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!!!

This had potential. A soap opera set in a hotel could've been good if the producers and writers and cast actually made the effort.

I was disappointed. But I liked the plot line in the 2001-2002 version involving Jake Booth emotionally abusing Tracey Booth, his wife, and Tracey turning into an alcoholic. I loved this plot line and I felt very sorry for Tracey Booth and the way she was being abused by Jake.

I hated having to watch Miss goody-two shoes Nicola Russel get her top GCSE grades though. The plot line was dull, stupid, boring, irrelevant, and ultimately insulting to those who got bad examination results like me. I felt that this plot line took the biscuit out of those students who may've done badly in the year 2001, I did badly and felt like this plot was rubbing my nose in my failures, if that makes sense.

Most of the plot lines were dull, the ending was just pure stupid. I liked Cindy Marshall-Day's performance and Colin Wells was great. But they were the only decent two cast members.

The Samson's were horrible. They should've had more violence, lies, deceit, and betrayals, then the soap could've been much better.

If they try it again, it needs big reforms if it is to have a fighting chance of succeeding.

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.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Only six months into the new re-vamped Crossroads,and rumor is already starting to spread of a potential axing.Well,to be honest,this is not really surprising.As high hopes as anyone might have had for this new edition , it's really just not up to scratch.The main problem being the acting:it is , whatever way you look at it, wooden.Everyone involved simply reads their lines out as blankly and dully as you can imagine,so that they sound almost like cyborgs.The stories are rather cliched and predictable,with love triangles,high stakes and adversity being mainly on the agenda.And it is so hard to believe that all this could be going on under the roof of a hotel.Worth watching,but certainly only as something to glance at while eating your snack.**

That didn't take long did it?? Crossroads returned in something considerably less than a blaze of publicity to ITV1 on 13th January 2003. I was initially quite optimistic about it's chances, hoping that the daily dose of high camp farce, glamour and terrible acting might appeal to the great unwashed that is the British public.

Unfortunately, despite moving at a pace which would blow most other soap scriptwriters out of the water, covering dozens of storylines in a matter of weeks, it seems the show has failed to strike a chord with the considerable UK daytime audience, it's viewing figures sliding to a paltry 1.3 million per day (the 1st revival's lowest point was 2.5 million), barely enough to sustain a show Carlton and ITV spent almost £15 million on bringing back. So, this morning, on March 10th, 2003 it was announced that Crossroads will disappear from the schedules when it's current batch of episodes ends in the summer.... as if that wasn't bad enough, to add insult to injury - the show is being moved out of the 5pm slot in a few weeks to a more 'suitable' early afternoon slot.

To be fair to ITV, the show hasn't been dogged with any rumours of an axing, but also, it barely has had enough time to even register in the public consciousness - so I feel that an axing might well be premature. I know one thing, I'll miss Jane Asher and Jane Gurnett's deliciously awful bitching and catfights (as Angel Samson and Kate Russell respectively). No disrespect to ITV, but they seem to be developing an almost American mentality towards show, if it doesn't perform brilliantly from the start, then they're not interested. If the BBC behaved in a similar fashion, Eastenders would have been cancelled less than 3 months after first airing, instead of running for 18 years....