The series, which ran from 1964 to 1988, was mocked for its wobbly sets.

But it still drew in an average audience of 17 million in its heyday.

The soap became so legendary it was even parodied by Oldbury actress Julie Walters and comedian Victoria Wood in Acorn Antiques.

Telly executives even succeeded in resurrecting the soap in 2001, but it only lasted a further two years before they pulled the plug.

Peter Ling, who is survived by his four children, was born in Croydon in Surrey in 1926 and spent the Second World War in Nottinghamshire mining villages as a Bevan Boy.

He was too tall and slight to be sent down the mines, so learned office skills instead.

After demobilisation, he was diagnosed with TB and started his 50-year writing carreer as he recovered in a sanatorium. He wrote for BBC Radio and the Eagle comic.

His next move was into children’s TV, writing for Whirligig in 1950 where Rolf Harris made his TV debut.

After teaming up with his writing partner, Hazel Adair, he started work on a new BBC series, Compact, a drama about life on a glossy magazine.

Later, Ling came up with the Crossroads Motel concept for ATV after an idea for a soap set in a rather less glamourous boarding house was turned down.

As well as Crossroads, Ling produced a lot of work during the 1960s, including the Mind Robber episodes of Doctor Who.

He was also on the original team behind the Archers-style Radio Two soap Waggoner’s Walk.

Later, he wrote plays for radio and wrote novels drawing on his childhood.

By Irena Barker

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