Set in a mining community halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh (although location shooting actually took place in the villages of Fallin and Airth in Stirlingshire), Garnock Way ran in Scotland twice weekly for three years.
Two hundred men worked at the pits (Wilderness 1 and Wilderness 2), which were threatened with closure. The only other employer in town, McDougall’s boatyard – owned and run by Angus McDougall (Ian Stewart) – was also struggling.
The main characters were the Ross family – Mother Jean (Eileen McCallum), father Alec (Gerry Slevin) and their offspring Hughie (Alan Watters), Ginny (Frances Low) and Johnny (David Bannerman) – and the Baxters – Mother Louise (Harriet Buchan), likeable but hard-drinking father Tod (Bill Henderson) and their daughter, Mary (Terry Cavers).
Harry Murdoch (Bill McCabe) was the henpecked and highly respectable landlord of the local pub (The Wilderness Arms) who wouldn’t tolerate colourful language or unruly behaviour.
Georgie Munro (Jan Wilson) was a merry widow who enjoyed life and had the – possibly unfair – reputation of being a frivolous man-chaser.
Although the series – launched on April Fool’s Day in 1976 – was hugely popular in its native Scotland (where STV declared it “the Coronation Streetof Scotland”), it was deemed to be too gritty for English television consumption.
The only stations other than STV which screened the series were Ulster and Border TV.
And so, even though Garnock Way had consistently been a ratings winner in Central Scotland, STV sacrificed it in favour of a new series to appeal to the shortbread biscuits and People’s Friend types.
The new show had the working title The Glen Dhu Factor and subsequently became Take The High Road, set in the (fictitious) small, picturesque lochside village of Glendarroch in the Scottish Highlands.
Many of the Garnock Way cast were moved across to the new Scottish series. Bill Henderson, for example, who played Tod Baxter, a mechanic with a drinking problem, became Ken Calder in Take The High Road – who just happened to be a garage mechanic with a drinking problem.
It kept the public happy, and it meant simply extending actors’ existing contracts.
The last episode of Garnock Way aired on 12 July 1979.
Louise Baxter
Harriet Buchan Tod Baxter
Bill Henderson Mary Baxter
Terry Cavers Jean Ross
Eileen McCallum Alec Ross
Gerry Slevin Hughie Ross
Alan Watters Ginny Ross
Frances Low Johnny Ross
David Bannerman Angus McDougall
Ian Stewart Harry Murdoch
Bill McCabe Effi Murdoch
Ginni Barlow Georgina Munro
Jan Wilson Cliff Hewitt
George Howell Fred Cully
Jackie Farrell Sandra Cully
Dorothy Paul
The only stations other than STV which screened the series were Ulster and Border TV.
