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Edited February 2, 20232 yr by victoria foxton

I wasn't sure about Helena Bonham Carter. But she was quite good. The scene where Nolly gets her last script was very powerful. Nolly's picking up the pieces after her infamous sacking was very fascinating to watch. Sometimes the scenes have real depth. Other times it feels like a comedy.  Those shifts in tone can be a bit jarring. Nolly's friendship with Tony Adams was very sweet. In spite of its flaws Russell T Davies wrote a wonderful love letter to the iconic Noele Gordon.

Edited February 3, 20232 yr by victoria foxton

 

  

https://distinctnostalgia.buzzsprout.com/650596/12181166-crossroads-special-nolly-s-friend-tony-adams-on-his-time-at-the-midlands-motel

I watched the doc The Real Nolly prior to watching the three part series, which I would not recommend because it is a 45 minute TL:DR of the whole story.  I really enjoyed the miniseries.  HBC did Noelle dirty when it came to the singing because the real Nolly had a powerful singing voice.  And making the central drama around her dismissal kind of negates her other accomplishments both as a morning show hostess and TV executive.

However, I walked away wondering how iconic she really is?  Everyone notes that Crossroads was made on the cheap, but it won a ton of soap awards.  She was on it for 17 years, but she died four years after the publicity of her being sacked, which is now more than 40 years ago.  The wiki notes that it beat Corrie in the ratings, but there were only three networks in the UK at the time. 

So, I have to question about whether a modern audience would even remember her if it wasn't for Russel T Davies?  For comparison, is she Susan Lucci famous or Mary Stuart famous?  Because both were soap stars, but arguably only Lucci is iconic.

Also, I kept thinking that RTD must be Ron Carlivati's hero, because they both revel in historic references to soap divas.

Edited February 5, 20232 yr by j swift

4 minutes ago, j swift said:

So, I have to question about whether a modern audience would even remember her if it wasn't for Russel T Davies?  For comparison, is she Susan Lucci famous or Mary Stuart famous?  Because both were soap stars, but arguably only Lucci is iconic.

I would say more famous than Mary Stuart, because Gordon did a lot and was as known for herself, not just Meg. 

Pat Phoenix is closer to the UK's Susan Lucci.

8 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Pat Phoenix is closer to the UK's Susan Lucci.

Her biopic was much more fun because the story had more depth and didn't only focus on her time in soaps.

And, I think we have to take into account that, (according to the doc), Nolly's series Lunchbox was only shown in the Midlands, because that's how the UK networks were organized at the time. So, she might not have been as popular to viewers in the north or in London. Similar to Lee Phillip Bell's fame in Chicago, whereas to rest of the country she was just Bill Bell's wife.

Edited February 5, 20232 yr by j swift

6 hours ago, j swift said:

The wiki notes that it beat Corrie in the ratings, but there were only three networks in the UK at the time. 

 

 

The British television ratings system and its history is quite convoluted and messy, but outside of occasional instances, that doesn’t seem factual from the data that’s available to us. There’s years from the 70’s (60’s data is a rare find) through the 00’s where Coronation Street wasn’t just the highest rated soap, but actually the highest rated program in general on British television.

Though, in weekly ratings (which, historically, is like trying to find a needle in a haystack) anything is possible. Coronation Street ran just 2 weekly episodes up until 1989 when a third was added (now up to 6 episodes a week). Crossroad ran 5 episodes a week for most of its run (cut down to 2 in 1988) and ended before Corrie expanded to 3. Crossroads also ran in the daytime and Corrie didn't. 

Edited February 5, 20232 yr by BetterForgotten

59 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

The British television ratings system and its history is quite convoluted and messy, but outside of occasional instances, that doesn’t seem factual from the data that’s available to us. There’s years from the 70’s (60’s data is a rare find) through the 00’s where Coronation Street wasn’t just the highest rated soap, but actually the highest rated program in general on British television.

Though, in weekly ratings (which, historically, is like trying to find a needle in a haystack) anything is possible. Coronation Street ran just 2 weekly episodes up until 1989 when a third was added (now up to 6 episodes a week). Crossroad ran 5 episodes a week for most of its run (cut down to 2 in 1988) and ended before Corrie expanded to 3.

Corriepedia says that for a few years after 1972 Crossroads "regularly outrated" Coronation Street, although this presumably means on an episodic basis and without further clarification could mean as regularly as once a week, once a fortnight or even once a month.

What is known is that from 1972 - 1980 no more than a dozen episodes of Coronation Street each year claimed the top spot on the weekly charts and that sometimes episodes were in the teens for the weekly rankings, so there were likely a few opportunities for Crossroads to "outrate" it on a weekly basis but likely not on a yearly basis as you say.

Corrie was seen as being in a slump in the early to mid '70s, with a number of actors leaving and new arrivals not as popular. That was probably the peak of Crossroads' popularity, with Meg's wedding a national event.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hg7p