Friday, January 25, 2008
First love
Bungle writes: It's all about Crossroads for me - if ever a show epitomised LC then it's... well, it's Springhill actually, but Crossroads 2.0 and 3.0 were decent alternatives. No-one else even noticed 3.0... Paul Lang, The Independent, 03/12/07 Labels: Crossroads
"As I was watching Jane Asher, I thought, 'This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, but I love it; there must be other people out there who feel the same'."
No celebration of the first five years of lowculture can pass without a few words on the subject of Crossroads, ITV's spectacularly unsuccessful revival of the much-loved 70s soap. And, in the cold light of 2008, when we haven't watched it in roughly as long as this website has existed, it's actually quite difficult to remember just why we got quite as worked up as we did.
Yvon Grace, who had masterminded a last-ditch revamp of the already-revived soap, said at the time: "Crossroads is going to be escapist, sexy and fun – the television equivalent of an airport blockbuster. I've decided to be bold and make a 'Dallas' for tea-time. The hotel has moved on a year and there have been many changes. Viewers will be treated to a succession of stars, including Emma Noble, Linda Robson, Kate O'Mara, Lionel Blair and Tim Brooke-Taylor, who will be at the centre of some explosive guest storylines. Crossroads will be larger-than-life, brave, witty and shamelessly sexy!".
Well, when you put it like THAT, it's astonishing that the whole thing wasn't the TV hit of the year. After all, nothing says "sexy" quite like Lionel Blair and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
But we really did love it, and really did watch every single ridiculous episode. And here we are now, in a climate where an ITV1 prime-time comedy can happily chronicle the making of a supremely shit soap opera, then just as cheerfully make us sit through the resulting fiasco half an hour later. Maybe the only mistake Yvon Grace made was that she didn't make herself the star of the show. Or at least the show before the show about the show. All the post-modern, guilty pleasure, isn't-it-awful media cunts would have LOVED that.
And so would we.
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