Crossroads actress brands new-look set ‘a brothel’

Former Crossroads actress Jane Rossington has criticised the revamped version of the ITV soap. The actress, who played hotel boss Jill Harvey in the soap, says the new set looks like a brothel.

Jane Rossington, 2010 at Birmingham Cathedral

The soap returned to ITV two weeks ago after an four-month absence, with a host of glamorous new characters. “It’s not a classy hotel its an absolute hovel,” she told the Crossroads Fan Club website.

“I was totally bewildered. I mean, what is it? It looks like a brothel. It’s an absolute hovel. There’s no sophistication, is there?”

Rossington added: “They went out to be deliberately fast moving, youth orientated, totally amoral, trying to be sort of sexy and controversial and I don’t think that paid off.

“I think it offended people. They need to add some older characters to disapprove of what the young ones are up to, not to condone it.”

Rossington was in the original ATV produced soap from 1964 to 1988, and reprised her role when it was revived in 2001 by Carlton Television for ITV, before she was killed off only three months into the run. The current version, overseen by Granada executives, is a camp revamp of the orginal show which now aims to appeal to the LGBT community.

Crossroads, set in a motel, and later a hotel, is set in the fictional midland village of Kings Oak. The show in the 1960s and 70s commanded 18 million viewers to each episode. Its leading lady was the late Noele Gordon who played motel matriarch Meg Richardson for almost 18 years. Noele left in 1981, making a brief return in 1983, before succumbing to cancer in April 1985.

Edward Clayton and Jane Rossington in CROSSROADS 1974

Pictured Top: Jane Rossington at Birmingham Cathedral in 2010 photographed by ATV Today.

Pictured Bottom: Jane as Jill in 1974 alongside on-screen husband Stan, played by Edward Clayton.