This gave the writers ideas.  Who phoned?  Who was at the door?  Whole new story lines were developed that way.

 

Sir Lew said nothing.  In fact, Sir Lew said nothing for six years.

 

But his memory serves him rather better than a filing cabinet.

 

In 1964, Reg Watson was summoned to the presence.

 

"I'd heard," he says now, "a whisper that ATV were thinking of a daily serial and I pitied the poor devil who had to do it.

 

"Sir Lew mentioned a daily serial and I said I didn't know anything about daily serials and Sir Lew said:  'What about the time you told me about the wife picking up the phone?'

 

"I was astonished.  And then I was lumbered.  Sir Lew had approached, among other writers, Peter Ling and Hazel Adair who had come up with something called The Midland Road, about a widow with two children who ran a motel.  Her name was Meg Richardson. 

 

"We had long talks, but didn't like the title and ran a competition through a newspaper to find another one.

 

"In the event, the prize money went to charity.  I had submitted a dozen alternative titles, including Crossroads, and that was the one everybody liked.

 

Oddly enough, there were very few teething troubles and if there were, then perhaps we were too busy to notice them.

 

"The part of Meg Richardson fitted Noele Gordon like a glove.  She was the hostess of Lunch Box, a programme I started, and she was a personality, uncrowned queen of the Midlands.  But she had a theatrical background, too.

 

"Our problem was to switch 'Auntie Nolly' into Meg Richardson in the viewers' minds.

 

"We needn't have worried.  Right away she clicked as Meg Richardson.  But we did face a dramatic situation.  We couldn't find a Sandy Richardson to play Meg's son.

 

"We interviewed teenagers all over the country and we couldn't find him.  We passed beyond our deadline before we solved that one - by accident.  It sounds too phoney to be true. 

 

"A kid walked in when we were at conference.  He said he'd been sent to us by a cleaner he'd met on the steps outside, who told him, 'Oh yes, luv, go up them stairs and you'll find 'em.'

 

"He wandered in and we interviewed him.  We brought Noele in to see if they'd match up, and that boy had the toughest audience anyone could have!

 

"It's hard to believe he could just walk in off the street like that, ask for the part and be considered.

 

"That's how we found Roger Tonge, a Birmingham boy who was at drama school then.  He's turned out to be a fine young actor with a voice all his own.

 

"Jane Rossington, who plays Meg's daughter, didn't arrive for her interview on time - we were on the deadline then - and we were considering other actresses.  Jane came screaming in late, saying she'd missed her train or something.  Fortunately, she didn't miss the part.

 

"This casting was important because they were going to be a family - and one bad actor, one false note, and we'd have real problems."

 

The "family" have been together now longer than some families in real life.  And they're great friends.

 

They work together six days a week and they've become a close-knit community.

 

They have risen above the constant criticism which influenced them in the beginning.  However case-hardened the actor, criticism hurts.  He is vulnerable.

 

In what other profession can someone peer at your work, your craftmanship, and cry:  "This is a load of old rubbish" - and print it in a newspaper for all to see?

 

In the teeth of all that they have brought to life the image that Sir Lew Grade wanted for the Midlands.

 

For them, Crossroads is for real - as it is for the eleven million people who watch it four days a week.