Crossroads Crossroads: 1964-1988, 2001-2003

[Barbara Fan]

"And you can't see the join".

Would have been relevant if he was meaning Terry Wogan! x

 

[Barbara Fan]

Call me Madam

 

[Barbara Fan]

Call Me Madam part 2

 

[Barbara Fan]

Happy 103rd birthday to David Lawton who played chef Bernard Booth

What a grand old age

 

[BiscuitsOfBagEnd]

Hello! I told myself I was going to bed but what the hell, it's a Saturday, so here I am.
I started watching Crossroads because my favourite Doctor Who character of all time (one Ralph Cornish, my profile picture) is played by Ronald Allen. I was utterly bewitched by his performance and after tracking back to his villain Rago in The Dominators (I had not recognised him at all until someone told me it was the same man) I then cast my net further afield. I've watched him in The Avengers, The Adventures of Robin Hood, A Night To Remember, Hell Boats, The Supergrass, and The Projected Man. And, of course, so much Crossroads.
Obviously my favourite Crossroads character is David Hunter haha. But I also really like Benny, Sandy, Lloyd, Diane and of course Barbara. I'm rewatching early 1980 at the moment and David and Barbara make me preposterously happy. I also really enjoy David's friendship with Meg which is why I'm scared to go too near 1981 because I know it ends in tatters.
I've got completely drawn into the series and I ended up watching quite a bit of it with my mum, who watched it with her mum when she was growing up (her favourite was Benny). We express our opinions of the characters' decisions like it's a spectator sport! David is very stupid (said with love) and Lloyd is a terrible psychiatrist. I love relaxing with the familiar characters, sets and theme song and have started just having it on in the background whilst I'm doing other things. Not today though. Chris had just got home and I already had a headache, so I watched Friends instead.
If anyone ever wants to talk Crossroads, I would be delighted to join

 

[Angela Channing]

Hello! I told myself I was going to bed but what the hell, it's a Saturday, so here I am.
I started watching Crossroads because my favourite Doctor Who character of all time (one Ralph Cornish, my profile picture) is played by Ronald Allen. I was utterly bewitched by his performance and after tracking back to his villain Rago in The Dominators (I had not recognised him at all until someone told me it was the same man) I then cast my net further afield. I've watched him in The Avengers, The Adventures of Robin Hood, A Night To Remember, Hell Boats, The Supergrass, and The Projected Man. And, of course, so much Crossroads.
Obviously my favourite Crossroads character is David Hunter haha. But I also really like Benny, Sandy, Lloyd, Diane and of course Barbara. I'm rewatching early 1980 at the moment and David and Barbara make me preposterously happy. I also really enjoy David's friendship with Meg which is why I'm scared to go too near 1981 because I know it ends in tatters.
I've got completely drawn into the series and I ended up watching quite a bit of it with my mum, who watched it with her mum when she was growing up (her favourite was Benny). We express our opinions of the characters' decisions like it's a spectator sport! David is very stupid (said with love) and Lloyd is a terrible psychiatrist. I love relaxing with the familiar characters, sets and theme song and have started just having it on in the background whilst I'm doing other things. Not today though. Chris had just got home and I already had a headache, so I watched Friends instead.
If anyone ever wants to talk Crossroads, I would be delighted to join

I had no idea that Ronald Allen was in Doctor Who. He was a far better and more versatile actor than many people realised because he was so well know for playing just one character for such a long time.

If you're rewatching early 1980s you would have already seen one of David Hunter's most memorable storylines, when he was shot by ex-wife Rosemary, which for me was peak Crossroads, but still have his storyline with Sarah Alexander (played by Annette Andre) to come, which I also very much enjoyed.

 

[BiscuitsOfBagEnd]

I had no idea that Ronald Allen was in Doctor Who.

yeyeyeyeyeye he was so good! Both times! As Ralph Cornish in The Ambassadors of Death he's so real and human and steady and spends the entire story sick to his stomach with stress but having to be the tower of calm amidst the chaos around him. I also genuinely think that Ralph is the first person to pierce the defensive armour the Doctor has put up around himself since the incident at the end of The War Games.
As Rago the Dominator I've heard him very accurately described as "cadaverous." You know how David Hunter often has like, poise? Ronald Allen uses that to make the most menacingly deliberate undead turtle/evil giant woodlouse that I have ever seen.

his storyline with Sarah Alexander (played by Annette Andre) to come, which I also very much enjoyed.

I'm kind of terrified by that storyline because I love David and Barbara so much aha. but I know they figure it out in the end because I've watched some episodes from not long before they leave, so in a way it's cool that they've been through it and come out the other side still in love. basically, if Barbara can forgive him, then so can I!
I'm interested in hearing more, what did you enjoy so much about it?

 

[Angela Channing]

I'm interested in hearing more, what did you enjoy so much about it?

I'm a bit of an Annette Andre fan from when she was in Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) so I was glad to see her on the show and she had good chemistry with Ronald Allen. It was also quite a bold storyline for Crossroads because it went out quite early at 6.30pm so much of the relationship between David and Sarah had to be implied, rather than shown. I don't know how much more I can say without giving away the storyline but it was well written and they explored the story fully without resorting to easy solutions.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I've watched him in The Avengers, The Adventures of Robin Hood, A Night To Remember, Hell Boats, The Supergrass, and The Projected Man. And, of course, so much Crossroads.

he was so well know for playing just one character for such a long time.

I was watching him around six weeks ago in a 1990 episode of Bergerac. It wasn't a great episode (although his storyline was art compared with the Tony Robinson bit in the same episode), but it was fun seeing him playing a slightly villainous type, and Sue Lloyd playing a woman who volunteered to expose him by wearing a wire and going along to his place for a tete a tete. I'd imagine they had fun filming that one.

 

[BiscuitsOfBagEnd]

It was also quite a bold storyline for Crossroads because it went out quite early at 6.30pm so much of the relationship between David and Sarah had to be implied, rather than shown.

One half of my brain is like "well that sounds quite interesting" and the other half is like NOPE DAVID AND BARBARA FOREVER so I'll let them fight it out for a little while and see which half comes out on top. I shall keep this thread posted if I do manage to brave it.

it was fun seeing him playing a slightly villainous type, and Sue Lloyd playing a woman who volunteered to expose him by wearing a wire and going along to his place for a tete a tete. I'd imagine they had fun filming that one.

Well that also sounds rather interesting. And I can definitely see him being a good villain, even when not decked out in Rago's shoulder pads. Even Angry David is not to be messed with. Will definitely look that one out.