Neighbours to end says production company
Fremantle Australia, formerly Grundy Television, has confirmed that Reg Watson devised soap Neighbours is to end not only in the UK but also will depart Australian screens this autumn.
The show which launched on Network 7 in Australia in 1985, before switching to Ten a few months later, arrived in the UK via BBC One in 1986. Since 2008 the Ramsay Street based daily soap has aired on Channel 5 in the UK and switched to 10 Peach, a digital channel, in Australia in 2010.
Reg Watson also devised shows such as The Young Doctors, Sons and Daughters and Prisoner: Cell Block H when he joined Grundy Television from ATV in 1974. He had produced Crossroads for a decade.
Neighbours fans in the UK battle to ‘save soap’
Channel 5 has called time on airing Neighbours – created by Crossroads producer Reg Watson – in order to free up drama budget funds. Sound familiar? The same excuse Andy Allan noted to Central in 1987 when bringing the motel to a closedown.
However fans of the Ramsay Street saga are not taking it as a fait-accompli, instead, they have rallied together to promote its popularity.
Russell T Davies pens Noele Gordon drama for ITV
Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning actor Helena Bonham Carter will star in the three-part drama charting the rise and fall of the nation’s first ‘Queen of Soap’, Noele Gordon who played for 18 years Meg Mortimer in Crossroads.
Noele (or Nolly to her friends) was a legend in her own lifetime. As flame-haired widow Meg Richardson in the long-running soap opera from ATV, she was one of the most famous people in Britain.
Robert Sidaway recalls his Crossroads years as actor and writer
Robert Sidaway, who played Stuart Marshall on Crossroads in 1973, and was part of the writing team in 1975, recalls his career in a glossy 24 page A4-size magazine.
He explains what it was like working on the programme; being with Sonia Fox when she was attacked by a crazed viewer; creating the character of Benny Hawkins; and why Noele Gordon demanded he be sacked from the writing team.
Patrick Jordan’s Crossroads memorabilia goes up for auction
Patrick, who passed away last year, featured in Crossroads twice in two different roles, however, he is best remembered for his later time in the series from 1985 onwards as Thomas Darby the loyal ‘right-hand man’ to boss Nicola Freeman.
In the auction, next month, fans of the serial can get hold of scripts, press releases, photographs and other collectables from the Central Television era of the saga.
End of an Era for Stewart White
The main face of Look East since 1984 departed the show on Thursday (Sept 30). He previously worked for Southern TV, Central Television and ATV as a continuity announcer.
It was during his time with ATV that he featured in two episodes of Crossroads in 1981.
Only Fools and Horses, Corrie and Crossroads actor John Challis dies
John Challis has died aged 79. He had been living with cancer for a long period of time. A friend of the Crossroads Fan Club, John shared memories of his time on the soap in 1971 with us, and we’ll always fondly remember him. He of course will be best remembered for his role in BBC One sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its spin-off The Green Green Grass.
Crossroads episode re-screened for the first time in 40 years
The Missing Believed Wiped event in Birmingham screened a part-missing 1978 episode, a full 1981 edition recently recovered and Noele Gordon’s This Is Your Life.
The finds have been restored and cared for by the archive experts Kaleidoscope headed by Chris Perry, who said on social media of This Is Your Life; “It’s a lovely episode. Starts on the Crossroads set and ends with Larry Grayson singing her praises.”
Crossroads arrives on BritBox along with classic soaps
Crossroads launched earlier today on BritBox UK along with other classic soaps including ATV’s General Hospital starring our very own Tony Adams, Channel 4’s hard-hitting Brookside and STV’s rural life tale in Take The High Road.
There are currently ten classic episodes of the motel saga on BritBox to see if there is demand for classic soaps. The episodes launched today join an already extensive collection of vintage editions of YTV’s Yorkshire dales saga Emmerdale Farm and Granada Television’s everyday life in a northern terrace, Coronation Street.
Crossroads and Noele Gordon programmes rediscovered
A lost episode of Crossroads from 1981 and Noele Gordon’s 1973 episode of This Is Your Life have been returned to the archives and form part of a Missing Believed Wiped screening next month in Birmingham.
This Is Your Life, produced by Thames Television, celebrated the life and work of Noele Gordon when Eamonn Andrews surprised Nolly on the set of Crossroads. Guests include Jerry Allen from Lunchbox, producer Reg Watson and comedian pal Larry Grayson. The ATV episode of Crossroads focuses on the aftermath of the departure of Meg Mortimer (Noele Gordon) from the programme when Jill (Jane Rossington) returns to Kings Oak from Southampton, where she’d waved Meg goodbye in the previous episode.
General Hospital The Britbox Episodes
There’s a whole lot of Tony Adams heading to Britbox thanks to classic episodes of ATV serial General Hospital. The show ran from 1972 to 1979, originally as a twice-weekly half-hour daytime soap before being transformed, in 1975, into a weekly hour-long drama series.
Tony – best known as Crossroads’ Adam Chance – stars as Dr. Neville Bywaters, a charming kind medical executive at the Midland General.
Crossroads The Britbox Episodes
The initial ten editions of Crossroads that will arrive on Britbox from mid-July 2021. The episodes focus on the ‘golden years’ of the 1970s and early 80s.
Crossroads joins Britbox
The motel saga joins already established serials Emmerdale and Coronation Street to the Britbox line-up. From July 15th Brookside, Take The High Road and, other ATV serial, General Hospital also become part of the SoapBox selection.
Actor Graham Rigby dies aged 94
Graham who appeared in Crossroads as Charlie Forward, intermittently, between 1965 and 1979 died last month. As well as appearing in the Kings Oak saga he also had eight different roles in Granada’s Coronation Street as well as other ‘serials’ including Compact, The Newcomers and Emmerdale Farm.
Graham died peacefully at Queens Hospital Burton on April 5th 2021.
Crossroads’ David Moran passes away
The performer, best known as Kevin Banks from 1980 to 1985, has died. The news was provided to the fan club by friend and former colleague Angela Webb who, of course, played Iris Scott at the same time in the series.
As well as Crossroads David also appeared on LWT’s children’s series Metal Mickey, BBC One political sitcom Yes, Minster, LWT sketch series Cannon and Ball and also their education sitcom Mind Your Language.
40 Years On… Glenda and Kevin’s wedding
It’s forty years today since Glenda Brownlow said ‘I do’ and became Mrs Kevin Banks.
The wedding saw the start of many big storylines for the couple including becoming the parents of soap opera’s first test tube baby in January 1984.
Independent Review to take place over Neighbours’ racism claims
The latest reports suggest that the Reg Watson created programme will see an independent review take place over allegations of racism at the studios of the long-running saga.
The series has been at the centre of accusations by performers Shareena Clanton and Meyne Wyatt who both recalled alleged “multiple racist traumas” on the set of the Fremantle Australia Production.
Reg Watson’s Neighbours serial in racist claims
The Australian saga has seen two former Aboriginal-Australian cast members accuse the show of racism while working at the studios of the long-running daily soap.
The alleged incidents happened on the Neighbours sets from 2014 onwards with Shareena Clanton and Meyne Wyatt both using social media to highlight that, they state, their time at the Melbourne based show was far from a happy time.
ITV celebrate Johnny Briggs with a special documentary
The former Crossroads actor, who became best-known as Coronation Street’s Mike Baldwin, will be the subject of a primetime ITV documentary next week.
Street stars past and present recall working with a cast legend, and famous fans of the show take a fond look back at some of Mike’s biggest ever storylines; including his affair with Deirdre Barlow and bitter rivalry with her husband Ken, a love triangle that had the whole nation gripped.
Carlton’s Crossroads remembered Twenty Years on
The 20th anniversary since Crossroads was relaunched by Carlton Television has been marked online.
The Crossroads Fan Club and cast members of the 2001-2002 series have been reflecting on the reborn soap opera two decades since it returned to ITV screens in a blaze of publicity.
The Young Doctors gets a major DVD release
For the first time, 250 episodes of Reg Watson created The Young Doctors is to be released on DVD.
The Young Doctors followed the lives and loves of the staff and patients of the Albert Memorial Hospital, the programme became the longest-running commercial television drama in Australian television history when it took the title from Number 96, and it was the first Grundy serial to sell internationally. The Young Doctors was a ratings smash in the UK and it knocked The Benny Hill Show off the number one spot in New Zealand.
Johnny Briggs dies aged 85
Actor Johnny Briggs – best known as Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street – has died his family announced. Johnny had a long career with many film and television credits to his name.
He joined ATV’s Crossroads in October 1972 remaining with the series until December 1974 and formed part of many of the key storylines during that time, including wooing Diane Parker (Susan Hanson) and getting involved with a gangster run casino.