Cleo Sylvestre collects MBE

Cleo, who played Meg Richardson’s adopted daughter in Crossroads in the early 1970s, collected her MBE from HRH Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace on June 13th. Cleo was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire gong in the 2023 King’s New Year’s Honours List for his services to Drama and to Charity.

“Had a great day on Tuesday at Buckingham Palace receiving my MBE from HRH Princess Anne. My beautiful turban was designed and made by JustinSmith Esquire of De Beauvoir, Hackney“ – Cleo speaking on social media

Related Feature Cleo Sylvestre Interview

Cleo played Melanie Harper in the Kings Oak-based series, arriving from France, where she had been studying. She formed a great on-screen partnership with Susan Hanson as Diane Lawton, in fact so much so viewers suggested they should be the centre of their own sitcom.

The arrival of the character had been brought about by producer Reg Watson shortly after politician Enoch Powell had been making those terrible ‘Rivers of Blood’ speeches, which resulted in a lot of racial tension up and down the country – especially in cities like Birmingham.

“Reg must have picked up on this, and decided to create one of the first regular black characters in a British soap.” – Cleo said in 2007

Prior to Crossroads, Cleo appeared in Ken Loach’s Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home as well as in the TV play called Some Women and also a spell in Granada Television’s Coronation Street.

“[Crossroads] was ridiculed by some critics but, as far as I am concerned, it did a tremendous amount of good just having an ordinary person in there that happened to be black. I played a character that lots of viewers identified with at a sensitive time for race relations in this country. Yes, there were times when actors forgot their lines, but we were working under terrific pressure. When I joined they made five episodes a week. The turnaround was very fast. We’d finish one show and then get our bunch of scripts for the next shows, and be off doing it. It was like that in weekly rep.

“Crossroads was a telly version of old-fashioned weekly rep. And as far as I am concerned, for an actor, it was a great training ground for television, learning the technique of television acting. David Jason hasn’t done too badly out of it!” – Cleo speaking in 2007