“The star of the show has been sacked,” Ron Klopfanstein recaps Nolly, episode 1
For my review and cultural analysis of Nolly go to UticaPhoenix.net/TV
“It’s not live, but it’s ‘as live,’ so don’t make any mistakes. We cannot afford to stop!”
So says Noele Gordon, or “Nolly,” as everyone in the United Kingdom called her throughout the second half of the twentieth century. With that, Nolly, the new series from the UK’s ITV network, began airing on WCNY and PBS stations around the country as part of the Masterpiece series was off to a zippy start.
The “as live” show was Crossroads, a daytime soap opera that aired throughout Britain from 1964 to 1987. While dealing with the rigors of low budgets and a frenetic production schedule that, like the remaining daytime dramas in our country, precluded retakes and even proper rehearsals, Gordon commanded the screen with her charisma and warmth. She wasn’t just the star of Crossroads; she was Crossroads.
So, when her contract wasn’t renewed in 1981, the shockwaves were seismic. Noele Gordon wasn’t just the heart and soul of the popular serial watched by 15 million people; her historic role in the dominant medium of the last century stretched all the way back to 1938.
“You’re the first woman in the world to appear on color TV,” says John Logie Baird, the man who invented color television as the episode begins. She was also the first woman to be a television executive, to create and host an afternoon talk show, and to interview the Prime Minister of England.
“Everyone calls me Nolly,” she says, so they do. Even Poppy Ngomo, the young actress who makes the mistake of sitting in Gordon’s chair in the green room on the day of her first appearance on Crossroads, feels such an immediate connection to both the real woman and the character, Meg Richardson that she expresses her condolences over the death of Sandy, Meg’s son on the show and Roger Tonge, the actor who played him and who also died in 1981 at the age of 35. He was like a son to Nolly, and his loss still clearly pains her.
The late 1970s to early 1980s look of daytime television is artfully recreated by Nolly’s creator and showrunner, Super Producer Russell T. Davies. The budget and time constraints are evident, but so are the skill and passion of the hardworking cast and crew. The crackling energy of the set is immediately contrasted by scenes of Nolly at home in her apartment, missing the sound of footsteps from the apartment above where her late mother had lived. While studying her lines alone, the silence gets to her, and she asks her platonic friend and co-star, Tony Adams, to go window shopping with her.
As they walk the empty streets of after-hours London, she expresses her lingering sorrow at the death of Val Parnell. He was a married TV executive who died nine years earlier in 1972 and was the love of her life.
“Big day tomorrow, Michael [Summerton, her agent] is seeing Charles [Denton, ATV executive]. Once he’s done, we can come back and buy everything!” Nolly says brightly, so confident is she that she has a lifetime job at Crossroads.
Work is everything to Nolly, and when her agent, Michael, tells her that ATV (which eventually became ITV) has no intention of renewing her contract with Crossroads, the blow is devastating. While Nolly had always insisted that “the motel was the real star of Crossroads,” it is painfully obvious that she didn’t believe that any more than any of the show’s cast, crew, and fans.
“All good things must come to an end” is the only explanation ITV executive Charles Denton offers. Adding insult to injury, Michael informs her that the Crossroads producers plan to kill off her character, precluding even the possibility of a comeback, much less a happy ending, for Meg, the character she had played for almost twenty years.
Her co-star, Susan Hanson, suggests that she control the narrative by announcing to the press that it was her (Gordon’s) decision to leave the show the show and that she was doing so to pursue greater fame with a stage career in London’s West End.
In an electrifying scene, Nolly tells the ugly truth at a press conference.
“Gentlemen, I’ve been sacked,” Gordon announces at a press conference, “I am shattered and devastated. I have been brutally axed. And my heart is utterly broken. I wasn’t just an actress here; I was staff. I was the spine of ATV and the heart, and the soul, and the guts. I practically invented daytime TV. Crossroads was built around me. Everyone says the star of the show is the motel, but let me tell you, the star of the show is not a bunch of flats held together by plywood and cello tape and spit. The star of the show has been sacked.”
She takes a laser-sharp dig at the network by pointing out to an ATV journalist that he wouldn’t have a job if not for her. Indeed, she was the foundation of the network’s daytime lineup. So, it is particularly galling when she sees network executives on television that night musing about various ways of killing off her character.
Most of the cast and crew are distraught about the firing but also concerned with their own jobs and the show’s future.
While some scarcely hide their calculating ambitions to see their characters play a more central role on the show, co-star Susan Hanson says it is the end of Crossroads Motel, both onscreen and off.
Nolly then confronts ITV executive Charles about his plans to kill off her character. Nolly insists she won’t beg for her job, but she does not want her character to die.
“I’m asking you, please don’t kill me. Save my life. Change the story,” she asks Jack Denton, the antagonistic Crossroads showrunner who clearly relishes the opportunity to get rid of the star.
The episode ends with Nolly letting out a primal scream inside an elevator, leaving viewers wondering: what’s next for Noele Gordon?
The next episode of Nolly airs on Sunday, March 24th, at 9 pm, as part of the Masterpiece series on WCNY or your local PBS station. For information on how you can support WCNY, visit https://www.wcny.org/support-wcny/member-benefits/.
Ron Klopfanstein is a multimedia investigative journalist, news and features editor, and creative content producer for the Utica Phoenix digital platform and 95.5 FM “The Heat” broadcast and streaming. He has been a lifelong fan of soap operas and has watched General Hospital for over 50 years.
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