And as far as that same audience is concerned, there's never been any doubt that this affection is mutual.  Of all the Crossroads characters there's no denying that when it comes to sex appeal David Hunter is definately topping the bill in most viewer's hearts.  The trouble is, this special popularity can lead to problems.

 

Ronnie Allen takes up the story.  "David's got a very strong relationship going with a journalist called Kelly who is played by Justine Lord, a very lovely actress and a beautiful girl.  The situation is that they're the sort of people who live independent lives with their own careers.  At the moment she's in Peru and then she comes back after a while and then she's off again.  The thing is, this kind of on-off situation is what the audiences like.  There's a tremendous problem: many people really don't want David Hunter to be married."

 

Not only do many people not want David Hunter married, but when things did look like coming to a romantic conclusion with Kelly, many viewers wrote in complaining.  Some, it appears, even accused Ronnie, as David, of being unfaithful to them!  This kind of involvement with the programme is something that Ronnie Allen finds very important, though often rather worrying.  What with people who write in for secretarial jobs at the Motel, or try to book themselves the Banqueting Hall for a Christmas party or accuse him of infidelity, there's never any chance of David Hunter feeling unwanted.  As Ronnie Allen admits,  "Sometimes it really is quite a frightening responsibility."

   

But, responsibility or not, Ronnie Allen has nothing to complain about in his Crossroads role.  And he knows that while Ronnie Allen is only 'David Hunter' when he's in the TV studios, thers's no doubt that he has contributed a great deal to forming the character of the suave Motel manager.  "I think that is inevitable.  If you work in a show for five years an awful lot of your own personality goes into it.  Then the people who write the scripts watch what you're doing and say to each other 'Oh yes, Ron does that ...' and then they write in what I do.  Because of this attention by the scriptwriters certain elements of my personality do form the character of David Hunter."

 

Some part of David Hunter, on the other hand, have absolutely nothing to do with the actor who portrays him.  "David is meant to be a whiz-kid businessman," says Ronnie Allen, "but I could never run a Motel.  I think I could put on a performance of greeting people at the door and making sure everyone was comfortable, but as to the massive technical side of things - VAT, ordering food and so on - I haven't got a clue."