The three-part drama is dreamt up by screenwriter Russell T Davies, who was a fan of Crossroads in its heyday and followed Nolly\u2019s shock departure avidly as it dominated newspaper headlines.<\/p>\n
He began writing the series during the COVID-19 lockdowns, taking extended Zoom calls with the surviving Crossroads cast to gain an understanding of life on the show and the circumstances that brought about its biggest twist.<\/p>\n
As a result, Nolly is a largely accurate depiction of the true events, although there are some elements that have been tweaked or invented for the purpose of quality drama.<\/p>\n
Be warned \u2013 there are spoilers ahead for Nolly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Speaking at a launch event for Nolly, creator Russell T Davies was quizzed on what parts of the show are factual and which have come from his imagination.<\/p>\n He confidently assured the audience that all of the anecdotes mentioned about Nolly are true, placing particular emphasis on the enormous sense of loyalty she had to the cast and crew of Crossroads.<\/p>\n Davies was taken aback by the story of a Crossroads staffer whose parents were killed in a tragic accident shortly before her wedding day. As a result, Nolly drove her to the church in her Rolls Royce.<\/p>\n \u201cAll those things are true,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re all absolutely true. They\u2019re real stories.\u201d<\/p> The moving memory is brought up in the second episode of Nolly, as the titular soap icon prepares to film her initial exit from the series that turned her into a household name.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the finale, Nolly is arrested in a strip club while travelling in Bangkok, which is another strange-yet-true moment from a highly eventful life.<\/p>\n Davies continued: \u201cThat really happened. Fiona Fullerton told me that.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a slight degree of TV deception going on, however \u2013 as lead actor Helena Bonham Carter interjected that the Bangkok-set scenes in Nolly were actually filmed in Bolton.<\/p>\n One of this show\u2019s standout moments takes place on Nolly\u2019s last day at Crossroads, when she films a teary goodbye aboard famous cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 (or QE2 for short).<\/p>\n The cast feel great sadness over her forced removal from the show, which is only heightened by the realisation that Nolly would actually have to sail away on the QE2 completely alone for the purpose of getting the desired farewell shot.<\/p>\n Her co-star and dear friend Tony Adams couldn\u2019t stomach the idea of Nolly being lonely on an already vulnerable day, so he sails out on his own yacht to see her off.<\/p>\n This has the added benefit of breathing life into the scene between Nolly and her on-screen daughter Jane Rossington (who played Jill Richardson on the soap), which was awkwardly flat prior to Adams\u2019s surprise intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cShe really was having trouble, difficulty waving, you know, it was all a bit lacklustre,\u201d began Helena Bonham Carter. \u201cAnd then suddenly, bonkers man comes in from left field and then she really did come alive\u2026 and he gave her the send-off. It was really touching.\u201d<\/p>\n Augustus Prew, who portrays Adams in Nolly, added that the surreal moment was a perfect example of how the Crossroads cast were \u201ca bunch of wonderful weirdos\u201d.<\/p>\n One of the fictitious elements of Nolly is the insertion of a character named Poppy Ngomo, played by Stay Close<\/a> star Bethany Antonia, who is introduced in the first episode as a young actor preparing to make her Crossroads debut.<\/p>\n Poppy is an invention of screenwriter Russell T Davies, who clarified at the show\u2019s launch that neither she nor her character, an adoptive daughter of Meg Mortimer (Nolly) named Honour, ever actually featured in the ITV soap.<\/p>\n However, there is some truth to be found in the nature of Poppy\u2019s relationship with Nolly, who becomes a stern-yet-supportive mentor figure.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t an actress called Poppy and I just had to invent someone to come in as a newcomer,\u201d said Davies. \u201cBut I spoke to a lot of people \u2013 Wendy Padbury, for example, who is an ex-Doctor Who companion [and] played Meg\u2019s daughter in the \u201960s.<\/p>\n \u201cI spoke to people who had been younger actors with Nolly and it\u2019s very accurate \u2013 I hope it\u2019s accurate \u2013 that she took them under her wing. She disciplined them a bit, but she\u2019d teach them good studio manners and good professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n This maternal side to Nolly led to her being nicknamed \u201cThe Godmother\u201d on the set of Crossroads, with Bonham Carter describing the numerous younger stars who joined the show over the years as her \u201csurrogate children\u201d.<\/p>\n This was particularly true of her bond with actor Roger Tonge, who played her son, Sandy, for the better part of two decades, but sadly passed away from cancer in 1981.<\/p>\n As Nolly did not have any children in real-life, Tonge became like a son to her, which made her sudden firing mere months after his death a \u201creally kind of cruel\u201d move, according to Davies.<\/p>\n Of Nolly\u2019s surviving colleagues, Davies added: \u201cThey all spoke of her with love, they properly did\u2026 This is 50 years later, 60 years later, and still speaking with so much love and affection.\u201d<\/p>\n One other aspect of this story that Davies changed for the screen comes in the finale, when Nolly sits down with Crossroads head writer Jack Barton, who finally reveals to her the reason why she was fired from the show.<\/p>\n Davies explained: \u201cIn real life, there\u2019s no evidence that she ever did [find out]. So that\u2019s for drama, I had to give it some sort of conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that Nolly (probably) never discovered why she was so abruptly dropped from a show she helped build is another reason why she found it so painful to be constantly asked about it by fans \u2013 there was no answer she could give.<\/p>\n Davies concluded: \u201cI hope we\u2019ve made Nolly to give Noele Gordon some status again, to reintroduce her to the public and to say \u2018well done, Nolly\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Nolly is available to stream free on ITVX from Thursday 2nd February 2023. Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0<\/b>subscribe now<\/b><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/b>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The series creator and star Helena Bonham Carter unpack their new ITVX drama. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29634,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction.jpg",1280,853,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction.jpg",1280,853,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/how-accurate-is-nolly-russell-t-davies-separates-fact-from-fiction.jpg",1280,853,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The series creator and star Helena Bonham Carter unpack their new ITVX drama.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Russell T Davies: \u201cEverything that\u2019s said on-screen is true\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did Tony Adams really sail out to meet Nolly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Are any Nolly characters fictional?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did Nolly find out why she was fired?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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