Crossroads was a television soap opera set in a motel near Birmingham. Originally broadcast on the commercial ITV network between 1964 and 1988, it was produced by ATV until the end of 1981 and then by Central.

The main character in the original series was motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon. Meg's children were also to play a prominent role: Jill, played by Jane Rossington; and Sandy, played by Roger Tonge.

Other characters during the early years of the show included the chef, Carlos Raphael (Anthony Morton); Constance Merrow (Geraldine Newman); postman Vince Parker (Peter Brookes), and his waitress wife, Diane (Susan Hanson); Brummie waitress Marilyn Gates (Sue Nicholls, but later portrayed by Nadine Hanwell); postmistress Miss Tatum (Elisabeth Croft), and charlady Amy Turtle (Ann George).

Amy Turtle was to be satirised by Julie Walters as Mrs Overall in Victoria Wood's 1985 spoof Acorn Antiques. However, Crossroads fans felt that while Mrs Overall's fluffing of lines and position as char at the antiques shop were based on Amy, the character's mannerisms, voice and clothing were more evocative of Charmian Eyre's character Mavis Hooper (in the series from 1981 to 1985).

Later additions included Ronald Allen as the suave manager David Hunter, Sue Lloyd as his wife Barbara, Angus Lennie as obstreperous Scottish chef Shughie McFee, Zeph Gladstone as hairdresser Vera Downend, Tony Adams as accountant Adam Chance, and Kathy Staff as cleaner Doris Luke.

However, the most memorable character proved to be the village-idiot Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry), whose trademark was a woolly hat worn all year. His fans included British troops serving in the Falklands War in 1982, who nicknamed the Falkland Islanders Bennies after the character. Instructed to stop using the name, the troops came up with "Stills" for locals - because they were "still Bennies".)

The fictional "Crossroads Motel" was in an equally fictional village near Birmingham, "Kings Oak" (there are real Birmingham suburbs called Kings Heath, Kings Norton and Selly Oak). A number of real-life hotels doubled for location filming; the original Crossroads was filmed at a motel just south of Birmingham city centre called CherryTrees (the buildings were demolished in 2001).