On this Day 1981: ATV record the ‘Crossroads Motel Fire’

On this Day: October 13th, 1981

Anne Leuchars interviews Crossroads producer, Jack Barton at Long Marston airfield, where the ATV outside broadcast unit were shooting the ‘apparent’ final scenes to feature the character Meg Mortimer played by Noele Gordon.

The footage shows an ATV security officer locking the script away in a safe and scenes being shot on location at Long Marston. Jack Barton talks about the press interest in the story and the numerous endings that are being shot to confuse them.

In the end, while the motel did burn down – scenes shown on November 4th 1981 – Meg survived the fire having left the building sometime earlier. She was found alive and well by her daughter Jill (Jane Rossington) on the QE2 in an episode aired on November 11th. This episode also featured Stuart White (BBC Look East) as the voice of the QE2 tannoy.

Crossroads launched in 1964 with Noele Gordon as the matriarch Meg who ran a Midland motel in the village of Kings Oak. The series continued under Central Television from 1982 until 1988 when it was decided, while the show was the third watched soap behind EastEnders and Coronation Street, to end it in order for Central to produce more lavish drama productions, such as Inspector Morse.