25 December 2023 , 17:40
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As one of the UK’s most famous stars, Crossroads’ Noele Gordon was used to receiving stacks of fan mail.
And when her engagement to Larry Grayson was announced on live TV, it was no exception. But there was one problem – Noele and the comic were not really engaged. It was a joke that started when Noele appeared on This Is Your Life in 1973.
The late Noele, the subject of ITV1 drama Nolly, which airs tomorrow, recalled: “When Larry appeared I couldn’t believe he’d come all that way just for a couple of minutes on TV with me.
“That’s when our ‘romance’ was born. ‘Noele, I do love you,’ he said as he walked on. I knew he was joking and I carried on in the same vein. ‘I keep asking him to marry me but he won’t,’ I explained. Larry’s answer was gallant and to the point. ‘I will then,’ he said. Neither of us realised so many people would take it seriously.”
Helena Bonham Carter as Nolly and Mark Gatiss as Larry GraysonHowever, in 1975, The Generation Game presenter did play a role in a wedding involving Noele. More than 18 million Crossroads fans tuned in to see motel owner Meg Richardson marry Hugh Mortimer, played by John Bentley.
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Larry had a cameo role as the couple’s wedding chauffeur – despite the fact he could not drive. This was believed to be an in-joke referring to claims that he and Noele were romantically linked.
In reality, Larry was a gay man who feared coming out would end his career. He was 44 when homosexuality was decriminalised in England in 1967. Noele had vowed never to marry following two failed relationships.
Her first love, Army captain John Robertson Dunn Crichton, broke off their engagement a week before their wedding when she was 18. Then, she spent 20 years as the mistress of TV boss Val Parnell.
Larry Grayson and Noele Gordon on 'Shut That Door' (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)His wife Helen agreed Val could be in an open relationship with Noele but that came to an end when Val left them both for singer Aileen Cochrane. Noele’s biggest heartache, however, was her sacking from Crossroads in 1981 – the focus of the Russell T. Davies-penned drama Nolly.
Larry, played by Mark Gatiss, provides a shoulder for her to cry on. But Larry’s turn as a wedding chauffeur was not his first role in Crossroads. In Tony Nicholson’s biography Shut That Door, it is revealed the comic’s love of the soap led to him and Noele becoming friends.
He had been a huge admirer of Noele and would try to sneak a reference to Crossroads into his TV appearances. Larry was thrilled when some of the soap’s cast watched him at The Cresta Theatre Club in Solihull, West Mids, but, sadly, Noele was not there.
Helena Bonham Carter in the new drama (ITV STUDIOS)
Larry Grayson died aged 71 in 1995He later impressed a production manager with his knowledge of the series and she joked if he had ever thought of being in it. Larry said he would love to meet “Madam” and he was later asked if he would play a disgruntled customer of the Crossroads motel.
The star ad-libbed jokes to Noele’s scripted responses but as the director yelled, “Cut!”, Noele spluttered ‘You b*****d!’, and collapsed in fits of laughter.
In Nolly, the star, played by Helena Bonham Carter, goes to see Larry’s comedy performance in a theatre. The three-parter, which aired this year on streaming platform ITVX, includes Noele laughing at one of Larry’s jokes at her expense.
He says: “I went to see the doctor this morning for a check-up. He said everything was in perfect working order. Noele Gordon will be pleased.” Larry waited for laughs to die down before saying, “She’ll murder me”.
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Noele Gordon and Larry Grayson in Crossroads in the 1970s (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)However, Noele regularly got in on the joke and performed with him. In 1974, Larry had his face and name up in lights outside The London Palladium. He was topping the bill at long last – twice nightly for six weeks. Noele sang, danced and joined in the routine with him. A lot of the audience still believed they were an item and Larry would take the mickey out of his “partner”.
He would complain Noele was old, saying, “They make her up to look younger!” and that she was a big drinker: “She even dips her bread in it!” At the end of the run, Larry received a writ from Noele’s lawyers, claiming she “has been greatly injured in her character, credit and reputation”. Thankfully, it was an elaborate prank by his dear friend.
Larry had the letter, drawn up by a genuine barrister, framed and hung up on the wall at his home. Promoters asked the friends to take the show on tour around Britain. They were both keen but Noele said no out of loyalty to ATV and Crossroads. She regretted the decision when ATV axed her from the soap.
Noele, who appeared on Larry’s 1970s chat show Shut That Door!, later said she hoped she could appear in a TV comedy with him. But, sadly, it did not happen.
Noele starred in a sell-out revival of Gypsy at Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre, however, a year later she got cancer. She passed away from the disease aged 65 in 1985. Her funeral in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, was attended by 400 people.
Larry blamed the cancer on the trauma of Noele’s sacking, compounded by the loss of her mum “Jockey” in 1979. Noele had spoken to Larry from her hospital bed a couple of days before she died but he had not realised how close she was to death.
He was too upset to talk to journalists when he first heard she had passed away. But days later he tearfully paid tribute to his dear friend and attended the funeral as chief mourner.
Larry later died aged 71 in 1995 after suffering a perforated appendix.
- Partially extracted from Shut That Door by Tony Nicholson. Out now, published by Great Northern Books, £9.99
- Nolly, ITV1, tomorrow night at 9pm.