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Garnock Way
Opening titles
Genre	Soap opera
Written by	Jack Gerson
Theme music composer	Arthur Blake
Country of origin	Scotland
Original language	English
No. of episodes	173
Production
Executive producer	Bryan Izzard
Running time	30 minutes (including adverts)
Production company	Scottish Television
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	1 April 1976 (1976-04-01) – 12 July 1979 (1979-07-12)
Related
Take the High Road

Garnock Way was a short-lived Scottish soap opera, produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network, running from 1976 to 1979. It was replaced by Take the High Road which also featured actors Eileen McCallum, Bill Henderson, Paul Kermack, Michael Elder and John Stahl.

History

Garnock Way was set in a mining community in a town halfway between Glasgow and 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 Take the High Road, 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. The STV Player 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 STV Player.

Transmissions

Only a few ITV stations broadcast the series:

• Southern Television from June 1976 until September 1977
• HTV throughout 1977
• Border Television From late 1976 until Summer 1979
• UTV From March 1977 until Summer 1979

Characters

• Jean Ross – Eileen McCallum
• 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 in North Lanarkshire. The still picture at the start of the programme, showing the street with the monument, is of the Mercat Cross in Airth.

References

1. Watkins, Mike (27 November 2018). "Viewers can revisit STV serial Garnock Way once more". Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
2. "TV – the history of Scottish soaps". 27 September 2012.
3. Historical detail Archived 2 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine: from an interview with Haldane Duncan, ex-director of Take the High Road. Retrieved on 16 March 2008.
4. "Forgotten gems of STV's archive can be enjoyed once more thanks to deal with YouTube – Daily Record". 29 June 2010.

External links

• Garnock Way show on YouTube (STV Player)
• The Glasgow Herald – 30 Mar 1976 p. 7 – https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC

• 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