The Challenge of live television, as it had mostly to be at that time, was immense.  There was little room for mistakes and many a lesser actor fell by the wayside in those early days.  But John Bentley's decision turned up trumps.  Before very long he was in Africa, filming all thirty nine episodes of that fantastically successful TV series, African Patrol.

 

John will tell you that his meeting with Noele Gordon was fortunate in the extreme.  He felt himself almost unworthy of the call to be interviewed by Noele in her Midland Profile TV show and will still insist now that there can't have been many interesting people around that day!

 

The producer of the programme was Reg Watson and it was he who later on was chosen to produce Crossroads.  At first, the Crossroads characters were kept at a fairly local level.  But when the idea came up to bring another man into Meg Richardson's life, it was decided he was to be a little more worldly.  And so Hugh Mortimer was created.

 

But who was to play him?  Reg and Noele's minds went back to the chat show and - of course! - who better than John Bentley, a man with superb acting ability and world-wide experience.  John agreed to play the part and the famous relationship began ... from then on, it was Hugh and Meg!

 

John Bentley takes up the story:  "When I first came into Crossroads I'd already been in the business for quite a number of years and I'd been in many tight spots in my time.  I shall never forget, however, my first day's rehearsal.  It was snowing and I had tonsilitis - in fact, to put no finer point on it, I felt absolutely dreadful.  Then I took a look at the schedule.  The work load was staggering and I just felt like going home!"  Luckily for Crossroads fans, he didn't.  

 

John sees Hugh Mortimer's character as being very different to his own.  He insists that he possesses little of the gambling instinct - or even the business flair - that so personifies the tough, uncompromising personality of Hugh.  However, now, he feels that time has rubbed away a few of the rough edges and that some of the John Bentley character is showing through.

 

Naturally, there can be problems when appearing in a series like Crossroads.  Many viewers follow the story with such conviction that they find it hard at times to separate fiction from reality.  John had his first taste of this when he was about to undertake his first-ever appearance as a solo artist.  He recounts:  "During one of the popularity streaks when things were swinging between Meg and Hugh, a certain gentleman engaged me for a couple of night's cabaret.  He didn't really know if I could do anything and for that matter, he probably didn't care.  He just hired me because Hugh was a popular character." 

 

John liked the idea.  It had been some years since he'd had the opportunity of singing, and the thought of two nights of cabaret appealed to him.  "I'd been written out of the programme for a month o two, and I must say that I don't as a habit watch it every evening.  Anyway, one day while I was working in the garden the phone rang and it was the promoter.  He said to me, 'Do you know that Hugh Mortimer's done the dirty on Meg?'  Well I didn't, but it gradually dawned on me that Hugh had obviously just erred badly in some way and with my television image in grave danger of falling disastrously in the popularity stakes, the man wanted to cancel the engagement."