DVD to Celebrate Soap Legacy

The old motel based saga Crossroads may have left ITV screens over two decades ago, but a charity founded by the soap carries on the shows social legacy. Now a DVD documentary, Return To Crossroads, aims to show soap fans the truth about the soap and the facts behind the charity.

The documentary is produced by ATV Network Productions and will look at the characters, the storylines and the off-screen events that made – and ultimately broke – the show. Produced between 1964 and 1988 Crossroads became ITV’s most popular daytime programme, and took top TV awards across the 1970s much to the amazement of television critics who didn’t care much for daily soaps back then.

Crossroads Care, the charity which still runs was founded by ITV, ATV and the Crossroads team back in 1973 as Ian Towers of The Weekly News explained last week,

“Back in 1972, Sandy Richardson was injured in a car crash and needed to use a wheelchair as a result. That highlighted the role of his carers, and touched a nerve with kind-hearted backroom staff at ATV, where the show was made.

“They raised £10,000, which was used to set up a charity to support carers in the community. Today, it’s grown into a thriving charity, with branches helping to provide support to thousands of carers across the country.”

ITV backed the charity, with the regions promoting the cause with special trailers and news features over the early years. However in recent times the broadcaster behind the charity has shown little interest, despite making a ‘small fortune’ out of over 300 episodes of the soap being on sale on DVD.

An insider at ATV Network Productions told us “We’ve always had a good working relationship with Carlton and Central, but ITV Studios have shown no interest in a charity they helped make one of the biggest in the world. ATV is donating all its side of the profit to the care charity, so there’s no money really in it to be made, hence the lack of interest by ‘Greedy Granada’”

ITV Studios is of course the current name of what once was Granada Television, who were never particularly keen on the Midland produced saga due to it thrusting their Coronation Street from the top spot of the TV ratings regularly in the 70s. However the current team at ATV have not forgotten the good cause, as director Maria Brabiner told The Weekly News newspaper,

“We realised it was 30 years this year since Roger Tonge, the actor who played Sandy, died at the tragically-young age of 35. We thought that was a good reason to make the DVD, Return To Crossroads, at this time. We approached a wide variety of people involved with the show and we’re in the process of filming their stories and memories.”

The official ITV Crossroads Fan Club is also part of ATV, and have worked with the broadcaster since 1987, their archive is being tapped in for the documentary, showing a host of items.

“Central and Carlton have always been incredibly supportive and we’ll reflect this in the documentary.” Mike Garrett, manager of the Crossroads Fan Club told ATV. “We’ve got the original motel signs, as well as the versions from the 2001 and 2003 spin-off dramas. We also have the first six scripts from 1964 which Central kindly copied. ITV Archive have also been supportive in recent years, but unfortunately they only deal with photographs and nothing else.”

Interviewees taking part in the documentary include Tony Adams who played Adam Chance, Jane Rossington who was Jill Richardson for nearly 24 years, JoAnne Good who was soaps first female mechanic as Carole Sands, Stan Stennett who played Sid Hooper, TV Times Supersoaps author Chris Stacey and broadcaster Bill Buckley who released a protest song in 1981 when the show’s leading lady Noele Gordon was axed. A short list of only a few of the names appearing on the DVD.

“The show and everything connected with it still has a place in the hearts of many people,” Mike Garrett told The Weekly News newspaper, he added, “Many visit Noele Gordon’s grave as a kind of pilgrimage. It shows that it has lasting appeal when you consider our youngest member wasn’t even born when it went off air in 1988.”

The documentary does promise some older clips though. With other none ITV archives and broadcasters offering material for free for inclusion, these include archive interviews with Kathy Staff, who played kitchen hand Doris Luke and Noele Gordon who was Meg Richardson for 18 years. More details on Return To Crossroads can be found at its own mircosite here