Jane Rossington

Who is Jane Rossington?

Jane Rossington is a British actress, best known for her role as Jill Richardson in the soap opera Crossroads.

Born in Derby, Rossington's family moved to Sutton Coldfield when she was four years of age. The daughter of a bank manager, she attended Sutton Coldfield Grammar School and was an amateur actress, having trained in the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, before appearing in repertory theatre in Sheffield and York. She was the only Crossroads original cast member to be in the first and last episode of the series. She was, however, no stranger to soap opera, having played the part of probationary nurse Kate Ford in the ITV series Emergency Ward 10 during 1963-64.

Rossington spoke the first words of the first episode of Crossroads on 2 November 1964, "Crossroads Motel, good evening". She played Jill Richardson, the daughter of the owner of the Crossroads Motel, Meg Richardson. For the 24 years she appeared in the show the writers delighted in making Jill suffer, and amongst other things, she was married three times - once bigamously - was a drug addict, an alcoholic and had a baby with her stepbrother.