PETER LING was one of British television’s most prolific scriptwriters. During his long career he wrote scripts for many successful series, including Dixon of Dock Green, Sexton Blake, The Avengers and Doctor Who.

With Hazel Adair he created Compact (1962-65), a twice- weekly BBC soap set in the offices of a women’s magazine, but the pair’s most famous creation was ITV’s long-running soap Crossroads (1964-88), starring Noele Gordon as the owner of a Midlands motel. Few programmes have been so derided by critics, who complained of wobbly sets and poor acting, but at the height of its popularity Crossroads was watched by millions and attracted a devoted following.

Ling was also the originator of the BBC Radio 2 soap Waggoners’ Walk, a series which reflected the swinging Sixties and featured three young women sharing a flat in Hampstead. Like Crossroads, it attracted a loyal following and in the Seventies had four million listeners a day.

Peter Ling was born in 1926 in Croydon, Surrey, the son of Theodora, a schoolteacher, and Fred Hugh, a concert party magician. Educated at Whitgift Grammar School, Ling performed as an “Ovaltinie” on the famous children’s radio show.

He began writing stories at an early age and his first novel was published at the age of 18. During the Second World War he was a Bevan Boy but as he suffered from ill-health he was unsuitable for underground work and served in the Pay Corps. On being demobbed he was found to be suffering from tuberculosis and while in a sanitorium began writing for radio.

He later moved into television, scripting the children’s show Whirligig (1950), and in 1954 married an actress from the programme, Sheilah Ward. He was appointed script editor for Rediffusion where he wrote material for many detective series. He also hawked songs around the London Tin Pan Alley — and one, a single for Matt Monro, Why Not Now, reached the charts in 1961.

His teaming with Adair on Compact proved to be a turning point. Although the show was criticised for being too wholesome, it was successful in the ratings and caught the eye of the TV mogul Lew Grade, who asked the pair to write a daily serial for ATV. “Something my wife, Kathy, would enjoy watching,” he said.

The original plan was to set the serial in a boarding house, but Adair and Ling had the idea of setting it in a busy motel. The programme’s queen bee was Meg Richardson (Noele Gordon), widowed owner of the Crossroads Motel, in the fictitious village of King’s Oak. Around her was a variety of Birmingham characters, the gossipy char Amy Turtle (Ann George), the singing waitress Marilyn Gates (Sue Nicholls), the slow-witted, woolly-hatted Benny Hawkins (Paul Henry) and many others.

The series was shown only on Central and Southern TV but such was its popularity it was networked nationally in 1972. Celebrities such as Ken Dodd, Bob Monkhouse and Larry Grayson asked to appear on the show, and its fans included Mary Wilson, the wife of Harold Wilson, and the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who visited ATV’s studios.

Despite its critics Gordon said that the show gave her more opportunities to act “than any artist had had in the history of TV or the theatre”.

Ling was keen that Crossroads should never dodge social isues and key storylines included Sandy Richardson (Roger Tonge) being injured in a car crash and becoming the first main paraplegic character in a British soap opera. The garage mechanic Joe MacDonald (Carl Andrews) was the first black character to appear regularly in a British soap.

The show was cut to four episodes a week in 1967, and then, on the instructions of the IBA, which was concerned about its quality, to three a week in 1980. In 1988, after 4,500 programmes, the show was axed, despite a public outcry. The comedian Victoria Wood sent the programme up gloriously in Acorn Antiques and became a patron of the Crossroads Appreciation Society.

In the Nineties Ling returned to writing scripts for radio, as well as adapting Sherlock Holmes stories and an Arnold Bennett novel, Imperial Palace.

His wife predeceased him and he is survived by his four children.

Peter Ling, television scriptwriter and novelist, was born on May 27, 1926. He died on September 14, 2006, aged 80.