Take the High Road
Debut: January 01, 1980
Ended: January 01, 2003

Take the High Road was a soap opera produced by SMG Productions (Scottish Television) and set in the fictional village of Glendarroch (exteriors were filmed in the real-life village of Luss on the banks of Loch Lomond). It started in February 1980 as an ITV daytime soap opera, and was dropped by the network in 1993, although various members of the ITV Network (notably Central Television) continued to screen the programme, while others (such as Yorkshire Television and Carlton Television) had no interest in doing so. In 1994, the series' name was changed to just High Road, and from then on it continued to be produced by Scottish Television, for a Scottish audience, until it was cancelled in April 2003. Take the High Road was introduced as a replacement for Garnock Way, which contained very similar characters and actors to the original characters of Take the High Road, and had also spun off from a Scottish Television soap called High Living. Much of the early scripts were written by Michael Elder who also made guest appearances in the Show. Books by the same name as the show were also produced by him. In the early days of the scripting, the show was fairly credible, however as time went on poor storylines were to follow. It remains however one of Scotland's Exports and perhaps is best remembered abroad. During the course of its existence, Take the High Road went through a few major changes and face lifts. Perhaps the most noticeable was the renovation of Blair's store: everything was kept behind the Cashier's desk as was Scottish culture in the old days; and shortly after Brian Blair was released from prison it was transformed into a walk-around store. There were a few themes in Take the High Road, in line with Scottish culture, namely the idea of Elizabeth Cunningham the rich lady laird who owned the village and neighbouring farms, and the theme of Protestant religion which was always present. It also entertained the feeling that outsiders were simply not welcome into the small close-knit community, something which may exist in any small village. Modernity was coming, and the way of thinking of the first to final lairds was completely different. Towards the end of the show's life, it had tackled many social issues such as lesbianism, suicide and drug abuse, which was new to Scottish Television, although not new to the ITV network. Perhaps one of the reasons why Take the High Road was eventually cancelled was due to the poor scripting in its final years. For example, one of the leading characters, Mrs Mack, had been transformed from a traditional Presbyterian battleaxe to a party animal who enjoyed going to football matches. Such a character change was simply not believable. In other bids to stop the show going under, Andy Cameron, a well-known older Scottish comedian, was introduced to the show. His introduction, however, did not attract younger viewers but firmly raised the average age of the viewer to at least 60. Another famous Scottish comedian who appeared in the show was Hector Nicol Take the High Road will be remembered for its changes and, at times, its very stereotyped casting of a Scottish village, rather than its fame as a soap, although its way of bringing together modernity with the old ways of the country really give it credit. During its run, Take the High Road was always one of the highest-rated television programmes in Scotland, and had an extremely loyal following throughout the rest of the UK. Indeed, when the series was cancelled by the ITV Network, so many protests were received from viewers in England that some ITV regions re-instated the programme.

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