TAKE THE HIGH ROAD (renamed High Road from 1994-2003) was a UK soap opera that took its first bow in 1980. The series was filmed from Scotland via ITV's Scottish Television. It focused on the residents of the village of Glendarroch, located on Loch Lomond (which was called Loch Darroch for the series). The real-life village of Luss served as Glendarroch, and during the run of the series, Luss became a tourist attraction. Even today, long after the show had run its course, Luss still retains some of the flavor of the show's presence as some of its buildings still have Glendarroch on them.
The community of Glendarroch was a part of a larger estate that had been owned by the former Lord Petty. After the death of both her parents, their divorced daughter, Elizabeth (Edith MacArthur) had returned to Glendarroch from Edinburgh, was still living in the big house, called Glendarroch House, with her daughter, Fiona (Caroline Ashley). The person who runs the estate was the factor, originally Alan McIntyre (Martin Cochrane), who had recently returned to Glendarroch after a stint in a hospital in Glasgow.
She was divorced from powerful and wealthy barrister Peter Cunningham (Donald Douglas), but they were still close enough to create a unified front, especially when Fiona was being troublesome.
However, as was the case of landed estates all over the country, money was very hard to come by, and a German Businessman, Max Langemann (Frederick Jaeger), was intent on buying the entire estate of Glendarroch and turn it into a pleasure palace for his super-wealthy friends. (Ironically, this storyline would become a real-life situation when former US President Donald Trump would try to buy an estate in Aberdeenshire, in an aborted attempt to turn it into a huge golf course, against the wishes of the people.
The show was conceived by Don Houghton, in response to the somewhat lackluster performance of its previous Scottish-based soap, Garnock Way. Garnock Way was set in a coal mining community not far from Glasgow. Its poor performance, mainly due to its setting, was cause enough to take it off the air, and replace it with Take the High Road.
At first, the working title was The Glendhu Factor, but was rejected as nobody would understand the name of the town, and they didn't understand what the factor's role was, as factor meant two different things. In Scotland, a factor was the head manager of an estate. The town's name was changed to Glendarroch, and taking a line from the famous song, "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomand", "Y' take the high road, an' I'll take the low road, an' I'll be in Scotland afore ye." The next working title was High Road, Low Road, but the title was rejected as well, because it sounded like a Chinese takeaway.
They finally decided on the title, Take the High Road, which was well chosen. in 1994, the name was changed to High Road and was titled as such until the series end in 2003.
In addition to Glendarroch, there were crofter's areas, most notably in the area called Ardvain. The crofts had been occupied by the same family for generations. The larger community which was often frequented by most of the characters was called Auchtarne. Glendarroch was a huge tourist mecca during the warmer months but once winter set in, Glendarroch basically became deserted.
One of the few places that was open all year around was the community's Post Office/corner shop which was owned by Isabel Blair (Eileen McCollum) and ably assisted by her son, Jimmy Blair (Jimmy Chisholm). Isabel had raised Jimmy on her own since her husband, Brian, had been imprisoned in Glasgow for the murder of his mistress, which imperiled his marriage. When Brian left, Jimmy was all of ten years old.
However, David (Derek Anders), Brian's younger brother, came around and did everything possible to get the case reopened and which allowed his brother out on licence (parole, as it's known in the States). He reestablished ties with his wife, and also his son, David also stuck around and had to contend with HIS wife, Helen, a woman who had an affair with someone, and took his two daughters from him. Later on, his oldest daughter, Katie, would stay on for a while with her aunt Isabel and her family.
In Ardvain, lived the Lachlan family. Widow Grace Lachlan (Marjorie Thomson); her idle son, sheepherder, Dougal (Alec Monteath) and his wife, Amy (Julie Ann Fullarton). Amy, about ready to give birth, was looked after by her mother in-law, and Kay Grant (Vivian Heilbron), who served as the district nurse for Glendarroch and the surrounding farms and crofts.
Later on, Amy's sister, Alice would move into Glendarroch, and help the family with baby Donald. She would later marry the estate's water bailiff, Bob Taylor, but would still offer her help to her in-laws.
Kay had met Alan while he was in hospital in Glasgow, where she had worked at the time. Most of the townspeople had the misfortune to deal with the slanderous gossip of Maggie Ferguson (Irene Sunters), a local busybody who drove the bus between Auchtarne and Glendarroch. Also featured was Lorna Seton (Joan Alcorn), who served as the factor's secretary, who happened to also work for the "Lady Laird" Elizabeth.
Maggie would always be starting some sort of gossip about someone, and what would usually happen was someone would forcefully put her in her place. Often that was Isabel, who had to contend with her slanderous gossip about absolutely everyone, however, Dougal and Grace Lachlan had the pleasure of putting Maggie in her place, when she started slandering Bob Taylor by calling him a poacher without any evidence. Dougal stood up for Alice's fiancé, by stating while he didn't understand Bob's always picking up grouse feathers or wool off barbed wire, that was just his way, and fiercely ordered Maggie to curb her vicious tongue. Stunned at being told off by Dougal, she left the store, speechless, for once.
Maggie's behavior would usually end up putting her out of the store, and whenever she was thwarted, she would threaten and cause no end of trouble for those who didn't listen to her.
Maggie would slander Lorna Seton, which infuriated Isabel enough to tell her off fiercely, and throw her out of her store and ordered her never to come back until she tamed her venomous tongue. Maggie threatened Isabel, but it was no use, as Isabel wasn't intimidated by Maggie's anger.
The interfering Maggie would also start up causes, for example, she would start a petition to outlaw David Blair from building what she called a "germ factory" on Laird's Point. She was duly arrested by the constable after she had punched another constable, and her picture was pasted all over the Auchtarne Gazette, the area's local newspaper, to the complete amusement to the entire village!
An infuriated Maggie bought up the entire lot of newspapers, and stormed out, with threats of litigation against anyone connected with it. However, Brian, thanks to the help of Ken Calder, would put another batch of papers for the rest of the village to read and enjoy.
However, after a time, Maggie would fall in love again with an old friend, "Sorry" Watson, and with her marriage to him, would make her far less gossipy and far less interfering. She and her husband would move away from Glendarroch, but would make some periodic visits during the series' run.
The show would run from 1980-1994 (when the show would return as High Road) and then from 1994-2003, when the show was ended.