Talk:Park Avenue (teletext soap)

Characters and storylines

More info on characters and storylines would be useful for this article. I seem to remember it tackled some controversial subjects. If anyone can help here please feel free to expand the article. As for characters, the ones I seem to recall are;

• Dave Finder - newspaper editor
• Sue Finder - Dave's wife (not sure what she did, might have been a nurse)
• Jane Finder - Student, Dave's daughter
• Robert Finder - at school, Dave's son who died in a housefire
• Richard Gold - estate agent
• Sarah Wright - junior doctor
• Don Davey - actor or musician (forget which it was)
• Angela Samuels - businesswoman, Don's wife in later episodes
• Sid Smith - retired
• Ivy Smith - retired, married to Sid
• Cathall Murphy - postman
• Kate Anderson - think she had an affair with Dave
• Russell Anderson - Kate's son
• Mary Jones - owned a B&B
• Jocasta Adams - ran a gym
• Andy Stenton - student, Jane Finder's on-off boyfriend
• Debbie Fox - worked for Dave's newspaper and tried to have him killed or something

There are probably others, but these are the characters I seem to remember. TheRetroGuy (talk) 14:25, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Don Davey was an actor - never seemed to have much luck with auditions.

Kate Anderson - whose name, for some reason, in one episode, was given as Saunders - was a woman Dave Finder took up with after Sue left him for another man, Ray something - went off to Japan - came back some time later. A poll was ran to determine whether Dave would take Sue back or stick with Kate - the viewers voted for Dave and Sue to get back together again. They had a few such polls, in fact.

Cathall Murphy lodged with the Smiths - Sid eventually died.

I believe the character of Mary Jones was created by a viewer - they ran a competition for a new character and Mary Jones came in. After Sid Smith died, his widow Ivy moved elsewhere and Mary Jones took over the house.

Richard Gold and Sarah Wright were a couple who shared a house without being married - Sarah started an affair with Paul Kineton, a doctor at the hospital - a dramatic cliffhanger saw Richard (who, in typical soap fashion, up until now had been kept in the dark) and Paul (who, as far as he knew, thought Sarah was unattached) both front up at her house with a bunch of flowers - each one asked the other who they were for and replied that they were for their girlfriend Sarah. They knocked on he door - Sarah answered it and Richard and Paul said, in unison, "Hey, Sarah - this guy says he's your boyfriend!", and that was the end of that episode.

The episodes were written shortly before it went to air, so, unlike regular soaps, which are recorded months in advance, it could involve the characters in real situations that were taking place in the real world. They even had their own racehorse, also named Park Avenue, that ran in real races at real meetings (not usually televised) - depending on how well or badly it ran at the real meeting would affect the storylines of that evening's episode.

Arthurvasey (talk) 00:21, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for adding info, some useful information here. I think though that it was actually Ivy Smith who died, and Sid moved to Worthing with his daughter Barbara. Not sure if Mary Jones was created by a viewer, but I know Angela Samuels definitely was. I entered the contest to create a new character and submitted someone who I seem to recall was a bit of a flamboyant eccentric, but alas he didn't get in. TheRetroGuy (talk) 11:05, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

I stand corrected re the Smiths - now you come to mention it, it was Ivy who died - can't recall how. Mary Jones was a viewer creation, that I can remember.

They often ran polls as to story outcomes.

Arthurvasey (talk) 16:29, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I think Ivy was frightened to death, by one of two things. I have a memory of Russell and a friend trying to trick or treat her at Halloween, and another story where she was visited by an alien. I think it was one of those that did for her. When I have some time to do it, I might trawl through the episodes and expand this article a little with some of the storylines. They seemed to have quite a few uploaded when I last checked, so collating the main storylines together should be fairly straightforward (if a little slow). Paul MacDermott (talk) 20:38, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Channel 4

I also seem to recall that when Park Avenue moved to Channel 4 it became part of a magazine format feature which also included Debbie's Diary, a fictional diary written by a teenage girl. TheRetroGuy (talk) 14:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Apparently it was called BUZZ and was a teenage magazine. [1] Nice to know my memory serves me well. Have now also discovered that ORACLE held a competition for final storyline ideas at the end of 1992. [2]

Also, archives of Park Avenue appear to have been available on the web at some time in the past, but it seems to be broken now. Such a pity. Perhaps someone can shed some light on what happened to it, or whether it's moved somewhere else. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 20:30, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

The final episode can be seen here:

http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/oracle/ch4-566-311298.gif

Hyperlink in the main page.

Arthurvasey (talk) 23:59, 18 March 2011 (UTC)