Garnock Way


Garnock Way was a short-lived Scottish soap opera, produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network, running from 1976 to 1979.

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:
The outside scenes when you see the houses the characters lived in were filmed in Torbothie, Shotts. The houses are in Charles Street, and are still there today.
However the still picture at the start of the programme, where you see the street with the monument isn't from Shotts. That picture is of the Mercat Cross in Airth.