Noele Gordon

Noele Gordon (December 25, 1919 - April 14, 1985) was a British film and television actress.

Early life

Her father was a merchant seaman and she was born in East Ham, London. After attending Ilford Convent School and RADA, she appeared in repertory theatres, including 1,000 performances in Brigadoon.

Early television and film career

She was credited as the first woman to be seen on colour television sets, as she took part in the BBC's early tests in colour broadcasting in the 1940s. Noele appeared in two movies in the 1940s, produced in Britain and then distributed to the United States (29 Acacia Avenue and Lisbon Story). Her acting career came to a halt in 1955 when she joined Associated TeleVision where she presented their first-ever programme, The Weekend Show. She also worked behind the scenes as Head of Lifestyle programmes. She then studied the television medium at New York University in America and upon her return helped Reg Watson and Ned Sherrin launch a new station, ATV Midlands in 1956. This was a spin-off station from the already established ATV London. As well as being a producer, Noele also turned her hand to presenting again for the new Birmingham based service. Her first television appearance for ATV, Tea With Noele Gordon, was one of the first ITV chat shows. Initially commissioned as an emergency schedule filler, the show became so successful that she gave up her executive position to concentrate on programme presentation. She then moved on to present a daily live entertainment show, Lunchbox a programme which pioneered daytime broadcasts.

Crossroads

In the summer of 1964 Lunchbox came to an end after over 2000 episodes. It was axed to make way for a new daily soap opera, The Midland Road, retitled Crossroads at the last minute, in which Noele took the role of motel owner Meg Richardson (later Meg Mortimer). The public came to adore Meg - and Noele, and before long everyone referred to her by her nickname "Nolly", which is what she was called by her close friend Larry Grayson.

During the 1970s, she won the TV Times award for most popular television actress on no fewer than eight separate occasions, such was her popularity in the show. In 1980 she was voted best dressed female by the TV Times, and also won numerous newspaper awards, including most popular person on TV, as voted by The Sun readers.

Noele was the only member of the Crossroads cast who had a permanent contract; all other cast members were booked as and when on an 'ad hoc' basis. Noele, however, had been a staff member on the board of ATV since her days of Lunch Box.

Noele stayed with the programme until the producers sensationally sacked her in 1981, when ATV was re-constituted into a new company, Central Independent Television. The decision to axe Noele was taken by Head of Programmes Charles Denton and Head Of Drama Margaret Matheson - who was new to ATV and wanted to ditch soap opera for more expensive and lavish drama production. Noele did make a brief return to the series in 1984, when Meg met up with her daughter Jill and son-in-law Adam on their Venice honeymoon.

However, in 1985 Matheson's successor Ted Childs ordered Crossroads to be totally revamped. This new-look was also designed to bring back Noele Gordon on an 'as and when' basis, starting with a three month stint from April 1985. Noele's return as Meg was devised by the new Producer, Phillip Bowman, who himself axed Crossroads stalwarts Ronald Allen and Sue Lloyd in order for the motel to be sold - and thus Meg's daughter Jill was to face a tough choice of whether to agree to the sale, or hold on to the shares her mother left her in 1981. Meg's return was to advise Jill to sell the shares, as Meg, we were to discover, was good friends with the new to be owner - Nicola Freeman (played by Gabrielle Drake) and so Noele's character would have plenty of reasons to return to Crossroads once more. Alas, this storyline never came about as Noele died before the planned return.

Crossroads was derided by critics for what one referred to as "storylines that are as badly cobbled together as the plywood sets" but it was greatly loved by the British public and regularly got 17 million viewers. Noele was the epitome of the British soap 'matriarch'; despite everything that happened to her she still managed to cope, care for her family and successfully run her business, which endeared her to the viewing public, particularly the female audience.

There are varying reasons for the termination of her contract in 1981; her forthright manner had never endeared her to her fellow board members. However, it is now widely believed that her removal was due to the fact that ATV was about to be reconstituted into the new Central Independent Television, who did not want to inherit Crossroads. (Central were to ruthlessly cull many of ATV's programmes when they took over, and many viewers' favourites disappeared overnight). Central believed that by removing the linchpin of the show, it would come to a natural conclusion. This was not to be so; though undeniably the programme was never the same after Noele's departure, Crossroads carried on for another seven years until Head Of Production Andy Allen took the decision to end the show in 1987.

Noele had battled cancer publicly since 1982, undergoing two major operations. It didn't stop her making a return to Crossroads in August 1983 for two episodes during the honeymoon episodes of Jill and Adam, filmed in Venice. As one person who simply referred to herself as "Midlands Housewife" wrote to the TV listings magazine, "TV Times", "...It was wonderful to see Meg back, why can't she return full time?"

Noele's Public Revenge

After Charles Denton controversially sacked Noele from Crossroads she famously sang a 'love song' to him at the ATV End of Year Party, publicly ridiculing him - which although was never shown to the public, was leaked to YouTube in April 2007

Post Crossroads

After her sacking, Noele appeared in a revival of Irving Berlin's musical Call Me Madam at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

In an interview she gave the TV Times in 1981 she announced she may, once her stage work had come to an end, take up the offer of returning to presenting. The broadcaster TV-am was said to be interested in bringing Noele on board to present some of their breakfast programmes. Speaking in 1984 she said "I did several mornings on TV-am a week or so ago. And I have been recording some programmes for my local radio station. But I would like to do more television - and I am ready for it," However she fell ill, and that promised more regular presenting role at TV AM never materialised because of her failing health, also her grand 1985 comeback in Crossroads also never happened, with the actor Edward Clayton who had previously played Stan Harvey in the 1970s returning to take her place in the storyline.

She retired to her home in Birmingham, where she died in 1985 of cancer. Despite playing such a memorable matriarch, Noele Gordon never married and had no children of her own.

Tony Adams who played Adam Chance in the series commented in 1985 just after her death that "There has never been a star of Crossroads, although Nolly was Crossroads."

External links

• Noele Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
• Noele Gordon The Noele Gordon Website
• Noele Gordon Interview with Noele Gordon
• Noele Gordon Meg Sings!