Take The High Road (ITV 1980-2003, Gwen Guthrie, Jimmy Chisholm)

Drama series Take The High Road was a daytime soap opera with something of a checkered history to UK viewers. Telling stories of the folk of the Scottish village of Glendarroch the series was very similar in style to Emmerdale Farm and was said to have been a favourite show of the Queen Mothers!

Initially the series was fully networked but by 1993 it was starting to fall out of favour with many of the ITV regions dropping the show and by the late 1990′s it was only being seen in Scotland (and those regions that could also pick up STV) and a couple of regions that had remained loyal to the series like Central and Border (although both of these stopped broadcasting the show before it was cancelled by STV in 2003, Central in 2001 and Border in 2002).

On 5 August 1994 the show had been renamed High Road and the producers had gone down a similar route to Emmerdale, lots of changes to the sets, bringing in of new characters and stronger, harder-hitting storylines.

Exterior locations were filmed in and around the Loch Lomond village of Luss. Location filming took place on Mondays and Tuesdays and the shop used for the Post Office/General store did quite well as a souvenir shop!

production details
UK / ITV – Scottish TV / 1517×30 minute episodes 1×45 minute episode and 2×60 minute episodes / Broadcast 19 February 1980 – 27 April 2003

Creator: Don Houghton / Theme Music: Arthur Blake (originally performed by the band Silly Wizard but the arrangement and performers chnged several times over the years).

Important cast members have included:-
GWEN GUTHRIE as Mrs Mary Mack
JIMMY CHISHOLM as Jimmy Black
EDITH MacARTHUR as Elizabeth Cunningham
EILEEN McCALLUM as Isabel Blair
ALEC MONTEATH as Dougal Lachlan
GINNI BARLOW as Gladys Lachlan
MARJORIE THOMSON as Grace Lachlan
BILL HENDERSON as Ken Calder
MARTIN COCHRANE as Alan McIntyre
INGRID HAFFNER as Jane Steedman
KENNETH WATSON as Brian Blair
JAN WATERS as Margaret Ross-Gifford