The reason why Bay looks like an old friend is that the part of Mrs Rawlings is not her debut Crossroads role.  Originally, Bay White was ... but we'll let her tell it!

 

"Six and a half years ago I was in Crossroads for four months as quite a different character," recalls Bay in her ATV dressing room between rehearsals.  "I played Jeannie, who had a romance with Dick Jarvis.

 

"Jeannie was a little dressmaker and, I don't know how this has all tied up, but now Jill is a dressmaker and at that time she ran a boutique and I came in as an assistant dressmaker.  That is how I started, in 1969.  Then I was asked to rejoin the cast this January as Mrs Rawlings."

 

And how does Bay see her latest Crossroads character?

 

"She just works in the motel, but she's a sympathetic woman who cares about people.  I try to make her a fairly soft sort of person which I think is quite valid in the kitchen set-up within a motel environment where everyone is inter-dependent.

 

"I came in as an assistant cook to Mr Booth and I became a great friend of Carney's.  At first there seemed as if there might be a romance, but there wasn't because Mrs Rawlings is a war widow and she has decided not to marry again.  Her husband was killed in the desert and Carney was a soldier in the desert, and this makes a sort of bond between them."

 

A bond which I am sure every Crossroads fan hopes will keep Bay White returning to King's Oak as frequently as possible!