5pm is not the time to show that sort of programme though in all fairness... the second series was essentially treated as an extension of CITV - almost like a CITV Teens bit.
The audience you get at that time are teens, students and unemployed people. It's not going to be your average Dallas and Dynasty viewer, is it? 5pm is going to effectively draw in the Neighbours lot.
And herein lies another point - it didn't have to be the best telly in the world, it just had be reasonably good.
Neighbours is, a lot of the time (some might say all of the time!) absoloutely rubbish - and certainly inferior to local rival Home & Away in terms of writing, production and cinematography. But it has an "X Factor" (sorry!) about it that causes people to still tune in night upon night at 5.35pm.
Telly at that time has to be mass-market, mass-appeal, lowest-common-denominator easy viewing over your dinner/homework in order for it to be commercially viable. Niche telly needs a niche market - one which is too small at 5pm to work sucessfully in a commercial execution.
Crossroads Mk1 did have wobbly sets but only in its early years from the fire onwards (or even just before) the sets virtually didn't wobble - in fact I fear that Coronation Street sets wobbled more than Crossroads during the same period after the fire!!!!
BTW I feel that I must revamp what I said as I believe....
Crossroads Mk1 was up to Nicola Freeman taking over the Hotel
Crossroads Mk2 didn't last long and lasted up to Bomber Lancaster taking over the hotel.
Crossroads Mk3 was the shortest period and lasted until it finshed for the first time.
Crossroads Mk4 was when it returned after its 13 year hiatus
Crossroads Mk5 the "gay" version and totally disliked by ALL sections of the community.
Therefore I should have said ..."Bring back Crossroads Mk4"
Night and Day - I Totally agree that it did actually work better as a stand alone 60 minute weekly drama and it should have had a slot straight after the news (best would have been Tuesday's at 11pm) and not anytime during night-time!!!
London Bridge - which was shown on Granada for a short while should have continued as a Networked daytime soap. That was quite a decent soap and such a shame it was taken off Granada - because Granada wanted to show it's Sky One soap Springhill and then its religious-based soap (Revelations) - both of which failed long before London Bridge finished.
In fact ITV could have had a real decent soap hour during its daytime schedules.....
Monday and Tuesday 1700 Crossroads; 1730 London Bridge
Wednesday 1700 High Road
Thursday and Friday 1700 Crossroads; 1730 London Bridge
whilst NIght and Day (as said earlier) shown on Tuesday's at 11pm
But wasn't it all a dream? Wasn't "Angel" (Jane Asher) just a check-out girl at a supermarket?
It wouldn't be filmed in Nottingham, since the Crossroads of 2001 was filmed at Lenton Lane Studios... which are now defunct (part of Nottingham Uni now)
Im confused as to whether Mk 2 and MK 3 were a dream? As far as im concerned it was just Mk 3 that was a dream as Yvonne Grace had nothing to do with Mk 2 so had night right to say that was a dream. And why would Angel have dreamed about characters like Des and Minty from Mk 2 whom she probabaly never met.
However the good thing if MK 2 was a dream is that Jill is still alive!
There was confusion over this, so the Fan Club asked Yvon for details, she didn't reply but the 'Crossroads' production team sent a statement out that said the only episodes that were part of the dream were the Carlton episodes 2001-2003, the original series was not part of the dream.
The dream is all a bit odd anyway, you have a 'star of Crossroads' yet the supermarket is in Kings Oak, so its all just like the revival - messed up from the start to end.
Three things I still want to know from Mk2/Mk4 version (although it was all supposedly part of a dream!)
1. The outcome of the court case where Phil killed his violent dad...
2. The new American investor (forgot his name but he supposedly died and left the hotel to Jane Asher's character in Mk3/Mk5) - would he had ever turned the hotel into the mardi-gras it became in Mk3/Mk5 or with his astute business head would he have made it more the old style Kings Oak Country Hotel (like near the end of Mk1/Mk3) - hmm let me think about this one...
3. Was Jill's body ever found or did she mysteriously disappear and a strangers body was found. Again, the same goes for Adam Chance in the crypt fire (hmm sounds familiar to Emmerdal's Church fire!!!)
If they do air a new soap at 5pm, i don't think it will survive. I mean it could be excellent, just what some of us are looking for - but most viewers know which road they take each evening.
I would like to have seen CD:UK take the 5pm slot. Mon - Fri would have been a request type show with presenters (request classic CDUK performances).On Friday could have been the CD:UK Live (like Saturday).
If they do air a new soap at 5pm, i don't think it will survive. I mean it could be excellent, just what some of us are looking for - but most viewers know which road they take each evening.
I would like to have seen CD:UK take the 5pm slot. Mon - Fri would have been a request type show with presenters (request classic CDUK performances).On Friday could have been the CD:UK Live (like Saturday).
5pm slot could have looked like....
Monday - CD:UK
Tuesday - Everwood
Wednesday - TV Weekly
Thursday - Kick Off/Sportsweek
Friday - Entertainment Today
If they do air a new soap at 5pm, i don't think it will survive. I mean it could be excellent, just what some of us are looking for - but most viewers know which road they take each evening.
I would like to have seen CD:UK take the 5pm slot. Mon - Fri would have been a request type show with presenters (request classic CDUK performances).On Friday could have been the CD:UK Live (like Saturday).
5pm slot could have looked like....
Monday - CD:UK
Tuesday - Everwood
Wednesday - TV Weekly
Thursday - Kick Off/Sportsweek
Friday - Entertainment Today
It could have but every slot on any channel from 9am to 6pm is exactly the same Monday to Friday, there's no place for once a week series
None of those programmes would get any higher than the 1.5m average
With such strong competition everything they put in that slot will be beaten and therefore be declared as a flop in the tabloids
Public reaction for Richard Hammond's Five O'Clock Show wasn't great at the time, funny how many people want it to return now
If they do air a new soap at 5pm, i don't think it will survive. I mean it could be excellent, just what some of us are looking for - but most viewers know which road they take each evening.
I would like to have seen CD:UK take the 5pm slot. Mon - Fri would have been a request type show with presenters (request classic CDUK performances).On Friday could have been the CD:UK Live (like Saturday).
5pm slot could have looked like....
Monday - CD:UK
Tuesday - Everwood
Wednesday - TV Weekly
Thursday - Kick Off/Sportsweek
Friday - Entertainment Today
It could have but every slot on any channel from 9am to 6pm is exactly the same Monday to Friday, there's no place for once a week series
None of those programmes would get any higher than the 1.5m average
With such strong competition everything they put in that slot will be beaten and therefore be declared as a flop in the tabloids
Public reaction for Richard Hammond's Five O'Clock Show wasn't great at the time, funny how many people want it to return now
At least they would be getting more viewers than at this moment in time!!!!!
Why shouldn't there be weekly series shown during the weekday?
Maybe its about time ITV experimented in bringing back weekly series to its daytime schedule - possibly could get a nice surprise. It's only through experimenting that they can then judge what the consumer (oops! I mean viewer) actually wants.
Remember ITV were only following Channel 4 and BBC in stripped schedules (once again following and not actually taking the lead!) and it was since they introduced these stripped schedules that ITVs number of daytime viewers decreased. The afternoon used to be great on ITV with something different on more or less everyday (and that included the Aussie soaps).
I have never dismissed Richard Hammonds Show and always thought it was a good show but the problem is the time its on - I'd love to have seen it as an early evning magazine show (say between 6pm and 7pm - but News is in the way - but could have easily been repeated on ITV2 at that time slot instead of never ending Judge Judy!)
If they do air a new soap at 5pm, i don't think it will survive. I mean it could be excellent, just what some of us are looking for - but most viewers know which road they take each evening.
I would like to have seen CD:UK take the 5pm slot. Mon - Fri would have been a request type show with presenters (request classic CDUK performances).On Friday could have been the CD:UK Live (like Saturday).
5pm slot could have looked like....
Monday - CD:UK
Tuesday - Everwood
Wednesday - TV Weekly
Thursday - Kick Off/Sportsweek
Friday - Entertainment Today
It could have but every slot on any channel from 9am to 6pm is exactly the same Monday to Friday, there's no place for once a week series
It wasnt that long ago that some afternoon slots, particularly around 2.30pm had different programmes each day. And even in 2002 we had Crossroads Mon-Thurs and something different on a Friday in the 5.30pm slot.
Three things I still want to know from Mk2/Mk4 version (although it was all supposedly part of a dream!)
1. The outcome of the court case where Phil killed his violent dad...
Never established what the outcome was but Phil didn't do the killing. I think it was Sam IIRC who did the deed and set Phil up.
Quote:
2. The new American investor (forgot his name but he supposedly died and left the hotel to Jane Asher's character in Mk3/Mk5) - would he had ever turned the hotel into the mardi-gras it became in Mk3/Mk5 or with his astute business head would he have made it more the old style Kings Oak Country Hotel (like near the end of Mk1/Mk3) - hmm let me think about this one...
IIRC it was a bloke called Victor who poured money into the investment, turned out he was the father of one of the managers of the 2001/2 hotel, then died and left the hotel to some complete stranger.
Quote:
3. Was Jill's body ever found or did she mysteriously disappear and a strangers body was found. Again, the same goes for Adam Chance in the crypt fire (hmm sounds familiar to Emmerdal's Church fire!!!)
Jill's body I believe was identified by the first Sarah-Jane who turned out not to be Sarah-Jane so it may not have been Jill first time round. The second Sarah-Jane just turned up one day in the middle of a wedding and confused everybody. As to Adam Chance, the character's body was never found BUT I did read that the actor was due to return to the Yvon Era but it didn't last that long.
However the good thing if MK 2 was a dream is that Jill is still alive!
Well, it was that cruise-ship girl (whatever her name was) who was only pretending to be Sarah-Jane Harvey, that identified Jill's body. It was obvious to me that they were leaving it open for a "Jill's not really dead" plot at a later point.
So, Mk2 doesn't have to be a dream in order for Jill to still be alive!
