Crossroads Crossroads: 1964-1988, 2001-2003

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Happy Birthday Nolly

You were a true star!

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Marley Drama

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My partner - who watchedThe Noele Gordon Collection along with me and thoroughly enjoyed it - got me a cute little stocking filler for Christmas.

The gift tag read "Benny Christmas"...

 
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Love the Benny hat!!

I hope people dont call you Benny tho! Back in the day it was for folks that werent too bright of I recall!

Its strange hearing Paul Henry talk as himself x
 
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Someone posted this on FB and just HAD to share

as a Dallas fan first and foremost and a re- discoverer of Crossroads many years later - whats not to like!!

 
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I dont know if people saw this or aware of this sad news from earlier in the week re Mavis Hooper

A grand age but what a sad way to die


Crossroads actress Charmian Abrahams dies after traffic incident​


The performer was killed in a traffic incident on Monday, January 15th.
West Midlands Police have announced former Crossroads regular Charmian Eyre died earlier this week aged 96. Known as Charmian Abrahams off-screen the performer had a television and theatre career spanning over fifty years before she retired in the mid-1990s.

Performing with the Old Vic Theatre Company
Her family have paid tribute in a statement released by WMP today:
“Charmian was a much-loved aunt and great-aunt and a dear friend to many. At 96 she was still full of life and energy and fiercely independent. In her working life she had enjoyed a long career as an actor on stage and screen, performing alongside many great theatrical figures, including Sir Noël Coward, Albert Finney and Sir Ian McKellen. In the early 1980s she became well known for her portrayal of Mavis Hooper in the ATV/Central drama Crossroads.

“We are devastated that her life has been brought to an end so suddenly and tragically, but we will treasure our memories of her zest for life and the many good times we shared with her.”


Popular pair: Stan Stennett and Charmian Eyre as Sid and Mavis

With the Crossroads cast on-set in 1982
Charmian was fatally injured after being hit by a van in Harborne earlier this week. Abrahams was struck by a delivery van on Lordswood Road just before midday on Monday (15 January). West Midland Police’s Serious Collison Investigation Unit is still conducting enquiries into the collision. They are appealing for any witnesses, or anyone who has dash cam footage, to get in touch via their website, or by calling 101, quoting log 2017 of 15 January.
In Crossroads Charmian played Mavis Hooper – visually the inspiration for Victoria Wood and Acorn Antiques character Mrs Overall (with the name based on Mrs Mack from Take The High Road). The character ran a B&B in Heathbury which saw regular characters as lodgers such as Iris Scott (Angela Webb) and Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry). While she could be abrasive and abrupt Mavis had a kind heart and would try to help her lodgers if they found themselves with problems.

The character was, when she was first seen, estranged from husband Sid (Stan Stennett) however they eventually reunited, although she was often chastising him for his gambling and dubious plans. In 1986 as the show underwent a more upmarket revamp, Mavis was written out with a terminal illness – with the scenes gaining much praise for the performances by Charmian and Stan Stennett.
During her spell in the teatime soap, which ran from 1964 to 1988 and was set in the village of Kings Oak and the Crossroads Motel, the three-episode-a-week series was pulling up to 15 million viewers. The character was also affectionately ribbed by Mike Yarwood in his ITV sketch show in 1983 where he played Sid and Mavis as well as several other motel regulars.

Advice for the younger generation: Mavis (Charmian Eyre) offers words of wisdom to wayward Iris Scott (Angela Webb)

Charmian and the rest of the Crossroads cast and crew celebrate 21 years of the soap in November 1985
“I first joined Crossroads just before Noele [Gordon] was sacked so sensationally, she wasn’t easy. She wanted everything to be right and when half the time it was wrong she would say: ‘I’m going back to my dressing room until.’
“But on my first day when I was feeling nervous and unsure, she was the only one who wished me luck. The last time I saw her before she died of cancer was at a Crossroads celebration. Tony Adams carried her in his arms up the stairs. However difficult she might have been [with the ATV bosses] she is remembered with a great deal of affection.”
– Charmian speaking to the Crossroads Fan Club in 2002
Born Charmian Blanche Abrahams on February 22nd 1927 she was the daughter of a doctor and a nurse. As a child, she attended Edgbaston High School for Girls, before moving to London to forge her acting career. Charmian had a long and successful time working on many theatre productions, beginning in 1943, including with The Old Vic Company. In the 1950s she toured with stage companies around Northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It was on the stage she co-starred alongside names such as Sir Noël Coward, Albert Finney and Sir Ian McKellen.
She made her movie debut in 1949 and later several television appearances including in ITC’s Sword of Freedom, ATV’s medical saga Emergency Ward 10, Thames Television’s Armchair Theatre and the BBC’s Maigret.
Crossroads
returned to the spotlight last year with the drama Nolly about the soap opera’s leading lady Noele Gordon. Penned by Russell T Davies and starring Helena Bonham-Carter the series received critical praise and has won several awards.
 

Angels Chanting

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I dont know if people saw this or aware of this sad news from earlier in the week re Mavis Hooper

A grand age but what a sad way to die

Gosh, I wasn't aware of this. What a tragic end to a wonderful life. Mavis Hooper was a fantastic Crossroads character.
 
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Amazon arrived today, bang on time too

Im wishing i still had a CD player in my car!! I miss it!
 

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Have listened to the CD a few times now, and keep replying this one

It sound a bit like a UK entry for Eurovison back in the day (when we won it / or had a chance of winning)

 
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A year ago Nolly was showing on ITV x and much chat about the Box set of the Noele Gordon Collection and should I buy it!?
You guys persuaded me to and Im so glad I did - There hasnt been much else in the DVD player since last Feb and Im on 2nd showing of it
Im glad I bought it as it was sad news Network went bust! It was expensive but worth the money.
Its also shown me different parts of the UK as I visit "Nolly" and "Crossroads" type of places and have a week off in March to explore.

Loved Herefordshire, Ross and Wye valley and time to see more
 

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A year ago Nolly was showing on ITV x and much chat about the Box set of the Noele Gordon Collection

Oh gosh, yes. I just looked back and a year ago I'd finished Nolly and was just about to crack open the box. I think it's a year to the day that I watched those first Xrds episodes in TNGC.




Im glad I bought it as it was sad news Network went bust! It was expensive but worth the money.

Same here. It would have been such a shame to miss out on the buzz as we all worked our way through. I thought about it before taking the plunge and pre-ordering, but I'm so glad I didn't wait.

I just looked on eBay, and the cheapest used copy of The Noele Gordon Collection is currently £450. :yikey:




have a week off in March to explore.

Loved Herefordshire, Ross and Wye valley and time to see more

Oh great. It will be wonderful to have more photos and stories, if you're happy to share them.
 
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Did a little bit of scanning listening to all the Steve Wright tributes today

here is Jane Smith aka Sally Adcock - sadly written out far too soon

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Did a slight detour on Saturday and went to St Mary's church in Ross on Wye. Nolly's grave was looking lovely (Jockie too). Left a plant and a little Teddy bear (with a Scottish flag) I called him Sandy! RIP Nolly and Thanks for all you achieved in your lifetime. Xx

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Happy birthday to Jane Rossington (born 5 March 1943) 81 today

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Thanks to Noele Gordon on FB for the link

AUTHOR: Noele Gordon
15 November 2016 tbs.pm/10166
From the TVTimes for 15-21 November 1969

Two or three nights a week, always around 10.30 p.m., a chocolate-brown Rolls-Royce stopped outside a South London theatre and picked up a vivacious, dark-haired young actress. The journey that followed was little more than two miles — but it spanned a whole generation in time.

The girl in the Rolls was helping to make television history. For her journey ended at the Crystal Palace, where John Logie Baird conducted closed-circuit experiments in colour transmission. That was 31 years ago [from 1969]. Baird was by then already famous as the father of British Television. And the young actress was to become one of Britain’s most televised personalities. Noele Gordon, whose record of more than 10,000 television appearances includes over 1,000 performances as the star of Crossroads, one of ITV’s most popular serials, remembers how it all began.


❝In the summer of 1938 I was a student with a repertory company run at Penge, South London.

One day, one of Baird’s young men came to the theatre looking for a girl with definite colouring to help them with their tests. I was chosen because I had blue eyes, a fair skin and very dark hair (she has since become a redhead).

We arranged for a local milliner to get up a series of pretty hats in striking colours and then I was ready, though I didn’t know for what.

After the second evening performance at the theatre, off I went in the chocolate Rolls-Royce to take part in something I thought was a bit potty.

Baird was enchanting, always kind and gentle, and he always gave me the full star treatment. He seemed rather vague. But he wasn’t really vague at all.

Noele Gordon among early broadcasting equipment at ITA.
Noele Gordon among early broadcasting equipment at ITA.
The tests went on throughout the late summer of 1938 and into 1939, I sat in front of a camera, wore those Dolly Vardon hats and just talked.

I particularly remember having my face painted with broad green vertical stripes. When I looked at myself in the monitor screens, it was hilarious. The stripes made me look as if I were behind bars.

The stripes weren’t very satisfactory and they soon took them off. But many of the other Baird pictures were as good as those we see today.

19691115youngnoele
While working for Baird, I was paid at film extra rates, between £3 and £4 a night. Between ‘takes’, I drank bottled beer and ate sandwiches with those gorgeous young men Baird had working for him. It was great fun, but I sometimes used to wonder what the neighbours thought when I was delivered back at my digs in a chocolate Rolls-Royce at six o’clock in the morning.

I envy those actors who will see themselves in colour for the first time.

I can remember so vividly seeing myself in that Dolly Vardon hat. When I looked at myself in the monitor, I nearly fell down.❞
 
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Did a little scanning

Meg in Prison!

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Just a heads up for those soap fans on this side of the Atlantic. Nolly, the 2023 miniseries with Helena Bonham Carter, begins airing in the US on Sunday night on PBS, right after Call the Midwife.
 
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Nolly gets a nomination for HBC, do feel Augustus Prew should also as Adam Chance, I thought he was fab (Hope Tim Spall wins for Sixth sense, just brilliant in the role)


The stars and shows that are in the running for British TV's highest honours, the Bafta Television Awards, have been announced for 2024.

Leading actress​

  • Anjana Vasan, Demon 79 (Black Mirror) - Netflix
  • Anne Reid, The Sixth Commandment - BBC One
  • Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us - Sky Atlantic
  • Helena Bonham Carter, Nolly - ITVX
  • Sarah Lancashire, Happy Valley - BBC One
  • Sharon Horgan, Best Interests - BBC One

Leading actor​

  • Brian Cox, Succession - Sky Atlantic
  • Dominic West, The Crown - Netflix
  • Kane Robinson, Top Boy - Netflix
  • Paapa Essiedu, The Lazarus Project - Sky Max
  • Steve Coogan, The Reckoning - BBC One
  • Timothy Spall, The Sixth Commandment - BBC One










 
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Back from a trip to Nolly Country

Birmingham Cathedral, then and now

Quite a few changes re layout internally since that 1975 Royal Wedding, but what a lovely wee cathedral. The seats are different and I couldnt see the pulpit, only a lecturn. But happy to just sit there and pretend i was still a school girl getting rather excited by the wedding of the year. The stained glass windows are beautiful

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