© Crossroads Fan Club
A thumbnail guide to Crossroads creators Peter Ling and Hazel Adair.
Peter Ling
Peter
Ling
co-created
Crossroads
along
with
Hazel
Adair
back
in
1964.
Ling
started
out
as
an
office
boy
before
being
employed
in
the
advertising
industry.
As
a
Bevin
boy
during
World
War
II,
he
started
to
write
and
ran
a
theatre
in
the
barracks
in
the
army
pay
corps.
Just before he was demobbed he contracted TB and had to be hospitalised.
He
then,
while
in
hospital,
began
writing
for
radio.
Friend
and
actor
Jon
Pertwee
gave
encouragement
towards
Ling's writing abilities. In the early '50s Ling wrote comedy for Whirlygig, a BBC children's show.
The
newly
formed
Associated-Rediffusion
television
company
gave
him
the
job
as
a
script-editor
and
then
became Head of Children's Series on shows such as Small Time. He wrote for the Eagle comic.
Ling
also
wrote
for
Associated-Rediffusion
shows
such
as
Murder
Bag,
Crime
Sheet
and
Jango,
and
in
1961
created
a
new
soap
for
the
BBC
called
Compact,
with
Hazel
Adair.
He
was
later
contracted
to
The
Avengers
where
he
wrote a couple of stories with his wife Sheila Ward.
In
1964
Ling
and
Adair
created
a
new
ATV
soap
opera
set
in
Birmingham
-
Crossroads
was
born!
Ling
also
created
Champion
House
in
1967
and
wrote
for
Associated-Rediffusion
on
the
Sexton
Blake
detective
series
and
also
The
Mind
Robber,
which
was
a
story
for
the
BBC's
pioneering
science-fiction
series,
Doctor
Who
in
1968.
There
were
many
other
programmes
including
Green
Shoes
with
George
Cole
and
Happy
Holidays,
starring
Hattie
Jacques
and
John Le Mesurier.
In 1987, new incoming Crossroads producer William Smethurst decided to bring in his own team of writers and Peter Ling was no longer required.
Hazel Adair
Adair
started
her
television
writing
career
in
1951
on
the
science-fiction
series
Stranger
From
Space
which
ran
until 1953.
She
then
wrote
and
devised
her
own
drama
series
in
1955,
Sixpenny
Corner.
This
was
commercial
television's
first
daily
drama
serial
running
for
10
minutes
every
morning,
the
show
later
moved
to
evenings
when
ITV
Daytime
ceased transmitting due to poor ratings. Sixpenny Corner ran until the summer of 1956.
Emergency
Ward
Ten
launched
in
1957;
It
was
the
first
UK
hospital
drama-serial
and
the
first
kind
of
long-running
weekly
drama
by
ITV.
Ward
Ten
ran
for
a
decade
and
later
was
revived
by
ATV
Network,
for
independent
television,
as
General
Hospital
from
1972
to
1979.
Hazel
had
submitted
some
storyline
ideas
to
the
producers
for
the
1950s
medical
serial,
which
later
saw
her
play
a
bigger
role
in
the
show
when
it
made
the
move
from
small
to big screen.
Along
with
the
creator
of
the
TV
series,
Tessa
Diamond,
Adair
co-wrote
the
film
version
of
the
ATV
medical
drama. The 1959 film was aptly titled; Life On Emergency Ward Ten.
She
then
left
television
for
a
short
while
to
start
working
on
another
movie
in
1961;
Dentist
On
The
Job
was
a
comedy
which
she
co-wrote
with
Bob
Monkhouse.
Then
she
joined
forces
with
Peter
Ling
in
1961
for
the
BBC
soap
Compact, the twice-weekly saga that ran until 1965 - Crossroads, it was claimed, helped killed it off!
She devised Champion House, again with Peter Ling in 1967, this one-off series ran for 30 episodes.
The
1970s
saw
British
comedy
films
fall
into
decline,
however,
it
didn't
stop
Hazel
trying
to
revive
it
with
the
bawdy,
Keep
It
Up
Downstairs.
The
film
was
met
with
a
far
from
warm
reception.
Hazel
stayed
on
and
off
with
the
Crossroads
team
until
the
mid-1970s.
Ling
and
Adair
have
however
continued to work together from time to time on various projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Series Creators