Kathy's crossroads

Feb 15 2001 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LAST Of The Summer Wine star Kathy Staff has told of her heartache at leaving the UK's longest-running TV comedy programme.

Kathy, who is rejoining the cast of ITV's Crossroads, said it had been "a wrench" to leave the BBC1 series filmed in Holmfirth, but her decision was triggered by the death of her co-star Bill Owen, who played Compo.

The actress, who played Nora Batty for 28 years, said her final series last year had not been the same without Owen, who died in July, 1999.

Speaking at the Crossroads relaunch in London, she said: "As far as I was concerned, it didn't work last year, so I decided not to do any more."

The actress reached her decision before being offered her old role back in Crossroads, where she plays Doris Luke.

Kathy said: "I did feel I had come to the end of the road once Compo had died."

She said it had been wonderful to return to Crossroads which will be relaunched on ITV next month.

The show was scrapped in 1988.

Kathy said the new version of Crossroads was more polished and fast-moving than the old series, which ran from 1964 to 1988.

She joked that the sets - once renowned for wobbling during filming - were now more solid, adding: "There's so much going on, I think it will be a great success."

Kathy is one of just three original cast members asked to rejoin the soap, which is now being filmed in Nottingham to fill the weekday slot left by Home and Away.

Jane Rossington, who played Jill Harvey, and Tony Adams, who played her husband Adam Chance, have also been brought back to the new series. Tony Adams said Crossroads was the "mother of the soaps".

He added: "I just think it would be lovely if the show - having deservedly now got the recognition that it's got - is left alone to be a success for everybody."

Jane Rossington blamed the decision to axe the old series on bad feeling from television executives.

She said: "There were always people out to get us.

"A lot of people in the industry didn't like the show, they couldn't understand why the public did and because of that there was a lot of antipathy."

Viewers' favourite Benny, played by Paul Henry in the original series, will not feature in the new show. Kathy said: "Benny was a lovely character, a lovely actor.

"I don't know that there could be a place for him, that's up to people to decide. It would be lovely to have him back."

Jane said she expected her character, who starts the new series locked in a battle for the ownership of the hotel, to stay in the soap until at least Christmas.

The actress, whose character spoke the first ever words in the original series, said: "It does feel a bit weird to be back, but I had to take the part when they offered it to me.

"I was incredibly curious about what it would be like and I felt I owed it to Nolly to come back," she said, paying tribute to the late Noele Gordon, who played her on-screen mother Meg Mortimer.

She added: "The set is incredible and the cast is fantastic."

New cast members include Sherrie Hewson, who played Maureen Holdsworth in Coronation Street, and Jane Gurnett, who has starred in Dangerfield and Casualty.