WHATEVER ELSE life at the Crossroads Motel might have been, it has never been dull. And looking back over the 14 years since we opened our doors, I am amazed at how much has happened.

We’ve had our bad times and we’ve had our good, and although this is an occasion for celebrating, it’s as well to remember both.

Will I ever forget, for example, that night in 1968 when my car collided with motor-cyclist Vince Parker? The worry about Vince was terrible, and then came the shock of being sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for dangerous driving. I only spent a week in prison because I was released pending an appeal. Thankfully, that went in my favour, and I can’t tell you my relief at getting back to the Motel.

There was more than a little relief the following year when my nephew Brian and his wife Janice found their baby, which had mysteriously vanished. You can imagine the thoughts that go through your head at a time like that. It seems that some children had been playing with the baby and had locked the poor little thing in a shed. I thought the joy at finding the child unharmed would help bring Brian and Janice closer together and avoid them splitting up, but it was not to be.

Do you remember that silly argument between the Motel and the Manor House? Looking back, I can smile now, but at the time it all seemed very important. Miss Penn, the woman from the Manor House, and Mr. Sinclair, the man I thought to be their gardener, objected to us putting a caravan at the bottom of our garden. So I conducted all my business from the caravan. But it all ended happily. Miss Penn married the gardener — who turned out to be the owner of the Manor… Then there was Jill’s wedding. I must admit that at first I wasn’t too keen on my daughter marrying Stan Harvey. They met, if you remember, when he did some electrical repairs at her boutique. But their marriage was happy enough, although I’m not too sure what’s happening at present.

Sandy’s accident was one of those stupid things that never should have happened. He had insisted on driving some people home from a wedding reception because they were drunk. They stopped for petrol and a woman passenger demanded to take over the driver’s seat. Sandy tried in vain to stop her and the result was the inevitable crash. The woman was killed outright and Sandy was badly injured and paralysed. Condemned to a wheelchair, he went through terrible depression. Then he began to realise how many people had helped him through that awful period and he became a Samaritan. I think he feels he’s repaid some of his obligations by being able, in turn, to help others.

Hugh Mortimer and I were reunited in 1974. I hadn’t known beforehand that Hugh had married his partner’s daughter out of compassion. He knew — although I didn’t — that she was dying.

Hugh and I finally married in 1975, but I wasn’t to know how short our life together would be. He was kidnapped in Australia and they asked a fortune in ransom. I thought I’d never be able to raise the money. But I did. The tragedy, of course, was that he died of a heart attack while the money was on its way to the kidnappers.

Memories, memories, how many there have been over the years. We’ve had our share of heartache but, on the other hand, there’s been a lot of fun in running the Motel and I’ve met some marvellous people and made many good friends.

Now there’s just time for a little celebration, then it’s back to the Motel — and the next instalment of our story.

1 Nick Van Doren; 2 Kevin McArthur; 3 Jimmy Gudgeon; 4 Ken Church 5 Marylin Hope; 6 Peter Hope; 7 Sandy Richardson; 8 Mr. Lovejoy; 9 Shirley Perkins; 10 Meg Richardson; 11 Hilda Duvene; 12 Mrs. Hope; 13 Jill Richardson; 14 Dick Jarvis; 15 Kitty Jarvis; 16 Amy Turtle; 17 Bruce Sorbell; 18 Josefina Rafael; 19 Brian Jarvis; 20 Vince Parker; 21 Graham Parrish; 22 Edith Tatum; 23 Emily Vinson; 24 Janice Jarvis; 25 Nora Gillingham; 26 Ruth Fraser; 27 Diane Lawton; 28 Marcus Allison; 29 Johnny Patrick

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1 Mr. Lovejoy; 2 Mr. Booth; 3 Mrs. Hope; 4 Andy Fraser; 5 Charlie Forward; 6 Linda Ash; 7 Don Rogers 8 Miss Tatum; 9 Alan Johnson; 10 Mrs. Blundell; 11 Amy Turtle; 12 Meg Richardson; 13 Jill Harvey; 14 Stan Harvey; 15 Sheila Harvey; 16 Wilf Harvey; 17 Vince Parker; 18 Sandy Richardson; 19 Sandra Gould; 20 Diane Lawton

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1 Meg Mortimer; 2 Hugh Mortimer; 3 Sandy Richardson; 4 Vince Parker; 5 Jill Harvey; 6 Jane Smith; 7 Wilf Harvey; 8 Ruth Fraser; 9 Diane Parker; 10 Mrs. Hope; 11 Stan Harvey; 12 Mrs. Witton; 13 Brian Jarvis; 14 Shelia Mollison; 15 Mr. Booth; 16 Florrie Harvey; 17 Vera Downend; 18 “Carney”; 19 Andy Fraser

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Those lucky Lookalikes face their famous doubles

“It’s all a diabolical plot by the producer to replace the entire cast!” That’s how Roger Tonge reacted when he saw double — the winning Lookalike in our competition that most resembles him as Sandy Richardson, the Crossroads character he plays. His “double”, and the other winning Lookalikes have already come face to face with their other selves and, with their guests, will be V.I.P.s at the special Crossroads 3,000th. Birthday Party on September 19 at the same hotel where Meg’s wedding reception was held — the Chateau Impney, Droitwich, Hereford and Worcester. Now meet the stars — and their other selves

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“I’d love to.” Noele said.

Less than an hour later, both were at the headquarters of the Warwickshire Aero Club at Birmingham Airport, Elmdon. Before the evening was over, Noele Gordon had enrolled as a pupil pilot.

But this was a flying course with a difference. It was to be televised for Midlands viewers under the title Noele Gordon Takes the Air.

Within a few weeks, the series was on the air. Since the middle of September, viewers have watched Noele’s steady progress. By the time the series ends in November, she hopes to have flown solo after only eight hours in the air.

I went to see Noele on one of her training flights on a dull day, with rain drizzling down at intervals — not the best of weather for a gruelling session which included spins, circuits and stalls.

Noele’s teachers — chief flying instructor Arthur Penzer and club secretary Neville Birch — are confident that she will emerge as a first-class pilot.

“She is adaptable and easy to teach,” said Penzer. “On her first flight, she taxied the aircraft on and off the runway.”

According to Neville Birch, an hour’s flying is the equivalent of four hours hard work. Pupils need so much concentration that after an hour they have little energy left.

“For this series, however, Noele virtually has to work twice as hard,” Birch admitted. “Her aircraft is being filmed throughout all her flights, and quite often manoeuvres have to be repeated for the camera—there is always another aircraft on her tail carrying the cameraman and producer. Those aren’t the easiest conditions for learning to fly.”

Reg Watson, who is producing the series, said: “Viewers at home, watching the finished product, probably don’t realise the amount of work involved in putting this series over. It isn’t just a case of filming the whole of Noele’s lesson. We have to re-film parts of it, and get special shots for the opening of the programme.”

Editing the film is a big job. Then there is the studio work, which calls for long rehearsals every Tuesday. “We manage to get our own back on Neville and Arthur every Tuesday night,” Watson said with a smile. “At the airport they teach us to fly, but in the studio we teach them about television.”

I talked to Noele as she stepped out of the pink-and-grey Auster which she had just taxied to the club headquarters. She looked confident.

“I’ve always nursed a secret ambition to fly,” she told me. “I think it’s good for all of us to learn something different occasionally, and flying is something that’s within reach of everybody.”

Penzer and Birch told me that it takes from eight to 10 hours to learn to fly solo, but getting a pilot’s licence means flying a total of 40 hours. Before she can fly solo, Noele will have become proficient in take-offs, climbing and descending turns, stalls and circuit procedure. All navigation has to be done in a pupil’s spare time.

Will Noele carry on flying to get her pilot’s licence?

“I’d love to,” she admitted. “But it’s all a question of finding the time.”

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I suppose we are cheating a bit, having our party early, but everyone is having such a rip-roaring time that I can certainly claim the means are justifying the end.

I can smell the cold roast turkey the chefs are carving, there is the friendly clink of wine glasses and the hubble-bubble of show business talk — all the ingredients that go to make a first-class party.

And who better to be our hostess than Noele Gordon, the popular Lunch Box star whose birthday falls on Christmas Day.

I say I hope too many people don’t give her a joint birthday-Christmas present. She grins and says she hopes so, too.

She tells me: “This will be a specially happy Christmas, because I shall have my family round me for the first time since before the war. My mother, my aunt, uncle and nephew will all be with me in Birmingham.”

I move to comedian Jimmy Wheeler, sporting a king-size cigar. He adjusts his paper hat and sips his wine, and says: “I’m having a rest this year.

“Instead of pantomime, I shall be appearing in a Christmas show at Southampton with Frankie Vaughan. We worked together in the summer.

“It’s the first Christmas in 35 years that I haven’t been in pantomime. In the New Year, I’m off to Australia. It’s my bank manager’s idea. He told me to go to a place where they don’t know my gags.”

I find David Whitfield talking to Noele Gordon about Robinson Crusoe. He plays Crusoe in a Birmingham pantomime. He tells me: “I’m trying to familiarise myself with the Birmingham dialect. Noele is helping me. She’s very good at it.”

David, following the latest trend in pantomime, plays Principal Boy. After the Christmas Eve opening night, he is driving to Hull to spend Christmas Day with his family. Then an early start back to be in time for the Boxing Day matinee.

David is proud of Hull. “Look at the stars it has produced,” he says, counting off on his fingers Ronnie Hilton, Ian Carmichael, Freddie Sales, Patricia Bredin and Brian Rix.

And there, standing right beside me, is lovely and attractive Shirley, one of the three Kaye Sisters, and every bit as proud of her home town Hull as singer David.

The three girls are not going to let their London West End cabaret engagement interfere with Christmas. They have planned a traditional Christmas dinner together.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, they gaze round the room.

“This is some reunion,” they chorus. “David, Lauri and George were with us in a Blackpool show last summer.”

Lauri is Lauri Lupino Lane, and George is George Truzzi.

Lauri and George, slapstick comedians of the old school, are surprisingly quiet off stage. But Noele soon talks them into doing a balancing act with a pile of plates.

“I think the way you smashed all those plates on the stage is adorable,” says Noele, with a laugh. “Why haven’t you brought some along for the party?”

Lauri grins. “We would have done — but there wasn’t room with Jimmy Wheeler in the car as well!”

I reckon I am now on my fourth mince-pie, and I am in a group with those Lunch Box stalwarts Jerry Allen and his TV Trio. Like David Whitfield, Jerry has a pretty tight-packed Christmas schedule, and is driving back and forwards to his home in St Albans, Herts, to see his family.

“There’s plenty of work to be done for the Christmas and Boxing Day editions,” says Jerry reflectively.

“Has anyone got a helicopter I can hire?”

I hear Jimmy Wheeler offer his, but I see Jerry does not believe him, though he hands him a sandwich to show no ill-feeling. Producer Reg Watson is enjoying himself, too. He tells me all about the bumper Christmas show : “We’ll be visiting Toyland,” he says.

“Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Fairy Queen and the Wicked Witch will be there, not forgetting Little Bo-peep, Jack and Jill and Humpty-Dumpty. Then there’s a ballet sequence with toy soldiers, and the Alpha Olde Tyme Music-Hall will put on its Christmas show.

“Apart from the usual gang, we’re adding the Concords vocal group, Jean Morton — who will play the Fairy Queen — and the MacTwecdles. Just try keeping these characters out of a special show! We’re very happy to have Eula Parker with us. She was in Australia this time last year.”

Dulcie Sawyer, one of the Christmas show dancers, will have one of the quickest changes in show business. She has just a few seconds to change from “Les Sylphides” to “Cinderella.”

Now the party is at its rip-roaring height. Jimmy Wheeler is giving the Kaye Sisters turkey and telling them: “That’s yer lot.”

David Whitfield is handing round wine. Noele is chatting to Lauri and George, while Lionel Rubin, of Jerry Allen’s Trio, is climbing into Father Christmas gear.

We have caught the Christmas spirit, and viewers will catch it, too, when they see the programme.

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Television is still a young medium. We believe the future will bring opportunities for further expansion. We look forward to the stimulation and challenge of competition.

ATV are convinced that present restrictions on hours of transmissions should be lifted. The need for this freedom is urgent: it is of prime importance in the Midlands, a region in which there is more shift-working than anywhere else in the country.

Shift workers are as entitled to have a service of entertainment in their homes as those who work routine hours. We would like to provide that service. They should be allowed to watch television when they are relaxing at home in daytime.

We favour true freedom of the air. This means withdrawing restrictions so that we can cater for viewers’ needs at all times.

An end of present regulations would bring increased benefits through opportunities to expand the range of our programmes. Restrictions deny these developments.

Daytime programmes — notably “Lunch Box” and occasional relays of top-class sport — have proved conclusively that there is a vast audience anxious to watch TV at “off peak” times.

More ATV programmes will be screened when we are allowed to put them on the air.

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Daytime television is another enterprise introduced by ATV. First in its field, and still leading it, is that gay and informal light entertainment “Lunch Box”. It was produced first in September 1956, soon after our Midlands’ service began and has remained high in viewers’ esteem ever since.

“Lunch Box” reached its 1,000th performance in September 1960. Still the fan-mail pours in.

The secret of its remarkable and consistent appeal? Team-work by regular artistes and “star” visitors, backed by the enthusiasm of all associated with its production. At the start a high professional standard was set by hostess Noele Gordon and the enterprising Jerry Allen and his Trio who provide the musical backing. Their standards are the best: they have never flagged.

Its repute is such that internationally-famed stars visiting the Midlands welcome opportunities to appear in this gay informal midday programme. It is famous for its “Memory Lane” features, its anniversary greetings and the liveliness of its sketches.

Every week “Lunch Box” fans come to the studio for the “Open House” performances before studio audiences. They flock in their thousands to welcome Noele and the “Gang” whenever “Lunch Box” is produced as an outside broadcast. When the programme was relayed from Nottingham Forest football ground the attendance was officially estimated at 27,000

“Lunch Box” thrives on its success. It has been waterborne (on a River Severn cruise) and has been to parks, works and recreation grounds, to a R.A.F. station.

It has visited the circus, Dudley Zoo — and it’s been on ice!

Look Around

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Among other successes she played more than 1,000 performances as Meg Brockie in “Brigadoon”, and thrived on the long-running “Let’s Face It”, “The Lisbon Story” and the late C. B. Cochrane’s “Big Ben”. She was honoured by selection to appear in the Royal Command Performance in 1949.

From the stage she went to America to study television techniques and joined ATV on her return as adviser on women’s programmes.

“Though I knew the Midlands well before I.T.V. programmes began here, I have been astonished by the immediate and tremendous impact ATV programmes made”, she says.

“I soon became convinced of television’s power to transform social life. Midlanders are very friendly people … I know that from the letters they write, from their calls and their greetings.

“Their response is whole-hearted and sincere. Through the screen, I feel I am welcomed into their homes as a friend. No-one who has shared an outside broadcast—such as when we tour “Lunch Box” — can have any doubt about that welcome.

“It’s equally spontaneous when audiences come to Aston to see shows produced. Requests for personal appearances pour in, and I would accept more if there were more than seven days in a week or 24 hours in a day.

“The splendid support we get from the studio back room boys and girls helps to strengthen this contact between performers and the audience at home. It’s delightful to share such experiences”.

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He took over when Noele and Jerry Allen’s “gang” went to Woburn Abbey, best known of England’s stately homes, to present the show as an outside broadcast. The vast Abbey provided a fine backcloth for a performance on the terraces, watched by a crowd of 6,000 visitors. The Duke soon proved his skill as host—and vocalist!

He paid ATV this tribute :

“Everyone was so friendly and helpful that the week was a pleasure as well as a duty. How I admire the ‘Lunch Box’ gang, the producers and technical staff! If I get a chance to come back I shall certainly take it”.

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There is such a diversity of tastes and interests that one TV channel cannot guarantee to please all the people all the time. But it can — indeed it must — plan such a range of output that its fare will appeal to the majority and still provide a comprehensive service to meet special demands and preferences.

ATV in the Midlands are well aware of these responsibilities. Audience research has proved conclusively the measure of our success in fulfilling them.

Yet audience research is not the only source of assessment. Letters from viewers pour into our Birmingham offices each week.

A local programme has attracted as many as 36,000 letters. “Lunch Box” has had an average monthly mail of 20,000 letters from midday viewers.

We welcome them all as evidence of public interest. All are studied. Many add helpful suggestions to their encouragement. Most letters express appreciation: naturally we find these heartening. But we welcome all suggestions, especially those which are constructive.

The personal link with viewers is invaluable.

Audiences come to see shows produced at the Alpha Television Studios, and ATV personalities go out to “meet the people”. Such favourites as Noele Gordon, Jean Morton, Pat Cox, Pat Astley and Caroline Lloyd are family friends in thousands of Midland homes.

Invitations pour in asking them to attend social functions and to make “personal appearances”. They accept as many as they can. If they accepted them all they would have no time to appear on TV!

Their engagement lists are heavily booked for a year ahead with attendances at garden fetes, parties and social events of all kinds.

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