Garnock Way

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 companies	STV Productions (Scottish Television)
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	1 April 1976 (1976-04-01) – 12 July 1979 (1979-07-12)
Chronology
Related shows	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, , Paul Kermack, and John Stahl.

History[]

Garnock Way was set in a mining community in a town halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh.^[1] 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,^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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 –
• 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 –
• Effie Murdoch –
• Harry Murdoch –
• Carla the café owner - Ida Schuster
• Det Sgt Golspie –
• PC Scoular – John Stahl
• Georgina Munro –

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.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

External links[]

• Garnock Way show on YouTube (STV Player)
• The Glasgow Herald - 30 Mar 1976 P7 - https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC