All Good Things Come to an End: Nolly, a three-part series, solves one of the most intriguing mysteries of British popular culture and celebrates the life’s work of a TV trailblazer
For my full review and analysis scroll down, for my recap of episode 3 click the box.
“They play games on levels you can’t see,” Ron Klopfanstein recaps Nolly, episode 3
For my recap of Nolly, episode 2 go to: https://uticaphoenix.net/nolly-episode-2-recap/
For my recap of Nolly, episode 1 go to: https://uticaphoenix.net/the-star-of-the-show-has-been-sacked-ron-klopfanstein-recaps-nolly-episode-1/
In 1938, Noele Gordon was the first woman in the world to appear in color on television. In the 1950s, she made history three more times. First, in 1955, she became a television executive as Head of Lifestyle Programmes for Associated Television (a forerunner of the UK television network ITV). Then, in 1958, she launched her own show, Tea With Noele Gordon, where she became the first female journalist to interview Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. That show was so successful that she moved onscreen full-time and launched one of the first daily live talk shows, Lunchbox.
After blazing a trail as a female television journalist at a time when the medium was new and women were rarely allowed to produce their shows, much less interview prime ministers, she scored another remarkable achievement.
In 1964, Noele Gordon began playing Meg Richardson, an independent and astute businesswoman on Crossroads, the United Kingdon’s first television soap opera. It ran for over 4,500 episodes and lasted (in its original form) until 1983. At its peak, Crossroads attracted 15 million daily viewers and cemented Gordon’s place in British popular culture as one of the country’s most beloved performers.
It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that Noele Gordon was to British television what Barbara Walters and Susan Lucci combined were to American TV. That’s why it set off shockwaves in 1981 when the network opted not to renew her contract.
“I’ve had 25 wonderful years with ATV, and if it wasn’t for…Crossroads, Lunchbox, and all the other programs that I’ve enjoyed doing over the past 25 years, you fellas wouldn’t be standing out here today,” Gordon said in a press conference that can only be described as “ballsy” in its frankness. “As my agent was told, ‘All good things come to an end.’ But please don’t ask me any more questions about policy or the reasons for my dismissal. I don’t know the reasons for my dismissal.”
Noele Gordon’s firing from Crossroads was one of Britain’s most intriguing if not heartbreaking, pop culture mysteries and scandals for the next four decades. Only the network’s top brass knew why she was sacked…until now.
Enter Russell T. Davies, the genius showrunner who revived Dr. Who in 2005 and created and produced Queer as Folk, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, A Very English Scandal, It’s a Sin, and now, Nolly.
Nolly is a three-part biographical drama that solves the mystery of why Gordon was fired so abruptly. It does so with grit, retro-cool style, cigarette-smoking, cocktail-swilling, fur coat, and sunglasses-wearing fabulousness. It begins airing on Sunday, March 17th at 9:00 PM on WCNY and PBS stations around the country as part of the Masterpiece series.
Nina Metz, television and film critic for the Chicago Tribune, describes the show as “so well written, so well cast and executed, it finds a way to thrillingly reanimate a slice of British pop culture history from the analog era.” Leading that cast is Helena Bonham Carter, the Oscar-nominated actress known for her work in The Crown, The King’s Speech, Fight Club, Dark Shadows, Howard’s End, and the Harry Potter and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland film franchises.
“Bonham Carter sinks her teeth into this larger-than-life personality, portraying a lioness in the winter of her career who understands that even if the show is dreck, being its star has become inextricably entwined with her identity,” writes CNN’s Brian Lowry. The website Rotten Tomatoes gives the show a stellar 100% fresh rating summed up in a “Critics Consensus” that says, “Enlivened by Helena Bonham Carter’s barnburner performance and Russell T. Davies’ delicious dialogue, Nolly gives a fallen star her joyous closeup.”
Central New York’s PBS affiliate, WCNY, held a screening of Nolly’s first episode on Wednesday, March 13th. The event drew fans of Bonham Carter and British television from around the area, including Emily and Jim Buchanan of Minoa, NY.
“I love Helena Bonham Carter,” Emily Buchanan said before the screening. “She always plays an eccentric role and is so good at what she does. She was the draw. I wasn’t familiar with the story or the person it’s based on, but her name was on it.”
“We figured anything from Masterpiece has to be good,” her husband Jim said. “So that’s why we’re here.”
The Buchanans listed some of their favorite Masterpiece series, including Downton Abbey, Sanditon, Upstairs Downstairs, and All Creatures Great and Small. All popular shows that have become familiar to American audiences thanks to PBS.
“We’ve been to several events by WCNY, and we’ve enjoyed them all,” Emily Buchanan said before the screening. “We’re Masterpiece fans.”
“The goal of PBS is to serve the community by educating and providing content,” says Rubin Wright, WCNY Project Manager. “Shows like Masterpiece do that by bringing British-style content to America. To enhance that, we have screening events [like the one for Nolly].”
These events are free, and the public can learn about them through the WCNY website, WCNY.org, and the station’s social media accounts: Facebook.com/WCNYPBS, Twitter.com/WCNYPBS, Instagram.com/WCNYPBS, TikTok.com/@WCNYPBS and the station’s channel at https://www.youtube.com/@WCNYPBS.
“Even our events have that mission of bringing content and service to the community,” Wright says. “Nolly, in Britain, was a famous person; you always don’t realize that in other countries, there are these mega stars that may have never crossed the waters but had interesting lives, and made interesting television, and added in interesting ways to the culture.”
In the United Kingdom, soap operas remain far more central to the nation’s culture than in America. Writing for the BBC, Louis Staples described EastEnders as part of the “UK’s cultural furniture.” It is so revered that the late June Brown, who played chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotten from 1985 to 2020, was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award alongside primetime television performers like 2022 Oscar nominee Andrea Risborough. That same year, her show was nominated for best series.
Soap Opera is a genre created by a woman, the legendary Irna Phillips, and the genre’s most enduring stars have always been the women who aged from ingenue to matriarch before the audience’s eyes. These include such familiar names as All My Children’s Susan Lucci, One Life to Live’s Erica Slezak, General Hospital’s Genie Francis, and some who have made history for their longevity, including As the World Turns’ Helen Wagner, who played Nancy Hughes from the series premiere in 1956 until the year the show concluded in 2010. In August of 2023, Days of Our Lives star Suzanne Rogers surpassed Wagner’s record, having played Maggie Horton Kirikas on the show for over 50 years and counting. Still, none of those women were ever elevated to the rank of producer, and they did not have any measurable input into the writing of the characters they had played for decades.
Media critic Elana Levine, author of the book Her Stories, which “explores television history and conflicts of generation, gender, and race in the heyday of ‘women’s’ soap operas,” noted how “soap operas also participated in shaping stories about gender identity, marriage, and family life…How soap characters effectively navigated their personal and professional lives could offer models for viewers.”
While daytime drama on both sides of the Atlantic was characterized by strong female characters central to the action and drama, it was often male television executives who held their fates in their hands. As Noele Gordon and her millions of fans learned, women may have been popular enough to draw millions of adoring fans, but that didn’t necessarily mean they had the power to stay on the air.
It was too late when the Crossroads producers realized and attempted to correct their mistake in firing Gordon. The actress’ fatal diagnosis stalled an attempted comeback in 1985. Although she was able to return as Meg for three episodes in 1985, she died a few months later. Crossroads was canceled three years later, in 1988.
In an article entitled “Why ITVX’s Nolly will resonate with other ‘difficult’ women; Russell T. Davies new drama addresses a deep-seated misogyny,” British journalist Anna Bonet noted how the show “illustrates how the whole shenanigan reeked of both sexism and ageism,”
WCNY’s Ruben Wright noted that the scenes reenacting Gordon’s soap Crossroads reminded him of the Mary Tyler Moore Show because “although it is not in the same vein, it has the same kind of female empowerment message.”
He noted the appropriateness of the show airing during Women’s History Month.
As CNN’s Brian Lowry wrote in his review, “Nolly reflects the 1970s and ‘80s but also dabbles in universal and enduring insights about showbiz, ageism, and not-so-subtle misogyny, almost like a spin on Sunset Boulevard for the TV era.”
As Crossroads fades from memory, Gordon’s fans hope that Nolly will keep the memory of its star alive and relevant in the 21st century. A recent headline in The Telegraph suggests that it will do just that. The Arts and Entertainment Editor Anita Singh declares the show “fabulous, glamorous, joyous fun that makes Noele Gordon a star once more.”
Nolly airs on Sundays, March 17th, March 24th, and March 31st 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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