WAS IT CROSSROADS? 2001-2003

The Crossroads Appreciation Society's Mike Garrett treads into territory that many Crossroads forum's and message boards have feared to tread, with the often heated debate of 'is new Crossroads really Crossroads?'

Was it Crossroads? That totally depends on your age I suppose. If you were of the age that you didn't know another version existed before 2001, then to you yes of course its Crossroads and so it should be. The problem rests with those old enough, and there are lots of them, who remember the original series. And to be fair you cannot compare any part of the original with the new one because they are both very much of their time. Success wise Crossroads and the main star Noele Gordon won many awards, I suppose most the equivalent of the Soap Awards today, so it would be unfair to compare it to the new show which wasn't given time to grow by ITV and gain its own achievements.

Are old fans right to complain? Well yes they are, people wrote weekly to Andy Allen complaining about what he did in 1988 by axing it so I suppose they do have a good point in stating what they think. At the same time, I don't think new fans should compare Joanne Farrell to Noele Gordon or Jane Gurnett to Jane Rossington as you just cannot do it. All of them are excellent actors, but all of them have their own style.

New Crossroads wasn't to the old Crossroads fans what they wanted back or wanted to see, one commented to me "I battled 13 years to get it back, and when the show with its name arrived I didn't enjoy it." And, maybe, they never would enjoy it. The fact is there is so many versions of Crossroads that you could never please everyone, so maybe it was right for Carlton to draw a line and simply make a show which echoed the old days, but very much looked to the future - this is something new Crossroads did achieve.

Its nothing new for old Crossroads fans to take a dislike to changes made, in 1985 and 1988 the show underwent numerous changes, and many fans disapproved. Old fans and new fans in general get along fine. Those who haven't seen any of the old series cannot really compare or complain about it, and I don't think many of the new fans realise what an institution the show was.

In those days there was only three TV channels (imagine it) and Crossroads had a bigger profile. Today's television is filled with networks and much more choice means less viewers to each station. Old Crossroads cannot be over-ridden by the new versions, almost 24 years compared to under three years of new versions cannot erase the "glory days" however that doesn't mean new Crossroads isn't important. For nearly four million people it was important. New Crossroads, I think is more of a spin-off series. Carlton didn't want to bring back the old series, so, yes, a spin-off by all accounts is what it was. And well that wasn't so bad was it? I mean it ended up being ITV's most popular daytime programme so it was far from a failure.

There are many debates about the rights and wrongs of resurrecting a legend. But well, maybe if Carlton had brought the show back fully, and not made a spin-off it might have been more popular - it certainly would have been more popular with the old fans - but who knows, it may have failed miserably if it had taken that route.

So in summing up. For new fans, it would be Crossroads, its all they knew as Crossroads at the time. For fans who watched in the 1960s and 1970s it wasn't to most anything like the show they'd loved. It had too many continuity errors in it, and further to that, the disregard for the original by Carlton was clear from the start.

The press and TV critics didn't take to it once the hype had died down. They wanted to see the Crossroads they'd been used to for 24 years and this 'new show' wasn't meeting their expectations either, so they in some cases knocked it more than the original.

Still at least the show did come back in some form, and it gave new and old fans another load of episodes and memories to enjoy.

- Written By Mike Garrett with assistance from Tom Dearnley-Davidson