‘Community of watching TV’ has been lost
WATCHING television has become a “lonely” business in the age of streaming, Helena Bonham Carter has said, speaking wistfully of the era in which 15million would tune in to Crossroads.
The actress is starring in a three-part drama about Noele Gordon, the soap’s grande dame. The ITVX series, Nolly, explores Gordon’s 1981 sacking from the soap, which made headlines and led to protests from dismayed viewers.
“It’s very difficult to explain to my kids [that] there were only three channels,” Bonham Carter said of that time. “So the impact of a soap was huge, and the impact of Nolly.
“She was in everyone’s living room, 15million [viewers], three times a week. There wasn’t much else.
“Now, which I think is a bit of a shame, none of us are watching the same thing at the same time, so you miss the community of watching.”
Nolly begins on Feb 2.