There seems little to make the part attractive - a former wife-beater, works for a woman boss and puts in long hours in an unglamorous motel beset by the inhabitants personal problems.

 

But Ronald Allen, who plays David Hunter in ATVs 'Crossroads', has plenty of offers of bed and bawd from women viewers.  "One read something like, 'You can put your shoes under my bed anytime my husband's on night shift,'" he says. 

 

"Some are even more explicit, some are veiled, some extremely pleasant, charming invitations to visit.  I've never followed them up."

 

"Some letters are quite strange.  People write to me as David Hunter asking if there's any chance of a job at the Motel.  We don't know if they're just taking the mickey so we always answer politely, saying there are no vacancies, in case they really have got carried away with it all."

 

Even off the set, relaxing during a short break, every second of Ronnie's day counts.  After all, it is a 46 hour, five day week, 10 months of the year.

 

"That's not the end of it.  A lot of spare time at home is spent learning the heavy weekly script."

 

Ronald, now in his early forties, has had a lot of practice working on soap operas.  He has been in them for 13 years.  He was the millionaire magazine owner in the 'Compact' series in the early sixties, the football club chairman in 'United' and has been the urbane co-director of the Crossroads Motel for six years.

 

He does not mind being compared to Hunter.  "After all, he's not a rapist or murderer," he says.  "Hunter did knock his wife about a bit, but it was a long time ago.  She was a bit of a bitch, so the viewers supported him."

 

Hunter is fairly normal compared with many of the Crossroads cast.  Alcoholism, bigamy, attempted murder have all been featured in the show.  He has the occasional torrid, short-lived affair but otherwise his life revolves round finance and staff problems. 

 

"Hunter steers clear of big trouble.  He's very boring.  His problems are business and women.  The planners feel that women viewers like to see Hunter available.  He's more useful unmarried."

 

There's' no woman in Ronald's life.  He has never married.  "It just hasn't happened, simple as that.  I can't look into the future and say it won't happen, but I don't think it will.  I never had the desire to be a father.  I'm not even a very good uncle.  As you go on with your own freedom it becomes a pretty valuable possession."

 

Ronald has four older sisters but he has never seen much of his family since leaving home as a young man.  "I was brought up in Reading and as I was the youngest I was left alone to do my own thing.  It was just an average, middle-class home - dull, neutral."

 

Ronald leads an almost monastic existence, rarely leaving home except to see close friends.  He travels everywhere by taxi - he has no car - and dresses in un-Hunterish clothes, sometimes with dark glasses to complete the disguise.