A humming bird hovers over his head, the afternoon sun blazes down, and the towering palm trees dance gently in the cool breeze.  "Isn't this bliss," sighs Ronald Allen, contentedly chinking the ice in his glass of mineral water, as he sits beside the swimming pool.

 

Yes, life in Beverly Hills sure beats struggling to keep the ailing Crossroads Motel running in beautiful downtown Birmingham.

 

It's over two years since old smoothie himself, the dashing David Hunter, and his glamorous wife, Barbara, got their marching orders from the Crossroads bosses in a massive motel shake-up. 

 

Ronnie, who played the unctuous motel boss for 14 years, and Sue Lloyd, the actress who first played his wife on screen, and has since become his real-life love, were forced to bow out despite angry protests from fans who flooded Central Television with letters begging producer Philip Bowman to have a change of heart.

 

At the time Ronnie and Sue were angry and sad.  Like the 13 million Crossroads fans, they couldn't understand why they had to go.  And, if that was a shock for viewers, then the fact that the show will come off the air in March must have left them - as well as the cast - reeling.

 

But as Sue and Ronnie lap up the Californian lifestyle it's not surprising they smile broadly when they say:  "We can assure everyone there is life after Crossroads ... and it's certainly fun!"

 

Since they left the show - with David and Barbara supposedly sailing inot the sunset to start a new life runing a hotel in Bermuda - they've been to-ing and fro-ing across the Atlantic.  "It's an ideal existence," beams Ronnie. 

 

At 56, he's still a handsome man.  Tall, slim, with a tan that enhances his blue eyes, it's no surprise that an American television company snapped him up last year for a starring role in an afternoon soap, Another World.  He lost the job because of a delay in getting his work permit, yet the television company was so keen they drew up a six-figure contract hoping to find him a part in something else.

 

"I was paid vast sums of money to sit around and do nothing but top up my suntan," he says.  Nothing did come up, and the contract has run out, but he's still hopeful that something similar will turn up soon.