Merry Christmas from Noele Gordon

[@knibscratch]

I have posted this on my Facebook page for the last eight years ... It has become a tradition.

[@glamdolly30]

It's perfect Christmas schmaltz - I love it! The rest of the cast look so embarrassed as Meg smashes that fourth wall and launches into full Julie Andrews mode!

[@bugs7139]

I fully support this initiative of having Noelle Gordon aka Meg Mortimer/Richardson singing this festive classic being posted on Facebook every year, I just feel for her that she’s never made the coveted UK Christmas No1, like Wham’s Last Christmas, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You and many many more, I think LadBaby should take this year off from having Christmas No1s and let Meg take this years Christmas crown! I’d love to hear this being played on BBC Radio1’s the Official Chart Show…Noelle being played on the BBCs flagship youth pop station 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@lotuspoint]

Seems apt to say on the 40th anniversary of this episode and Noele’s 100th Birthday ‘Happy Christmas’. Nobody has ever come close to the sheer stardom of Nollie,, she was a true and unique gem. Wherever you are Nollie I’m raising a glass to you today xx

[@itgetseasierlessitry]

Amuses me to think that as a kid my family and millions of others would tune in at 6.30 most evenings to watch another gripping episode of wobbly sets, wooden acting, and Amy Turtle fluffing her lines. And I loved it! It wouldnt have worked though without Noel Gordon the charismatic matriarch.

[@glamdolly30]

I come back to watch this clip every Christmas, it is priceless! Noele smashes down the fourth wall and launches into full Julie Andrews mode - while the rest of the cast wish the ground would swallow them up! The script is ace - the old guy cajoling a 'reluctant' Meg to give them a song - then miraculously the pianist knows exactly what to play, and is soon joined by an unseen, full orchestra! I LOVE the background supporting artist in white turtleneck and sports jacket @ 0:28 who keeps eating that mince pie unmoved by Nolly's performance (you can almost hear him thinking 'Fuck the old bitch and her big moment - I've been on set since 7am and not so much as a piece of toast!') Merry Cjristmas everyone!

[@DistantCousin]

🤣🤣🤣👏

[@stephenmcconnell1000]

You're actually funnier than Peter Kay! No shit 🤣

[@chriswinwood6501]

Kathy Staff’s fixed grin….

[@glamdolly30]

@@chriswinwood6501 🤣🤣🤣 You can almost hear her sphincter spasming with embarrassment!

[@annoldham3018]

Love how Johnny Patrick and his music keep playing till the end. 😎

[@knibscratch]

Just about to post this for the 14th year in a row on my FB page ..... It must be Christmas again!

[@Tiggzg]

What a performer she had it all, looks, voice and great actor, miss her after all these years. Thanks Noele xo

[@mikehudson8884]

@Marcus Stewart Nolly had everything......looks, voice and a great actor, like the above and GREAT knowledge of television....

[@robertjarman8979]

I'm not even old enough to remember Crossroads but my late Granny told me what a show it was and in a way I wish they would repeat it as let's face it it was good family entertainment

[@rosswakefield1299]

Please never remove this, we watch it every year :-)

[@annoldham3018]

🥰

[@CC-uc4gq]

Me too!!

[@wearegoingtocatalina]

I love this and in a strange way find quite uplifting. I was a regular Crossroads viewer.Go Noele!

[@SG4860]

Nolly loved breaking the 'fourth wall' every Christmas when she did her songs and Xmas speech! It was Crossroad's version of The Queen's Speech! Loved it!!! x

[@richardbarclay7728]

Did she break the fourth wall every Christmas on Crossroads Steve?

[@sallypointer4223]

I believe she liked having her back doors smashed in at christmas too, or so i've heard

[@daveslife9486]

@@sallypointer4223 what we do behind closed doors aye 😉

[@PDC-yb9qs]

@@sallypointer4223 😅🤣😅🤣 that caught me off guard

[@jazmorrison9030]

Sad when got sacked

[@glamdolly30]

Takes me right back to my childhood, we always watched Crossroads when I got home from school used to eat my tea in front of it. It was never a patch on Coronation Street - it was like the bastard sibling - but it was fun! Noele Gordon was supposed to be a nightmare to work with, a proper queen bee, but I have to admit she held the whole show together. And when she sang at Christmas, looking straight down the camera lens, it was sheer brilliance! Wish ITV3 would repeat Crossroads, as they are currently showing Corrie from 1986. I guess the powers that be feel it's too low brow!

[@Summer21.]

glamdolly20 ITV3 I believe, would show episodes of Crossroads, but ATV didn't preserve all the episodes of Crossroads as some video tapes were wiped to use again for future episodes as master tapes were expensive back then. There are episodes from the 1960's and 1970's that were kept by ATV and later on, Central, then after that, Carlton, Granada, and now ITV. The master tapes of those episodes are still in storage somewhere, I think at Yorkshire Television studios in Leeds, from what I heard once years ago. The episodes from the 1980's up to April 1988 when the series ended are all preserved on master tape. The episodes of Crossroads, the comeback in 2001-2002 and 2003, are saved somewhere as well. 😊😃

[@glamdolly30]

@@Summer21. Thank you so much for all that wonderful detail - I have only just seen this, 5 months after you wrote it! So from what you say, ITV could feasibly repeat more recent episodes of Crossroads that they do still have master tapes for? Isn't it shocking that TV history could be wiped like tat, all for the cost of some mere tapes!

[@ysgol3]

'Bastard sibling', fantastic, I'll use that!🤣🤣

[@glamdolly30]

@@ysgol3 I've such a way with words, lol! Merry Christmas!

[@ysgol3]

@@glamdolly30 You certainly have! Merry Christmas to you too!

[@wearegoingtocatalina]

Good old Noele performing like an old pro that she was.A great post,many thanks.

[@dramaticguy]

Poor old Noele Gordon,she was Crossroads,her axing in 81 was an effort to killl the show but it carried on til April 88.

[@darrowby1972]

Its coming up towards the time where we all play this clip to death. Whenever I am down or sad I play this clip. I`ve said it before but i`ll say it again.... this clip is so bad its bloody brilliant! RIP NOLLIE

[@mikehudson8884]

I so concur. Nolly forever!!!!

[@SG4860]

Quite right - Crossroads always had a pleasant episode at Xmas !!

[@CrossroadsLad]

What i love about 'Crossroads' , 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale Farm' in the 70's, they never copied each other, (like soaps seem today), they have one thing in common though, they had lovely, kindly storylines the whole family could watch. Who remembers the end credits of 'Crossroads' going vertical and horizontal, and 'Coronation Street' with its outdoor set though made of bricks wasn't built to the size of full scale houses. yet the magic worked.

[@Mishima505]

London No Dippy Dolly the inspiration for Acorn Antiques. Sad there’ll be no more of those either...

[@ajaccs]

Just heard about this on the TV Cream podcast and had to look it up. Amazing stuff! Thanks for uploading. 👏🤘🙌

[@identlover]

Ah she had REAL star quality :-)

[@Tiggzg]

She had a great voice, and I think you can't appreciate it lol!

[@SG4860]

Magical memories! Crossroads always did something happy and special at Christmas - unlike todays soaps!! Meg loved to have a sing-song didn't she?! Can you imagine the cast of Eastenders doing that?

[@jend80]

The early cast of East Enders literally had a whole album of Cockney sings songs round the pub piano

[@davidfogarty2220]

Miseryfest Eastenders. Not likely.

[@jazmorrison9030]

Lovely singing voice

[@williamf4544]

A wonderful woman - greatly missed

[@phildurrant2422]

Ah my sound of Christmas

[@SG4860]

Can you imagine Danny Dyer bursting into song at Christmas in EastEnders? Maybe Rita or Audrey could do something in Corrie! Nothing could beat this style of Crossroads!

[@willlovesgaz]

ha ha i swear i have only just seen this comment - i just posted this video to Facebook with a very similar comment (i said can you imagine Ken and Rita doing "Fairytale of New York"!) 😂 x

[@MarcZERO1980]

They really should do this!

[@winny8420]

I’m pretty sure Pat Butcher/Evans burst in to song one Xmas Day in the Queen Vic,

[@stevehotspur]

@@willlovesgaz In Corrie years ago Rita was a club singer and you did indeed see her performing

[@stephenmcconnell1000]

I remember Hilda Ogden sang in the Rovers when she left Coronation Street. 'Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye'

[@wjec1970]

Camp, camp, camp! Funny as hell though!

[@knibscratch]

I have just posted this on my FB page again .... For the 12th year in a row ..... MERRY CHRISTMAS

[@mikewhiles4635]

It's strange, I never watched CR but so many of these people are familiar too me...wonder how few are still alive ? Great memories if your a fan no doubt . 😎😎😎

[@atvnetworklimited]

@axs1559 The Boom and cameras wouldn't have been seen at the time as the old sets generally cut a bit of the picture edge off. Having said that these Crossroads Christmas endings generally were deemed (as Jane Rossington recalls) 'specials' where Meg would at times even talk to the viewers, so not a regular soap episode throughout. I think EastEnders tried something similar in the 1980s for new year '86.

[@Matt571]

At least Crossroads didn't have a depressing episode at Christmas!

[@Steve20127]

Yes, very true. No murders, infidelity, divorce papers being served or suicides to up the ratings.

[@chrisamadeus4647]

Indeed! TV is very depressing now.

[@jasonking6892]

Happy days 👍🇬🇧

[@CaptainSiCo]

Is that a boom in the top right at 02:37? Probably wouldn’t have been seen on the TV screens of the time.

[@Juliukas101]

"Slice up the fruit cake!" LOL! Crossroads was always so very different to all the other soaps. It had a style all of its own. Nowadays everything is so sexed up and with people screaming at each other, it's nice to see something like this from another era.

[@caerfaimama]

I can remember the storyline where Jill became pregnant by another man when her husband was working away. It all came out in a heated row, I remember her yelling "it's Anthony's!!!"

[@davidperry7329]

FANTASTIC R.I.P 😇😘

[@harry1552]

Cant we have it back. For we need a little revolution right this very minute,need a little regional tv, we need a little ATV RIGHT THIS VERRY MINUET!

[@mikehudson8884]

Yes we DO. I loved ATV.

[@CrossroadsLad]

I loved 'Crossroads', 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale Farm' in the 70's and early 80's, 'Crossroads was my favourite. i think this is lovely Meg Richardson singing the song from 'Mame', i think it's awful how soaps today broadcast episode over the christmas , with arguements, or someone clonked on the head, or someone dies, Soaps were far better then, they had less technical things etc to work with, but actors were of the old school, bringing their magic to a soap,

[@willlovesgaz]

I bet this was fun to film - i imagine back then this would only have been recorded about a week or two in advance so they would have had the real xmas spirit, not like nowadays, filming what feels like 8 months in advance 😂😂😂

[@socssniffin]

I so glad crossroads is starting a re run starting Fri 27th Feb 2015 Thanks to the station that's showing it

[@dramaticguy]

RIP Sue Lloyd

[@Myplop]

My dear old grandma and grand aunt watched it religiously, you weren’t allowed to speak when it wAs on, people believed it was real

[@CC-uc4gq]

Same with my old Mom " not a peep!!! " we were told!

[@anorganlover6281]

But there was plenty of noise from them about THE STATE OF TODAY - when it was finished ! ! !

[@mikehudson8884]

Say what you will about this show, of course seeing this today you can call it, trite, corny, terrible, unrealistic and farcical but that was then and you have got to hand it to Noele Gordon she was a showwoman through and through. She was a star but not up herself, you felt you really knew her and cared about her even though we did see the camera and mic at the end of the scene stage right!!!!

[@leoninelives]

"Santa dear, we're in a hurry, So!" - 1:47 - Good old Glenda Barlow!

[@anorganlover6281]

Glenda Barlow - she is Ken's love child no-one knows about ?

[@stevesmith2812]

Jill's daughter seems more interested in eating that mince pie than the song. Also Sandy seems to be singing through gritted teeth as though he's really not into it. Fabulous though.

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

The older British generations adored Crossroads: they didn't have any cynicism or pretensions.. perhaps their appreciation for the show stems from surviving two World Wars? The people who sneered at this soap opera were from a different mould of British 'values', any sense of warmth and togetherness was out the window replaced by mean spirited vitriol fancying itself as satire. I'm glad that the people who valued this show were in the majority: let's not forget the show regularly enjoyed viewing figures of up to 20 million.

[@richardbarclay7728]

@Marcus Stewart I was rude calling you a moron and I’m going to delete my comment. Crossroads was a training ground for actors. You’re right in what you say but it wasn’t made for the critics. It was made for the 20,000,000 odd people who watched it in its heydays.

[@anorganlover6281]

The older generations took a break from their mean-spirited vitriol in LETTERS TO THE CHIEF LUNATIC through their beloved local SODOM EVENING MOON in order to watch this tripe . . .

[@chubbychubbs5552]

Crossroads was bloody awful but Noele did wave to us on Hockley flyover, driving behind us in her Green Capri, registration NG 10, early 70s 😋

[@davidletton2099]

Absolutely fantastic. Nolly was not heralded the Queen of the Midlands for nothing. Rule of thumb, YOU DON'T SACK YOUR STAR!!!

[@allenmx]

I never get the sacked thing. She had a contract that wasn’t renewed.

[@Westy1971]

I suppose 'John the pianist' was somebody local Meg knew? How else do you write ATV's resident music man into a random episode!

[@dramaticguy]

@SiLoJayLo Like the Kabin in Corrie its huge inside,maybe its a TARDIS lol!

[@darrowby1972]

@axs1559 - never noticed the sound boom in the final shot before. This is so bad its brilliant, as is the pianist making an @rse of his "free jazz" impro right at the very end!

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

@snuffythewomble - no, but I think Anita Dobson came close when she performed the show's theme song on Wogan (look it up on youtube!)

[@ChorusL106]

1:05 Why do they not only stop on, but also zoom in on that woman of all people? Lol, this show is crazy

[@richardbarclay7728]

She was Miss Tatum, the King’s Oak post mistress. I can’t believe you didn’t know that. 🤣

[@1958RBS]

Christmas is Noele!

[@SiLoJayLo]

Scenes like this used 2 amuse me. Where did the bass guitar & drum kit suddenly appear from? No doubt the same guitar that used 2 introduce every episode. Does any1 remember, in Coronation Street, the "magic reception room" that existed only on special occasions? U'd have a problem trying 2 explain exactly where this was, if u looked at the outside set, of the Rovers Return!

[@crees1445]

Oh Nolly. My favourite story about Crossroads was told by one of her costars, Jill I think. Noele welcomed a new cast member saying "There are no stars on this show" and everyone giggled.

[@glamdolly30]

Ha! Ha! Brilliant! Apparently Noele Gordon had a favourite chair in the green room, and if a new actor arrived and innocently sat on it, she would arrive like a galleon in full sail and unceremoniously bump them out of it! She tried it on Johnny Briggs once (as a newbie to the Crossroads cast, before he joined Corrie as Mike Baldwin), but he wouldn't have her diva shit and refused to move his arse out of the hallowed chair! Oh to have been a fly on the wall!

[@SG4860]

Can todays soaps do this sort of thing nowaday!! Being joyous and happy?

[@jend80]

The look on that child's face arround 0 53 lol

[@boondoggle6]

you don't hear piano playing like that every day of the week.

[@jameshodges1496]

Sounds like some of the keys are missing.

[@annoldham3018]

@@jameshodges1496 😂

[@anorganlover6281]

And the sound of the piano caused the walls to shake . . .

[@RonMcAllister]

why weren't the pianist and drummer listening to each other?...the ending....lol

[@jamescoupland3137]

Amazing Whst a wonderful women star quality true icon

[@scattygirl1]

Strictly Come Bitching sent me here

[@MusicalsMakeMyWorldS]

Anyone got the full episode of thuis?

[@dramaticguy]

1979.

[@Kevin-1969]

What were they thinking asking her to leave the show

[@stephenmcconnell1000]

The best way to try to kill the show was to sack the star

[@chriswinwood6501]

Remarkable

[@mbvideoselection]

Slice up the fruit cake!

[@stephenmcconnell1000]

😂

[@gilllarr9285]

Was this before or after the fire

[@socssniffin]

Re show the original crossroads

[@CarlD2]

Back when soaps didn't think you had to kill off people and have misery every Christmas...

[@danwoodvine5900]

I wonder who's playing the drum and double bass.

[@daveslife9486]

Proper Christmas cheer absolutely lost today in . 2024. This world i do not recognise 🤕🤕🤕🤕

[@canasta59]

If anyone finds the note Meg was looking for please hand it in at your local police station

[@darrowby1972]

This is so bad that its brilliant!

[@darrowby1972]

@marcN19 - Christ!

[@davidfogarty2220]

"Come along Meg. Now how about a song from you"? You couldn't imagine that misery fest EastEnders doing anything as joyful, it would just end up in tears, misery and very possibly a gruesome murder. Take it away Johnny.

[@robertcomer2767]

That piano player!!! And they couldn't reshoot it.

[@davidfr8218]

Could Sarah Jane look any more bored?

[@chriscrook4481]

Silly old bat.😂

[@tombstoneharrystudios584]

Johnny Patrick And his music (Which was dreadful!)

[@annoldham3018]

🤣

[@Steve20127]

God awful.

[@MENSFORTHHILL99]

utter rubbish.

[@emperorpalpatine783]

This is so cheesy and cringy imagine that on corrie or eastnders no one would tune in

[@anorganlover6281]

The old guy looks like the old version of RICHARD TODD.