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As a brand Southern Cross became toxic.

Its HQ was based in Darlington so perhaps it was inevitable that when it collapsed the North East might have felt somewhat disheartened that one of its own, which had exploded so spectacularly onto the stock market and burned so brightly, then imploded.

Was the failure ours? Could it be that our North East business acumen isn't honed enough to hack it in the City? Well, none of the above applies.

The clue is in the name. The Southern Cross is as famous in the southern hemisphere as the North Star is in ours. It is so prominent in the night sky the constellation forms part of the Australian and New Zealand national flags.

It was businessman John Moreton's love of Australasia that made "Southern Cross" the first choice when setting up a new business in the UK. Its move to a Darlington base was a quirk of the long journey to domination of the care home sector as it went through different owners, acquisitions and expansions to the eventual floatation on the stock exchange.

Leader Ed Miliband told the Labour conference Southern Cross: "May not have sold their own grandmothers for a fast buck. But they certainly sold yours".

In the end there was nothing peculiarly northern about Southern Cross. Some of the interviewees in our programme argue the company appeared to lose its sense of northern community spirit and ended up thinking of the people in its care as commodities.

No doubt that's a charge that those at the top of Southern Cross would dispute and indeed we would have been glad to talk to them. But it is a real shame that, for something of such public interest, not one of the former executives we approached from its 15 year history were willing to appear on camera to talk about the rise and fall of the company.

Some responded with statements and I have reproduced them in my previous blog.

Inside Out has been charting problems at Southern Cross since well before it became headline news. Our first investigation centred on sub-standard care at several homes in the North East. We had no idea that would lead to our biggest ever postbag from other worried relatives and staff members who were concerned that the problems were more widespread within the organisation as a whole.

Our second investigation centred on the financial state of the company and despite assurances that all was well it wasn't long before Southern Cross announced it was in fact unable to continue paying rent without the co-operation of its landlords.

Its business model was unsustainable, but having brought such financial rewards no-one had thought to question the company that had become the largest care home provider in Britain.

For a while the Southern Cross twinkled in the northern hemisphere and dazzled some in the city. But no-one remembered the very last verse of :

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
How I wonder what you are.
How I wonder what you are.

If you would like to comment on this story then please email me chrisjackson@bbc.co.uk