''Garnock Way'' was a short-lived Scottish

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

, produced by

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

for the ITV network, running from 1976 to 1979. It was replaced by ''

Take the High Road ''Take the High Road'' (renamed ''High Road'' from 1994 to 2003) was a Scottish soap opera produced by Scottish Television, which started in February 1980 as an ITV (TV network), ITV daytime programme, and was broadcast until 2003. It was set in ...

'' which also featured actors

Eileen McCallum Eileen McCallum, MBE (born 2 December 1936) is a Scottish actress who is best known for playing the part of shopkeeper Isabel Blair through the complete run of soap opera ''Take the High Road'' from 1980 to 2003, and as Liz Hamilton from 2005 t ...

, Bill Henderson, Paul Kermack, Michael Elder and John Stahl.

History

Garnock Way was set in a mining community in a town halfway between

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. It was deemed to be too gritty for network consumption, which resulted in only certain stations broadcasting the series. In the summer of 1979 ''Garnock Way'' was axed and replaced by ''

'', which was a bigger budget affair and more in keeping with the 'tartan' perception of Scotland as it was deliberately set in a more beautiful part of Scotland. In 2010 it was announced that ''Garnock Way'' would be one of the STV archive programmes soon to be available on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The

STV Player STV Player is a video on demand service owned by STV Group and available free-of-charge across the UK, online, on mobile and on all major TV platforms, including Sky Glass, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Freeview Play, Frees ...

channel on the video-sharing website launched on 20 August 2010. However, just four episodes of the series are known to exist, and these are available on the

Transmissions

Only a few ITV stations broadcast the series: *

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited. However, in 1966, during the application pr ...

from June 1976 until September 1977 * HTV throughout 1977 *

Border Television ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the Channel 3 service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the England/Scotland border region, covering most of Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, the ...

From late 1976 until Summer 1979 * UTV From March 1977 until Summer 1979

Characters

*Jean Ross –

*Alex Ross – Gerard Slevin *Tod Baxter – Bill Henderson *Mary Baxter – Terry Cavers *Louise Baxter – Harriet Buchan *Jock Nesbit – Paul Kermack *Willie Mclean – William Armour *Hughie Ross – Alan Watters *Sandra Cully – Dorothy Paul *Cully – Jackie Farrell *Cliff Hewitt – George Howell *Effie Murdoch – Ginni Barlow *Harry Murdoch – Bill McCabe *Carla the café owner – Ida Schuster *Det Sgt Golspie – Michael Elder *PC Scoular – John Stahl *Georgina Munro – Jan Wilson The outside scenes depicting the characters' houses were filmed in Charles Street, Torbothie, an area of

Shotts Shotts is a small town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The town has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertra ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

. The still picture at the start of the programme, showing the street with the monument, is of the Mercat Cross in

Airth Airth () is a Royal Burgh, village, former trading port and civil parish in Falkirk, Scotland. It is north of Falkirk town and sits on the banks of the River Forth. Airth lies on the A905 road between Grangemouth and Stirling and is overlooked ...

References

External links

* (

) * The Glasgow Herald – 30 Mar 1976 p. 7 – https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC {{Soap operas in the United Kingdom 1970s British television soap operas 1970s Scottish television series 1976 Scottish television series debuts 1979 Scottish television series endings British English-language television shows ITV soap operas Lost television shows Scottish television soap operas Take the High Road Television shows produced by Scottish Television