oak.

I missed her dreadfully. My memories of her departure are that it was to be temporary and she would be returning. She was apparently working on a cruise ship for a time. I must have dreamt it, but I could swear there was an episode a few years later in which Diane said, 'I've just seen Vera in the village, and she says...' (referring to some ongoing storyline)

And I suddenly had the notion that she would be reappearing. The hope flickered for a few weeks.

It was wishful thinking. A year long 'sabbatical' for actress Zeph Gladstone turned into a permanent departure as she was not asked back.

It was never the same. Pure magic, our Vera. A cherished memory.

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