Crossroads

As a soap-a-holic, I was pleased to hear that "Crossroads" was making a comeback, as I was only three years old when the show was cancelled, and therefore never saw it.

Alas, I was rather dissapointed with what I found. Crossroads Motel had been demolished and replaced with a Crossroads four star hotel. Some of the acting from the new actors is terrible, the script is dier at times, and what seems like the beginning of an ongoing storyline is over by the commerical break.

But perhaps the biggest mistake of all was killing of Jane Rossington as Jill Harvey. Jane was the best of the three original cast members that had returned to the show. The writers killed her off because the ratings weren't high enough.

If that were the case, then surely the most sensible thing to do would have been to pull the plug on the whole show, and not the best character.

I'm not too surprised. Even at the age of 15, I have noticed a severe landslide in the quality of British TV. The overall quality of British soaps has plummetted, making most of British TV cheesy, boring and unrealistic.

Take the conversations held by some of the teens in Crossroads - nobody talks like that!!!!

5 out of 10.

The New Crossroads is a cracker of a soap to watch. It has inherited all the stigma of the original series but you don't need to have seen that to be able to follow this.

The media is none too happy with this production but then that's their job to pick faults. But if you like this production you'll ignore what they say anyway.

Plotwise is nothing we haven't seen before albeit the inclusion of a gay couple which was groundbreaking for a lunchtime soap. They have now split up and one has moved away, bit of a wasted opportunity really.

The only real trouble is that some storylines will just drag on for weeks and weeks going nowhere storyline wise. Some talent in certain actors/actresses is just totally wasted because they only have minor storylines.

However, brave attempt by Carlton to make the show like it is and it really works, it's good and fun to watch. Constantly hounded by rumours of an axing (mainly from non Crossroads fans it has to be said) which doesn't help.

Crossroads dared to be different. Whereas the 2001/2002 series was pretty standard fare the 2003 series was fantastically daft and surreal. Where else would you get character names such as "Angel Samson" and "Valentine Startwood"?

Crossroads was a welcome break from the normality of British soaps. It had glamour, sex, singing and the wonderfully sinister Ethan Black all at tea time. No main character was killed off (the exceptions being three guest stars) and near the end the characters were really starting to become developed.

A soap cannot be judged on 8 weeks like Crossroads was. People say that the 2003 series was it's final chance but it was a totally different kettle of fish to the old Crossroads and shouldn't have been seen as the same.

The ending however was fantastic. There were so many digs at ITV and the cast sent themselves up wonderfully. Oona and Dave as the owners of "Stocks Superstore" is the funniest thing I've seen this year.

Crossroads shall be missed by all that wanted escapism from the monotony of normal soaps.

Dallas's shower scene showed us that we dream in colour, Crossroads' finale told us that Jane Asher dreams at lightspeed: she got through the whole 5 months of the Hotel saga down in a blink.

Using the tried and tested Dallas dream trick, Crossroads bowed out with Angela (Jane Asher) realising her life as vampish hotel owner Angel Samson was a dream. The reality was that she crimped her hair, spoke with a Brummie accent and worked on a supermarket checkout, with former nemesis and sometimes friend Kate Russell as her co-worker.

As gag endings go, St. Elsewhere's was classier and Sledge Hammer's much funnier, but neither could touch this for the number of accents attempted. I actually lost count of how many accents were represented in the supermarket.

Most of the regular characters made appearances in the supermarket. Battleaxe Hotel receptionist Virginia became a battleaxe checkout supervisor married to Security Guard Rocky Wesson. Betty Waddell became a (geographically non-specific) customer in love with Rocky (I ask you!?!?). Thrusting American Businessman Max Samson was transformed into a lager and crisp buying American scruff, while the Samson twins, Ryan and Jimmy, had their roles reversed, with 'sex god' Ryan turned into a total geek, and former geek Jimmy becoming a Cockney sex toy for the Wise sisters (Phil, Lola and Belle). Even camp gay chef Vince underwent a total transformation to a Brummie layabout married to a shell suit wearing Helen Raven.

Perhaps the clumsiest joke was Tracy Boothe, going from booze hound Bar Manager to the alcoholic star of a TV show called, yes, you guessed it..... 'Crossroads'

A lot of the UK press are really criticising Crossroads at the moment but that's just because of the stigma it has from the old series. The new version really is a classy soap. Sure it's plots are totally unbelievable (like the current 2 Sarah-Jane's plot) but thats what makes it so good.

It's a world away from the likes of Eastenders and Coronation Street and all the better for it. Sure some of the younger actors leave a lot to be desired in terms of talent but characters like Billy, Kate Russell, Doris and Patrick Russell are brilliantly played.

All Crossroads needs is a few of the creases ironing out and it could easily go up against the likes of Brookside and Emmerdale.

Please Carlton, have some confidence. Don't axe Crossroads!!!