Nolly (Foxtel/Binge), from the wonderful screenwriter and producer Russell T. Davies, is already one of the best dramas of 2023. It’s about forgotten British TV icon Noele Gordon (Helena Bonham Carter) and it’s great to see her being recognised with this beautifully made series, which also contains several references to Australian TV.
In 1938, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird chose 19-year-old Noele Gordon to appear in the first-ever transmission of colour TV. In 1960, the TV Week Awards were renamed the Logie Awards by Graham Kennedy and if he was the King of TV, then Noele Gordon was surely one of its Queens.
As one of TV’s first female executives, she created the UK’s first daytime shows for women. Tea With Noele Gordon (1956) and Lunchbox (1957) were so successful, she stepped down from her head of lifestyle role to become a full-time star.
Lunchbox ended so that Britain’s ATV could create a soap opera around Noele Gordon’s popularity. She morphed into motel owner Meg in Crossroads (1964) and won Most Popular Actress for eight years running. Desperate to give someone else a look-in, British magazine TV Times created the Hall of Fame award for her instead.
Crossroads was the brainchild of Reg Watson, the Aussie genius who came home to create The Young Doctors, The Restless Years, Prisoner, Sons and Daughters and Neighbours. He and Noele Gordon worked together for 18 years but after he left, she was sensationally sacked, leading someone to say in Nolly: “This would never have happened under Reg Watson”.
Reg Watson and Noele Gordon (Source: TV Tonight)
Crossroads, “a daytime show which pulled in prime time ratings”, regularly got audiences between 15 and 20 million viewers. Sometimes it was the number one show in the UK, beating megahits like The Two Ronnies, yet it was mocked for being “distressingly popular”. Regardless, it pushed boundaries by including regular black characters and stories about disability.
There is no doubt that ageism, sexism and misogyny played a role in male executives kicking their biggest star off TV when she was aged 62. Crossroads, which didn’t survive without Noele Gordon, screened here on Seven in the 70s. Ironically, they had tried – but failed – to make their own version of Crossroads called Motel (1968) which starred Jack Thompson.
Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon (Nolly) and Augustus Prew as Tony Adams
One last thing – listen out for the Crossroads theme during Nolly. It was composed by Tony Hatch, who would go on to co-write the Neighbours’ theme with wife Jackie Trent. Crossroads was even reworked by Paul McCartney and Wings for their 1975 Venus and Mars album. Iconic.
Read more Mercado on TV columns here.
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Listen now on your favourite podcast platform for 30 minutes of TV reviews and recommendations every week from Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado and James Manning. New 2023 series reviewed in episode one this year included The Last of Us, Happy Valley Season 3 and The Watcher.
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