Dr Matthew Sweet, an English journalist, broadcaster, author, and cultural historian with a penchant for television has challenged himself to watch more than 700 episodes of the delightful former Brummy soap opera Crossroads for our charity, raising more than £3,000 on JustGiving within its first few days of being live.
Sweet was motivated to take part in the challenge as a sort of light preparation for the new series Nolly, coming to new streaming platform ITVX early next year based on the life of Noele Gordon, the actress who played the role of Meg Mortimer in the show. The full 700 episode series in being released as a collection on DVD- 240 hours, 94 disks.
We spoke to Matthew, who said:
“When I first heard they were releasing the full DVD collection of Crossroads- I thought, “Who would want that?!”, and then I thought, “Oh, that’s me!”. This is no doubt a very crazy thing to do, but I thought, if I’m going to do it, why not turn this into a fundraising activity? A minor endurance for something good!
I chose St Basils because Crossroads is about a place to stay- there was actually a storyline about Benny having to sleep rough, too. I did some research online to see who I could fundraise for, and it was natural for me to choose St Basils, as a homelessness charity in Birmingham.”
Matthew says he’ll be reporting on the psychological effects of the gruelling task via his twitter account, which has kept us entertained throughout the festive period:
@drmatthewsweet
He finishes: “Give me a month. Give what you can.”
Good luck, Matthew, and thanks for thinking of us!
If you would like to sponsor Matthew Sweet, click below. Or if you are willing to put yourself through a tough task to help young homeless people, contact us at fundraising@stbasils.org.uk and we can give you a hand!