"There have been so many highlights.  For me, one of the most exciting times was when we all went to Venice to film the honeymoon of Jill and Adam.  We had a marvellous four days, even though most of the time was spent working!  We had to record one scene where Jill and Adam were sightseeing and visited the top of a bell-tower.  Neither Tony Adams, who plays Adam, nor myself have a good head for heights so we were terrified when we realised we had to stand on a tiny platform at the top of this tower. 

 

"There was only a little guard rail to stop us falling off and we clung to this very tightly.  There wasn't room for everyone to huddle on the platform so producer, Jack Barton went to the top of a nearby tower.  He issued his directions to us with the aid of coloured handkerchiefs! 

 

"When he waved a red hankie we had to point one way, a white hankie meant we had to gaze in another direction!"

 

Unorthodox though it was, it worked.  The end product was a sequence of shots which showed Jill and Adam excitedly pointing out the various sights of Venice from their vantage point.  Jane laughed.  "Tony and I were only too glad to get the scenes shot so we could return to ground level!"

 

Jane's daughter, Sorrel, now aged ten, also appears in the show as Jill's girl Sarah-Jane.  "She was born when Jill was married to Stan Harvey," Jane recalled.  "When I learned I was pregnant in real life, it was decided that Jill would have a baby too.  A decision was made to use my baby as the Crossroads new arrival so the plan was to wait and see whether I had a boy or a girl before writing that detail into the script.

 

"By coincidence, on the very day that the scene was being recorded where Stan, played by Ted Clayton, was to announce that the baby had been born, I went into labour.  I was in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.  The line in the script had been written so that Stan would walk in and say joyously 'Jill's had the baby.'  And this was to be recorded at 6.30pm.

 

"But very conveniently, Sorrel arrived at 5.30pm - an hour earlier - and within a few minutes a phone call was made from the hospital to the TV studios to announce the news.  That meant there was a quick change to the script and Stan walked on to proclaim 'It's a girl!'"

 

Looking to the future, Jane can foresee one slight problem in filming outdoor scenes.  That's the crowds of eager fans who gather.  "There was one occasion when we were filming an airport scene.  Jill was meeting Sarah-Jane who'd been on a visit to Germany.

 

"We chose Castle Donington to film those scenes and went there one Sunday morning.  Trouble was that while we were off having a pub lunch, it was announced on Radio Trent that we were at Castle Donington filming for Crossroads.

 

"We returned to find 5000 fans had gathered!  No matter how hard we tried we couldn't keep them all out of shot and in the end we had to give up.  All those scenes were cut."