Sally Adcock, who plays waitress and Salvation Army girl Jane Smith, is certainly one of those popular visitors.
Sally came into the series about four years ago, "just for a week. Then a year later I came back again and I've been
at the Motel on and off ever since." Her last break from the series came when the ever-imaginative scriptwriters gave
her a nasty case of pneumonia and sent her off to a convalescent home. In fact, as is often the case with Crossroads
stars, Sally was taking time off the show to get in a little acting for the live theatre.
Like all the Motel's varied characters Jane Smith has her own very special part to play. "She's the daughter of
a disturbed background. I don't quite know what her father was doing, but it's implied that her mother was a prostitute."
Quite the reverse, although no doubt the result of this background, Jane herself has joined the Salvation Army and her career
at Crossroads has always been noted for the time she spends taking care of all manner of people in need of care and
affection.
"She's a very sweet character," says Sally. "At the moment she's trying to get justice for another poor chap who's
been blamed for something he hasn't done, mugging, gang fights, that sort of thing. She's the only one who believes
in him." And no doubt, the Crossroads plot permitting, Jane Smith will manage once again to see that justice
is done, however tough the task may be.
Naturally, Sally Adcock's own background is hardly much like that of the character she plays. In the time-honoured
theatrical tradition, she was on stage almost as soon as she could walk, if not actually sooner. "My mother was in the
theatre. Though she's retired now. Anyway I was taken on stage when I was just about a year old and after that
I simply carried on."
