Crossroads [23/05/85] (Crossroads)
Changes are in store for the staff at the Crossroads Motel - not all of them welcome.
Settling into her first day as managing director of Crossroads Motel, Nicola Freeman (Gabrielle Drake) acquaints herself with the staff and decrees that "from now on, I think we're going to have to do things my way"", heralding the arrival of corporate culture at the motel. not everyone is optimistic for the changes that lie ahead.
Famous for its cheap production values, Crossroads found it difficult to shake this image despite dealing with a number of challenging storylines for its time, including single parenting, a test tube baby and interracial romance.
Reforms on screen through the introduction of new management at the motel were also mirrored off-screen, with new producer Phillip Bowman taking charge in 1985. With him came a new title sequence, an updated theme tune, including the use of a piano and synthesiser and rolling credits instead of the serial's signature crossroad-like vertical and horizontal swipes. The programme was also given a new identity, incorporating the word 'motel' in its title (it was later renamed again as Crossroads: King's Oak).
Nicola meets the hotel staff.
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TV Soap: Selection Box
Continuing drama on the small screen: explore how TV soap has changed over the decades.
The UK is a nation of soap addicts, with programmes commanding audiences of millions every week. Since they first appeared on British television in the 1950s, British soaps have given us hundreds of memorably distinctive characters in many different settings. But while they take many forms, there are some common characteristics.
Where in the US soaps tend to favour glamour and frothy fantasy, here they typically centre on relatable communities and families and reflect life in (usually) contemporary Britain, exploring sometimes thorny social issues and attitudes to class, race, gender, sexuality and more. While originally steeped in real-life domestic conflict, soap marched into the new millennium with hard-hitting storylines, sensationalist plots and issue-driven narratives highlighting pressing matters of the day.
This collection showcases a variety of soaps; rural or urban, north or south and everything in between. Some were shortlived and are much missed, while others are longstanding favourites embedded in our collective memory.
So settle in and prepare for drama!
24 videos in this collection
1
2
General Hospital [19/10/72]
3
Garnock Way [01/04/76]
4
Emmerdale Farm [05/04/76]
5
A Stitch in Time
6
Coronation Street [14/11/77]
7
Crossroads (Promotion)
8
Pat Phoenix &Tony Booth (Live from Two)
9
Mary Whitehouse Reacts to Brookside Scenes
10
Emmerdale Farm [14/05/85]
11
Coronation Street[01/11/1961]
12
Crossroads [23/05/85]
13
Albion Market
14
Coronation Street [13/08/86]
15
Yorkshire Television
16
Brookside [13/04/87]
17
Families [14/01/91]
18
Family Pride [08/09/91]
19
Emmerdale [10/10/91]
20
Coronation Street [06/07/92]
21
Sus
22
Machair
23
Sus
24