Television heart-throb Ronald Allen is quitting ITV's long-running soap opera, Crossroads.

 

He is giving up his £25,000 a year role as smooth motel director David Hunter, for the stage.  Ronald, 48, who has been with the Queen's favourite TV serial for 10 years, said:  "My agent is talking to managements about plays I might do.  Nothing has been signed yet.  Obviously I couldn't do these plays and Crossroads.  So yes, it could mean I'm out of the serial for some time."

 

Already, the scriptwriters have devised a plot for Ronald to leave the show, which has a weekly audience of 26 million.  He is likely to depart for Algiers, where his screen son is in trouble over drugs.

 

Ronald played the suave editor in Compact, the BBC saga about a woman's magazine, before clocking in with Crossroads.

 

Two years ago he was heartbroken when his friend of 20 years, actor Brian Hankins, died while they were on holiday together.

 

Ronald, a bachelor, has been sharing his home in Edgbaston, Birmingham, with his screen wife, actress Sue Lloyd.  Both have denied any real-life romance.  She sees her boyfriend in London at weekends.  Ronald said:  "The personal angle has nothing to do with my decision to leave Crossroads.  Actors in such serials do need to take sabbaticals."

 

Over the years, the series has helped unknowns find stardom, but Crossroads also has a casualty list of characters.  Ann George, who played Amy Turtle, the motel gossip, was dropped after 11 years.  John Bentley was removed from his part as Hugh Mortimer, husband of leading character Meg, played by Noele Gordon.

 

Actor John Forgeham, tough garage boss Jim Baines, quit the series after four years because he said, he was "fed up with being messed about."  Actress Zeph Gladstone, the motel's sexy hairdresser Vera, also left the show.  In May last year, a cloud hung over the future of actor Roger Tonge, who plays handicapped Sandy Richardson.  But Roger, 34, kept the part he has played since the series began, after a short lay-off.