31 March 1976 - 14 October 1977
2506; 2518-2519; 2523-2530 (compilations); 2581-2583; 2602-2603; 2622; 2651; 2653-2658; 2660-2661; 2674; 2680; 2687-2690; 2816-2828
Firstly, a few little observations about the “extras” included with the episodes:
#2519’s is taken from a domestic recording and the Easter Egg at the start features almost a full minute of Susie Blake-esque Westward TV announcer Jane Crickle telling us that on Shakespeare’s birthday, this evening’s “very varied programmes” include Charlie Drake meeting Peters & Lee;
The Gun Runner episode of
Hawaii Five-O and a character hanging a portrait of Jesus on the wall in
The Fosters. And the late film is Susan Hayward in
The President’s Lady. Welcome to 1976.
This is going to sound too
Acorn Antiques to be true, but the VTR board for the first Compilation (#2523-2526) is honestly labelled “CROSSROADS COMPLICATION” in huge letters. It’s handwritten, so there’s no blaming autocorrect here. Still, it seems very appropriate. Charming, even.
Meanwhile, the plummy-mouthed chap who usually dominates the sound idents apparently had another holiday around episode 2825. As Part 2 of that episode is about to begin a man can be heard in the background directing “Can we have it more breathy?” before the female speaker does her thing. It seems somehow appropriate, then, that the episode ends with Diane brutalising Max Lorimer,
Crossroads’ current libertine with the first face slap in unwiped
Crossroads history. Exciting times.
Mr Lorimer certainly had it coming. His arc has seen him having… intimate relations with both Diane and Vera while telling Vera that Diane is a pest who has an unrequited crush on him. He persuades Vera to move off the boat into his flat and lie to Diane that she’s staying with a female friend who is having a hard time. Vera then spends much of her time waiting round while he sneaks off to the boat to be with Diane. That is, when Diane isn’t sitting round waiting while he sneaks off to the flat to be with Vera. This was all part of some elaborate scheme for him to buy the boat cheaply, removing its sitting tenant to ensure there would be no complications.
It’s all blown out of the water now (possibly quite literally, now that Vera and Diane are armed with the facts and planning to do something relating to the boat), but the most exciting time in the story came after Diane began to put the pieces and began to realise that Max was cheating on her with Vera (cue Paul McCartney & Wings’ wailing
Crossroads theme as Diane stands in the dark watching Max mournfully), which led not only to another of Diane’s legendary screaming matches in reception as she gave Max what for, but - most exciting of all - icy tension between Vera and Diane who briefly became nemeses.
The tone of the story possibly symbolises the Jack Barton era so far. It’s rather heightened and conventionally soapy. Extremely watchable and gripping at times but ultimately also a little bit generic.There’s a lot of this going round. Stan has now been exiled overseas, seeing the end of the Harvey clan other than Jill and baby Harvey (whose name escapes me). Jill spends much time hand-wringing but quickly distracts herself by smooching Hugh Mortimer’s son. Then she spends time hand-writing over
that (indeed, she’s so guilty it invokes a very different, apparently one-time-only version of the End Of Part One bumper music as we get a long-shot of Jill, holding a telephone receiver at her thigh, a single tear streaming down her face, as Mortimer junior's disembodied voice can be heard smooth talking her from the other end of the line.
Even with so much going on, and an awful lot of new faces arriving (Barton seems to specialise in glamorous, efficient, educated young women, and I find myself wondering if he’s out to unsettle Noele Gordon even at this point), the series is already feeling less interesting than it did a few years ago. Many of the most quirky, fascinating, grounded or watchable characters have vanished (Amy Turtle, Miss Tatum, Sheila, Mr Booth; Tish Hope; Stan), and their absence has left the series somewhat devoid of life and colour. I miss them, and the series already feels more static and bland) I understand Vera’s about to go as well and since she’s been front and centre of late she’ll be sorely missed.
I suppose I’d better get used to what’s left, since I’m hitting a point in the DVDs where there are huge runs of continuous episodes. It's not all bad news anyway. I do very much like Kate Hamilton who's kind of a neo-Tish. And of course I'm eagerly awaiting Doris's arrival.
Is it wrong that I’ve found the
Crossroads mugs so fascinating? I’ve enjoyed the various colour themes of the mugs over the years, from duck egg blue to mustard. Then khaki mugs (my personal favourites) started appearing everywhere. When upwardly mobile Stan and Jill moved out of their flat and into the house, they even acquired some nice Hornsea pottery mugs. And they say no money was spent on this series.
Oh, I missed this post entirely last week:
I vaguely remember that she's a bit freaked by Benny when she initially encounters him. Then he's quite ashamed about not being able to read so when she first tries to teach him using little kids' books, he feels patronised and reacts quite aggressively. So it takes them a while to become all buddy-buddy.
Thanks once again for filling in the gaps James. It's good to get more of Benny and Diane's "origin" storyline since by their first unwiped episode they're already good friends.
If I recall, unlike 'Born with a Smile on My Face' and 'More Than in Love', 'Summer of My Life' is only used extra-diagetically, i.e. the audience hear it but the characters don't. Interesting that Chart Music says it was used for a storyline about someone going blind; I associate it with sun-dappled montages involving a vintage car for some reason.
Interesting.
Crossroads certainly seemed to like their "character goes blind" storylines.
Since I'm now at late-1977 episodes it seems I won't get to see this in context, so I'm glad you've got such a great memory about it.
www.noelegordon.co.uk
