On this Day 1981: Noele Gordon has a happy farewell in Crossroads

On this Day: November 11th, 1981.

It’s forty years since Noele Gordon left Crossroads for the final time as a regular. The actress who had been with the show since episode one – and with ATV as a senior executive before the station even went on air – was sacked by producer Jack Barton in the summer of 1981. Her final episode was thought to have aired on November 4th, when the character was presumed to have died in a fire at her motel. However public outcry saw an ‘alternative’ ending issued instead.

The plot change saw Noele’s character of Meg Mortimer sail away on the QE2. This allowed for Noele to make another brief return in 1983. However, her ‘big comeback’ in 1985 wasn’t to be. Having signed up to return as a regular on the soap, Nolly died from Cancer before any scenes could be recorded.

Across 1981 there had been huge press coverage for Noele, with the majority of the public and press wanting the character to remain. The Sun and other tabloid papers launched ‘Save Our Meg’ campaigns, BBC Local Radio and some ILR commercial offerings also joined the support for Meg by playing Bill Buckley’s Meg is Magic protest song (it even made it onto Radio 2 nationally) while ATV was inundated with thousands of letters and telephone calls pleading that Noele be allowed to remain in the role. Jack however had other ideas…

In ATV Today, on the day, the programme spoke to Jack Barton about his various endings for Meg…