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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 354903" data-attributes="member: 23">18 October 1977 - 15 August 1978 2829-2830; 2868-2893; 2904; 2928; 2930-2931; 2968 [excerpt]; 2974-2994 continued#2974 seems to be the beginning of the proper consecutive episodes… perhaps all the way through to the end of the set. So far it's been twenty one consecutive episodes and counting. As previously mentioned, I was very eager to get to this point so that I could follow in “real time”. As it was, I had grave doubts as I watched my first couple of these consecutive episodes. Without the added frisson of the newness, and the extra little dynamic of putting the pieces together, I suddenly realised I was stuck with watching this series endlessly, with no reprieve and nothing to break up the monotony. Suddenly, all those years of sameness stretched out before me and I kept thinking of James’s comment about “watching paint dry”. I wonder if this is how it feels to be a playboy who has reluctantly got married. A great deal of this first episode was taken up by Benny in a farmhouse with two Irish travellers and Nora Batty (the one bright spot was the arrival of Kathy Staff, but even she couldn’t save this scenario). It’s basically a lot of people in shabby clothes sitting around an ugly table slurping tea and speaking with their mouths full of food. The accents were barely discernible and I didn’t care about what I did pick up. At risk of sounding like Susie Blake’s announcer, it’s all very depressing. The story did improve when Gaffer returned and the travellers left. Benny’s agonising decision about staying at the farm or going to work for his father has proved surprisingly watchable.Meanwhile, in the previous block of episodes, I’d just adjusted to watching Len Fairclough lookalike Jim Baines bellowing at his agoraphobic wife and her screeching at him to leave her alone in their flat with ketchup bottles permanently on the table (and incidentally, an episode or so after Stan closed down his home and left, the Harveys’ Hornsea Pottery mugs appeared in the Bainses’ home). Then Jim returned bearing John Palmer’s afro from the Sons And Daughters pilot, having recovered from his workshop-related injury (offscreen, of course) and won the pools. He’s broken up with his former receptionist who apparently saw him in a different light after his pools win (on the subject of Sons and Daughters, said receptionist gives herself irritating Fiona Thompson type airs when she speaks). Jim also had some problems with Diane who had some kind of lawsuit against him for… something. Then there were the theatricals: a young actor staying at the motel who just happened to be the long-lost son of an old actor who just happened to be sharing a home with Daisy, a new worker at the motel who put the pieces together and reunited them. There was the small matter of the old actor kind of, sort of having killed his own wife and young actor’s mother while they performed on stage together (Daisy was said wife and mother’s dresser), but it was all resolved and the three of them - young actor, old actor and Daisy the dresser - all went on tour to Australia (oh dear. That doesn’t bode well). I did warm to this story, and it certainly had its moments, even if it felt very much that all three were transplanted into the series to do this one story for a couple of weeks before leaving, so the whole scenario felt more contrived than if, say, Jane had been in Daisy’s place. Jane herself has left the series, to look after Mrs Sullivan with whom she used to live (there have been a lot of dramatic “with immediate effect” resignations recently, and it seems nobody is safe), and I’ll miss her as she’s been a solid, consistent character with a true voice. All soaps need their characters who aren’t drama queens to react to and earth the ones who are. I’m really hoping Jane isn’t gone for good, but I fear the worst. Her exit has left Diane on her own in the flat. Enter: the stalker. I can’t help being amused that Diane’s being MeTooed by Oddbod from Carry On Screaming! For some reason, Tom Clegg’s IMDb seems to omit Crossroads entirely, but I have to say it’s proved mildly thrilling at times. The scenes where he forced his way in to her flat to sketch her weren’t without their moments for both Tom and Sue Hanson, who did a nice job of being empathetic and scared at the same time. This storyline also gave an archetypal soap fake out when a shadowy stranger forced entry into Diane’s home, hand over her mouth and ordered her - in a very threatening tone - not to say a word. It felt very intense for this series, and sits just below the rape of Glenda as a top “how did they get away with this at teatime in the late Seventies?” moment. However it was all undone in the next episode with the reveal that said intruder was a police officer who had been summoned by the landlady. To be fair, there was some reference to the fact that he hadn’t observed protocol with him asking Diane not to reveal the extent of his zeal, but it still fits firmly into the “why let the facts get in the way of a good cliffhanger” category. I did enjoy that the same officer also made it clear he was interested in Diane. It’s certainly an interesting way to take someone’s mind off being harassed.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?