Anyone remember Crossroads? The ITV series set in a motel in the Midlands? The answer for most of the young must be no; for oldies the name conjures up nine notes of music portentously heralding all the ennui we associate with daytime TV. I never watched an episode but lots of people did in its Eighties heyday: 15 million, in fact. But if you haven’t heard of Crossroads, watched it, or flinch from its problematic décor, you can still enjoy Nolly, ITV’s new three parter. The genius who is Russell T Davies has taken the most unpromising scenario – ageing female star of daytime Eighties TV soap gets sacked – and turned it into TV gold. Bravo.
The star of the show, now as then, is Noele Gordon, aka Nolly, aka Meg Mortimer, aka the Queen of the Midlands – in short, Helena Bonham Carter. Miss B-C famously played Princess Margaret in The Crown and here, in her furs, her Rolls Royce, her flame-coloured (there is no other adjective for it) hair and her magnificent diction, she’s even more regal.
