Crossroads Motel,Can I Help You?

[Si Hunt]

This thread is hilarious!

Si.

[SiHart]

Thanks Si!

I'm a bit worried, as I've just reached DVD30, which measn there are only 10 more to go. Whatever will I do when I reach the end?

[Nyder]

I'm sure there's counselling available! Nice to know that Nolly's telephone acting skills are up there with her hair-towelling skills :-)

[stuartdg]

I'm at DVD 34 but then I'm watching the episodes off the 4 network vols plus the 1 from the Soap Box compilation release,add to that I have about another 30 off air recordings from UKGOLD and the later versions

[Nyder]

It's March, it's 1972, and Vera is there! I'd forgotten she was a cockney. She is a bit nasty at the mo - I hope she mellows with age!

It's funny how the smallest of things can prompt a big "I remember that" moment. That big round window outside Meg's office was one of those moments for me!

Oh and a special mention for Miss Diane's jumper - black with big red cherries :-)

[SiHart]

This morning we had one of the brownest scenes this side of K9 and Company. Jill and David were sat chatting in the dining room, on brown chairs, by a brown wall divider, both of them were wearing brown- Jill's jumper/ dress combination making her look like she was wearing an old living room carpet, David was wearing his brown 3 piece suit, with extra wide lapels... thank goodness for his yellow and blue tie, or else it'd have been a truly brown overload.

Jill is going back to Germany to find her daughter. Knowing Jill, this will be doomed to failure and she'll be on the vodka before you know it. Everyone's saying she's changed and that she's much stronger- but they haven't seen the scenes of her tears.

Poor old Meg though. You'd have though dealing with Jill's woes would be bad enough, but horrible Mrs Crisp is putting her through the wringer, making her read love letters written by Hugh before he met Meg. Evil! There were damp eyes from Nolly this morning. Hurting, she was. Hurting.

Oh and Benny's car passed its MOT... but is he really the owner? Gasp! Maybe not!

[Nyder]

That Benny is a cunning fox! Don't be fooled by that dim exterior!

[Nyder]

"The early worm catches the bird"

A Nolly fluff of the highest order! I'd only just recovered from David Hunter's brown fur coat!

[SiHart]

Calamities lie ahead for Jill- after hours with her lawyer, she's considering making Sarah Jane a ward of court and is just about coping, until she speaks to Stan and she loses her temper. Oh dear. And she's turning to drink, having a very large brandy in the middle of afternoon. This will not end well.

Mac has met a girl, Trina. She's already outmanoeuvring him, and teasing him. I can see this one lasting a long time. He's won her heart already by buying her dinner at Crossroads. What more could a girl ask for?

Meanwhile Shughie's lies about his life are catching up with him. Doris is taken in by his stories about his exploits and being the gossip she is, she tells Mr Booth, who then informs David Hunter... It's spiralling out of control and he's forced to admit to David that it's all made up, blaming Bernard Booth into the bargain. The scenes with Shughie and Doris are fantastic. They're a great double act.

[SiHart]

Adam has been busy earning his keep. Could his persistence have brought an end to the Mrs Crisp saga. One can only hope so. It's been really rather tedious.
But it's also paid off for him in other ways. His role as Hugh's executor is coming to an end, and Meg owes £52000. She simply doesn't have the money available, so there is only one thing for it- she has to do the unthinkable... sell a portion of her shares in the Motel. Gosh!
And who do you think might be able to buy that portion and become a partner? Well you'll never guess... yep, Adam Chance! And thus the seeds of Meg's eventual departure are sown...

Elsewhere, Doris fancies a cuppa at the local cafe and who should she find there, but one Shughie McPhee, meeting his Cynthia! His lies are exposed! How will Doris ever be able to believe in him again?

[SiHart]

Just one episode this morning, and there was some lovely scenes for Doris and Shughie in the cafe. Shughie admits he's made his stories up and Doris tries not too look too gullible. Good stuff for Kathy Staff and Angus Lennie and they play well off each other.

Better than the Mrs Crisp storyline which has got to the inevitable end, where she's revealed to be a fraud. Even her stuff about wanting her daughter to be Hugh's because she loved him so much was boring. So much so that Benny eating chocolates was more enjoyable!

[stuartdg]

Ex con Gerry Hurst(who apparantly did some unspeakable evil to Benny in a stop at huryline that no longer exists) is holding Shughie over a barrel and shacking up at his flat much to the disgust of Doris,you wouldnt want to get into a fight with her! Kathy Staff knows how to argue!


There's a boring storyline with Jill attempting to turn Chimneys into a sanctuary for unmarried mothers but the least said about that the better...


The big two storylines are the Tish-Katherine-Ted love triangle,the latter two not wanting to hurt Tish who at last gets a meaty plot but doing so anyway...

Also the Hunters are complete with Rosemary manipulating David into giving son Chris with a new head a motel job,presumably so he doesn't swan off and kill Meg's next hubby!

[Stephen Morgan]

Ex con Gerry Hurst(who apparantly did some unspeakable evil to Benny in a stop at huryline that no longer exists) is holding Shughie over a barrel and shacking up at his flat!

The mind boggles.

[Nyder]

I haven't got to her yet, but what was the name of the character (female) who had large round glasses? I think she worked at the motel.....

[Nyder]

Hooray, I've reached Aug 72 and I get to see a run of 6 consecutive episodes - what a luxury!

#1754 starts with the aftermath of Sandy's accident. A real pity this run of eps didn't start a few days sooner. Nolly plays the concerned mother extremely well, and of course Ronald Allen is there providing 1% concern and 99% suave!

[Stephen Morgan]

I haven't got to her yet, but what was the name of the character (female) who had large round glasses? I think she worked at the motel.....

That'll be Jane, who was also in the Salvation Army.

[SiHart]

Adam is moving into Jill's house, Chimneys. This marks the start of the great relationship between the two characters that will see out the original series and begin all over again in the much missed and terribly underrated 2001 incarnation. There's something in the way Adam looks at Jill (especially her bottom at the end of today's first episode!) that hints at things to come... It's a wonderful relationship down the years, and Tony Adams and Jane Rossington have a great on screen chemistry.

I cheered this morning as all the tedious business with Deborah Crisp came to an end. How Meg could be so magnanimous about it all I don't know, but it gave Nolly one of those scenes she obviously relishes- when she looks away into the distance and gives everyone else the benefits of Meg's experiences and then turns and fixes her gaze on the other characters as she expounds her theories on life and love and whatnot. Wonderful.
Now lets never hear from these tedious characters ever again!

I gasped this morning. Oh yes, GASPED! The unthinkable happened- Shughie asked someone on a date. And that someone? Only Doris Luke! Blimey!

[Nyder]

Aw Shughie & Doris - a match made in, erm, heaven??

[stuartdg]

May 16th 7-30 ITV1 sees the unforgettable Noele Gordon broadcast,a must for any motel fan!

[SiHart]

Thanks for the heads up on that Stu. I'll set the Sky box!

[Nyder]

I'll instruct my Virgin slave to attend to it

[SiHart]

Oh my!

[Nyder]

"You callous little bitch"

Ha, now THAT'S the way to end an episode! A bit strong though for teatime 1972 :-0

In other news, Diane & Vince have the gloomiest hall staircase ever. It wouldn't look out of place in an episode of Thriller!

[SiHart]

It's all go at the moment. Helen Booth, who you might remember a few weeks back had a morbid fear of getting pregnant, so much so that she nearly ended her marriage over it, is pregnant. And delighted. And frightened. And out of the show. Before you know it, Bernard has persuaded her to go and live with her mother, despite them having bought a new flot together recently. So without further ado, she's off to see Meg to hand in her notice and she's off. This show is brutal on the leaving front.

But some other characters are back- Lloyd Munro is back from the USA, Glenda is back from the cupboard she's been hiding in for months after her last storyline, Sandy has miraculously returned unannounced from the cafeteria he's been running for someone else and the lesser spotted Mr Hope, or should I say, Captain Hope is back... and could he bringing a storyline for Tish with him? We'll see.

Meanwhile, Jill has befriended a new waitress at the hotel who's... gasp... pregnant without a husband and in a bit of a state. Somehow Jill has ended up giving her advice. It's the blind leading the blind here. Never take Jill's advice- look at the state of her life!

[Si Hunt]

It's the blind leading the blind

lol.

Si.