The woman you love ... and the people you love to hate

Noele Gordon scored a notable triumph in 1969 when she was the only woman to appear in the TV Times Top Ten list of most popular performers. She was placed eighth despite the fact that Crossroads was not fully networked.

In 1970 viewers again demonstrated their affection for Noele by voting her into the top ten - and this time in seventh place.

... and the people you love to hate

There's a lesson for the nasties of Crossroads. It's a simple "Don't be beastly to the people viewers admire."

Two players who stirred up trouble were soon aware of viewers' resentment. They became characters women fans love to hate.

Claire Owen, who played the blonde American woman Louise Borelli, was admired on screen but not always off it. Her arrival shattered the engagement of Meg Richardson and Hugh Mortimer.

In a Birmingham club she was having dinner with her husband-to-be. A woman came over from another table and told her: "You're a right bitch, aren't you? Why don't you get back to America and leave Meg alone? We can do without your sort."

When she went shopping women customers immediately identified her with her screen role and advised her to pack it up.

"But," said Claire, "if the women don't like me the men seem to have a soft spot for Louise."

Graham Rigby "suffers" too, from the impact of the scheming, disruptive influence of that go-getting character, Charlie Forward. Thought three years separated his Crossroads appearances his trouble-making lingered in many memories.

"People still brand me as the shocker who tried to play a dirty trick on Dick Jarvis," he said. "And I've been told I ought to be ashamed of the way I spoke to secretary Janice.

"I can't 'lose' Charlie Forward even when I go to a pub for a quiet drink. Fontunately there are not many massive women who appeared from nowhere, grasped me by the collar and warned, 'If you don't leave that girl alone I'll strangle you.' "

Even buying a birthday card wasn't as simple a duty as it should have been. A girl assistant who turned to get a box from the shelf suddenly said: "I know that voice. You're that shocker Charlie Forward - and you can go somewhere else. I'm not serving you."

And she didn't.

In a supermarket a supervisor told Graham's wife: "He seems nice enough here, but how do you manage to live with him at other times?"

He would have enjoyed a holiday more, he adds, if a group of youths on the beach had not threatened to "sort him out."

It seems the world loves to hate a villain. And as long as that is so, "villains" are going to get a backlash when they leave the studio.