Our Crossroads Favourites: Sam Carne - "Carney"

 Carney - a much loved member of the Crossroads staff.

Sam Carne, known to all as "Carney" and played by actor Jack Woolgar, first appeared in Crossroads in 1975 and stayed until 1978, when Mr Woolgar died. Originally a rather grim man, employed as a lock keeper, Carney developed into a lovable old gent and part-time gardener and night watchman at the motel.

Carney loved the garden, was a good friend and confidante to many of the locals - including Benny Hawkins, and of a slightly forelock-tugging disposition when it came to the likes of his bosses, Meg Mortimer and David Hunter. His generation is no longer with us, and watching him in old episodes brings back happy memories of similar people I knew when I was a child, teenager and young man.

Fondly remembered, and a rare positive representation of an elderly man in the English soaps, in which they are usually depicted as comic, or mean, or gossipy or downright stupid - or a combination of some or all of those qualities!

Our Crossroads Favourites: Vince Parker

Vince Parker, friend of village postmistress Miss Tatum and many others, briefly husband of Diane Lawton and step-father of her son Nicky, and cheerful postman of King's Oak in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A first class choice for a Crossroads favourite character is King's Oak village postman and part-time motel barman Vince Parker, played by Peter Brookes. Vince arrived in King's Oak in 1968 and soon palled up with Miss Tatum, who ran the post office and village store. He was a cheerful bloke with an eye for the ladies, but narrowly survived tragedy shortly after his arrival when he was knocked off his bike by Meg Richardson, who had swerved to avoid a cat on the road whilst driving. Vince suffered temporary blindness, but recovered and was soon participating in King's Oak village life again.

When motel waitress Diane Lawton became pregnant, it was at first thought by local gossips that Vince was the father, but he wasn't. The man responsible was actually American film star Frank Adam. Despite this, Vince married Diane in 1971 and was very fond of her son, Nicky. However, cracks soon appeared in the fledgling marriage - Vince was particularly unhappy that Frank Adam was sending money to help support Nicky.

Vince and Di filed for divorce.

Vince left the village in 1973, returning only once and very  briefly for the wedding of Meg Richardson to Hugh Mortimer in 1975.

Vince, despite his dramas, was a very positive and likeable character, and provided a lot of fun moments during his stay in the series. The character was also believable, even if some of the situations he found himself in were rather out of the ordinary.

The sort of bloke I'd be happy to have a pint with down the local.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Lloyd Munroe

 1980: Tish,  Meg,  Lloyd and Diane are worried about Rosemary.

Lloyd Munroe, played by Alan Gifford, was a cheery American psychiatrist who graced King's Oak with his presence from 1978 to 1980. Lloyd was a great friend to bereaved Meg Mortimer, mourning the sudden tragic passing of her husband Hugh, and gave therapy to David Hunter's deranged wife, Rosemary. 

In 1980, Lloyd told Rosemary that she didn't love David as she claimed, she hated him, which seemed to push Rosemary right over the edge into confronting David with a gun and then shooting him. But what the heck, the human mind is a tricky beast to deal with, and there's no doubt Lloyd meant well.

Lloyd had a difficult relationship with his daughter, Kathryn Fischer, and her dalliance with serial philanderer Ted Hope, husband of poor old Tish, didn't help matters.

Lloyd was responsible for bringing novelist Barbara Brady to the village when, engaged in some research for her latest work, she became his housekeeper in 1979. She married David Hunter in 1980.

In an era when the majority of new characters were grim (remember how Doris Luke was originally? Clover Hawkins? The set-up at Haywood Farm? Reg and Alison Cotterill?) Lloyd seemed like a breath of fresh air.

Fondly remembered.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Mavis Hooper

Mrs Mavis Ada Hooper - King's Oak semi-regular, 1981-1985.

Miserable Mavis Hooper, played by Charmian Eyre, was in the Crossroads saga from 1981 to 1985. And when Mrs Overall, played by Julie Walters in the hilarious Victoria Wood As Seen On TV series made her debut in '85, the resemblance between the two was obvious and brilliant.

This has served to underline Mavis in my memory, but there's no doubt she's worth remembering anyway - for forging a friendship with shifty young Iris Scott, putting up with shifty husband Sid, and generally being a rather grim good egg.

Mavis ran a boarding house in King's Oak, and her biggest treat in life seemed to be popping in next door to watch the neighbour's colour telly.

On New Year's Day 1982, she drank a toast to a "happy and prosperous new year". But, of course, she didn't have one.

Whilst Mavis advised Iris "If you've got a man, you be with him," her own husband, Sid, left a lot to be desired, turning up after a long period of estrangement in 1982 and bringing poor old Mave more heart ache with his betting and attraction to Iris's mother, Rose. He soon flitted again, but turned up when Mavis was ill in hospital and  then turned out to be not such a bad old stick after all.

In 1984, Mavis turned sixty and reviewed her life. She decided to divorce Sid and fell for the charms of elderly conman Cecil Beecher-Blount.

Cecil was revealed to be a rotter (although the news was kept from Mavis) and Mavis stayed with Sid.

Mavis was very kind to Benny (when his ESP wasn't freaking her out - "Don't catch that bus!!") and Uncle Wally Soper. She died in 1986. Sid had suspected that her heart lay elsewhere - with Cecil Beecher-Blount to be precise, but on her deathbed she told him she loved him.

Poor old Mave.

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.

Our Crossroads Favourites: Arthur Brownlow

"I think I'll just dead-head me roses and then pop down the bowls club to see old Jenks..."

So, who were our favourite Crossroads characters? Which did we love to love or love to hate? Which made the most impression on us and became true Crossroads Greats? 

We'll begin with Mr Arthur Brownlow, played by Peter Hill, from late 1979 until late 1982.

Arthur was the grumpy husband of lovely, motherly Kath and the father of motel waitress Glenda and oil rig worker Ron. He certainly was grumpy, and an early story-line featured him being diagnosed with a terminal illness. The diagnosis turned out to be mistaken, and Arthur survived to gripe at Kath when she got the housekeeper's job at the motel (he had a very real and genuine high regard for traditional family roles), be falsely accused of improper behaviour with his niece-in-law, Iris "I ain't dun nuthink, Auntie Kath" Scott, and join a highly dubious 'residents' protection group' when young black couple Joe and Trina MacDonald moved in next door with their infant son, Ben.

On the plus side, Arthur was no stick-in-the-mud when his daughter, Glenda, provoked horrified reactions from Kath and her husband, Kevin, by suggesting she had a test tube baby. Arthur backed her but didn't live to see the birth of his granddaughter, Katie Louise, as he was run down by a car the year before.

Arthur drove me potty at times, but I loved the Brownlows set-up and he was an integral part of that for almost three years. I often wondered what Kath saw in him, but the devastating effect of his death was testament to the fact that theirs was a marriage built on love.

And, yes, I kind of missed him when the character died.

Thank You, Crossroads!

Valerie: "Well, hello, darlings. Welcome to the Crossroads Motel 1983 'Coping With Life In The 21st Century' Stress Management Course..."

Life has not been particularly good for me lately. Everything from a sudden severe cold to family problems to ludicrously inaccurate "statements of fact" on Wikipedia have conspired to get me down. I've been feeling worn out. Every inch a couple of years off fifty. And thoroughly cheesed off with the 21st Century...

Youngsters texting away whilst I am trying to have a conversation with them; their complete indifference to political issues; griping and moaning from older folk (like me!); a highly prevalent "I'm all right, Jack, pull the ladder up" attitude all round; stress, stress and more stress; lack of money to do any thing relaxing with; a lack of warmth and caring which distresses me greatly...

OK, I was born in 1965 and the world has never been marvellous in my lifetime, but surely it wasn't always THIS bad? Or am I just getting old?

Anyway, I was at the local newspaper archive on Wednesday, doing a spot of research. The newspapers I had to study were from 1921 and 1983. The TV listings in the 1983 newspapers caught my eye and one title in particular - CROSSROADS! The local newspaper pundit "wittily" described it as "down the kitchen sink drama" in one episode synopsis!

Of course, Crossroads was extensively panned by TV critics for many years, but I always watched it and, a quick skim through other 1983 editions of the "local rag" whetted my appetite for a visit to the motel in that year. Those tantalising synopsis...

What was that about a poison pen letter? What crisis were the Pollards facing? And why was Sharon being questioned by the police?

On returning home, I suddenly remembered that my wife was away overnight. So, I scoffed some dinner, brewed a huge pot of tea and revisited Crossroads in 1983 via my DVD collection of episodes originally taped on VHS from the UK Gold repeats. Once safely back in King's Oak, I rediscovered characters that talk to each other about everyday things, a little bit of (slightly camp!) melodrama, and a great deal of warmth.

I'm now feeling rather better than I did.

And it's not the first time this often ridiculed old soap has come to my rescue.

So much more realistic than the modern soaps' obsessions with serial killers and explosions...

AND so much better written! Yep, soap that was produced for people who have an attention span that is longer than that of a retarded goldfish!

BRILLIANT!

So, I say ( and not for the first time)....

 THANK YOU, CROSSROADS! 

I'll be booking in again very soon.