Crossroads

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.

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.

With the exception of DOCTOR WHO any television show that has its format changed is bound to fail . The original series of CROSSROADS worked because it was total garbage . On its return it's obvious the producers wanted it to be a big success by making it appeal to a teenage audience by sexing it up - Big mistake . Take for example the idea of a Scottish chef in the motel kitchen . In the original it was a Scottish chef who was - Depending on how the writers felt that day - either a wimp or a bitter sociopath . In the new version we're treated to a hunk from Scotland who's a real smoothie and in one episode saves a damsel in distress from a burning derelict church

Despite this spicing up the show I think the only attractive cast member was ( Non ) actress Cindy Marshall-Day who played drunken slapper Tracey Booth and naturally playing that sort of role she got all the best lines like this line she says to one of her Asian staff :

" Beena - Been a round more like "

Being a complete slut Mrs Booth was the catalyst for a domestic subplot where her husband has to explain to her son in a sensitive manner that Mummy and Daddy don't love one another any more :

"I'm thirteen y'know not three " moans the son who's played by a child actor so bad it's impossible to believe he's even had a walk on part in a school pantomime and gives the only performance that comes close to being so bad it's good

This new version of CROSSROADS was met by small viewing figures that just got worse and worse so in order to save it the producers went back to basics and included more and more outlandish plots in order to make it appeal to fans of schlock television . We saw Adam Chance return as a homicidal maniac but the writing was on the wall and the show was cancelled with the ending being on a par with someone waking up and discovering it had all been a bad dream . The reality was it was more of a bad idea than a bad dream

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.

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.**