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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 362432" data-attributes="member: 23">29 July - 15 October 1981 3489 - 3522 There’s no mistaking that the current run of Xrds is golden. As I hurtle with alarming rapidity towards the end of the ATV/Noele Gordon era, the air crackles with an exciting, electric energy.It’s right that the motel itself should be the root of much of the current drama. David is back from his overseas visit, and there’s a discinct personality change. The previously sanguine, cards-on-the-table David is no more, replaced by a decidedly more bitter, brittle and devious character who seems to care not a jot about the feelings of those closest to him.He and Barbara have been rowing all day long (a situation made worse by the arrival of her sleazy editor who also happens to be her former lover whose wife made Barbara co-respondent in their divorce). He’s bought Adam’s shares and now plans to sell the motel out from under Meg. As I said, it has felt exciting, particularly the scenes where Meg, Jill and Adam put the pieces together and ordered David to Meg’s sitting room for a confrontation. It’s one of the most watchable business scenes Xrds has given, and it’s that way because we know how much it matters. It could mean the end of life as the characters know it. And that means the end of Xrds as we know it. And so it matters to us as much as them.On paper, David’s overnight personality change seems jarring. There’s no real explanation  - certainly nothing that sufficiently convinces - other than perhaps an accumulation of small dramas. Perhaps it’s a soap fatigue induced mid-life crisis. But that doesn’t matter, in large part because the characters are even more taken aback than the viewer by his unexplained new persona, but also because it’s damned fun to watch. Ronald Allen gives great snark, and he’s been a joy to watch. He and the writers (and those around them) haven’t forgotten the old David, and there’s a sense of an inner conflict going on just below the surface for him. It’s also given Sue Lloyd some wonderfully meaty angry scenes. Just as well Barbara is at her most watchable since she’s just saved the motel by buying 15% of David’s shares, making her a business partner.While it feels organic, with the benefit of hindsight, the two-pronged attack of the beefed-up David and the Hunters becoming a power couple in the series’ main business feel very much like the beginning of the new order of things. Already, the way is being paved for Meg’s departure. Somewhat conversely, though, Meg is still very much a presence. With Noele getting some great scenes and a fair amount of screen-time, she feels as important as ever to the series. No doubt this made “all good things coming to an end” even more shocking for cast, crew and audience.ATV News reported Noele’s sacking on 22nd June 1981, presumably the day the news broke, and probably a short time after Noele herself received the news. With that time-frame, it’s a certainty that she would have been aware the end was in sight when filming these episodes. I find myself scrutinising her scenes, trying to spot any giveaway signs that she’s aware she’s about to go, but there are none so far. She’s positively radiant, so it’s safe to say that she gave her all to the role to the very end.Incidentally, among David and Barbara’s trials and tribulations, Val Pollard showed up… kind of. Heather Chasen played Carmen Walters: a shark-like journalist digging up dirt on Barbara’s home life and putting poor David through it. It was a memorable first impression and it’s easy to see why she was asked to return. continued…</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?