An early 70s’ detective show with Roddy McMillan as a Glasgow-based private eye. An original play led to two series being commissioned, discussed in some detail elsewhere. The second series broadcast repeats of a couple of episodes from the first, but in numbering them here, I’m only counting original stories.

Location guide

In common with the practice of the time, interiors are almost all studio-based, shot on video, with exterior locations filmed. It was made at a time when the city was undergoing a lot of demolition and reconstruction, so much has long since vanished, but some areas are little changed in the half-century since this was broadcast.

A work in progress this, as I identify places and try to take pictures of how they appear now.

Play

Good Morning Yesterday!

No details on locations for this. Sorry.

Series One

1 - Philomena And The Tattie-Howkers

Pike joins a squad of potato pickers looking for a missing member of the troup.

The farm is stated to be down the Aberfoyle Road. In Pike’s office he’s marked it on a map, which looks like it’s somewhere off the B 822 between Thornhill and Boquhan, east of Flanders Moss. Where it was really filmed, I don’t know.

The Wheat Sheaf Inn, is in Torrance, north of Glasgow. The building portrayed as the police station in the programme (I don’t know if it was in reality) is now a private house in Torrance Main Street.

2 - The Manufactured Clue

A street vendor is murdered and Pike’s blind girlfriend is the only witness.

The pub at the beginning is Harvey’s Bar on Maryhill Road (currently closed I think), previously known as Whisky Mac’s and before that, Wyndford Vaults.

The cemetery scene is in the Glasgow Necropolis. Pike and Sam walk along the path which branches to the southeast at the Henry Monteith memorial pylon.

We see a scene where the villain asks for Pike’s office (which is supposed to be in Argyle Street). The street in this shot appears to have a slight curve, and there is a road bridge at the far end, but it bears no relation to how it looks now.

Sam leaves the club, which looks like it’s somewhere up Woodlands or Park Circus, way. We see Sam going down Park Gardens’ steps. Next there’s wasteground, more streets with high railings, pretty much unidentifiable. At one point a sign which might be “Saint Mary’s Primary School”. (There was a St Mary’s in Calton; the current St Mary’s in Maryhill is probably too new to be what we see here. She goes down more steps (which might be the Sixty Steps but there’s not enough detail to be sure). Then finally, into her own tenement. Don’t know where it is.

3 - Little Bird Lost

Rich girl is kidnapped. Can Pike get her back safely?

The kidnap at the beginning looks like the road which heads toward the Earls Burn north of the Carron Valley Reservoir.

The big house - not yet identified.

The first ransom drop attempt takes place at the Earls Burn bridge.

A phone call to the kidnappers is made from the Carron Dam. No phone box there now though.

The later ransom drop is at another bridge yet to be identified.

4 - The Short Price Premium

Pike investigates a suicide when the insurance people get suspicious.

The opening scenes appear to be Union St (Cadoro Building), then Jamaica St (Classic), then some dockside location.

There’s a villa, with turret and a curved path. Unlikely we can identify this.

Later there’s the exterior of a townhouse exterior. Looks like the west side of Carlton Place (one or two matching doors), but railings there now don’t have spikes. The insurance man, Miller, leaves the townhouse then crosses South Portland Street Suspension Bridge, heading north.

Next shot is a short street scene outside what is supposed to be the entrance to Pike’s office. This is Argyle Street, the section west of the Kingston Bridge. The pyramid-like structure at the far end on the left hand side is Anderston Kelvingrove church, opened in 1968 (a community centre now). Miller passes The Buttery restaurant, and enters the close next door. The tenements between the restaurant and the church have all been replaced with new housing. (You can't see the community centre from the close entrance anymore, so I do wonder if the road layout has been shifted. See the section for series two, episode two for a view up the street.)

Pike and Miller leave a bookies, into an as yet unidentified street.

Graveyard - unidentified.

Phonebox - unlikely to be identifiable with lack of surrounding points of interest.

Motorway/Clydeside Expressway/Kingston Bridge ?

A wide street, not yet identified.

The widow drives Pike to a remote coastal location. They pass Portencross Castle on the north Ayrshire coast, near Seamill. The ending plays out on the rocky foreshore north of the castle.

5 - A Tale Of Two Cities

Rich boy found murdered in a hearse. Why does he get a pauper’s funeral?

Begins with a night street scene. Supposed to be Edinburgh but could have been filmed in either city.

Princes Street, Edinburgh.

6 - So This Is Olympus

Gangster’s son kills and goes on the run. Pike has to bring him back.

Begins with another scene at night, outside some fancy houses. Railings a possible match for Dowanhill area, e.g. Victoria Crescent Road, Dowanside Road, Grosvenor Crescent. Kirklee Terrace a possible match for porch pillars.

Farm scene, could be anywhere.

The man on the run is supposed to be holed up somewhere in the Glencoe/Rannoch Moor vicinity.

In reality the village Pike drives to is Fintry in the Carron Valley. The kirk is still there, as is the former Clachan Hotel, which appears to have been remodelled and is now a private dwelling.

Series Two

1 - Big Fleas, Little Fleas

Who’s trying to force an old widow from her home. And who’s Pike working for?

House being vandalised in the first scene - unidentified location.

Construction site - Clydeside Expressway?

The lawyer’s office is on Park Terrace, overlooking Kelvingrove Park. The reverse shot from inside the car shows the Art Gallery & Museum in the background.

Lady Eustace’s house is a couple of minutes walk away, in Park Circus. As Pike comes around the corner you see the Gilbert Scott Building of Glasgow University in the distance.

Pike and Lady Eustace take a drive - unidentifed locations.

The construction site at the end is on the site of and adjacent to the Clydeside Expressway. As the camera zooms out, the Meadowside Granary (demolished and now the site of the high flats which make up “Glasgow Harbour”) is on the left, and Partick Fire Station (built 1906) is in the middle, near the top of the shot. (I don't think replicating the shot possible now, not just because the Granary is gone, but new construction and trees obscure the likely viewpoint.)

2 - Credit Where It’s Due

Pike is accused of blackmailing a former employer and arrested.

Almost all indoor scenes, except for the following.

Near the beginning a short street scene, tightly shot, but we know it to be near The Buttery as the shop pictured where Pike meets his paper boy, was in the neighbouring tenement, now demolished.

About two-thirds through we see Pike enter the Botanic Gardens, Kelvinside Parish Church (now Oran Mor) in the background.

A couple of minutes later, another street scene. The tower in the background of the second shot is part of the Anderston Centre so again this is Argyle Street west of the Kingston Bridge.

At the end, Pike emerges from the police station (the old Partick police station and court, still in use until 1993). In the distance we see the railway bridge which met where Merkland Street crossed Wilson (now Gullane) Street. There’s still a bridge there, but the old structure has been replaced. He turns right and as the camera pans round we see the former Anderson Street Nursery School, a hall built to accompany the adjoining Partick Free Church. All that was demolished and on that site is now a car park for Morrisons’ supermarket. The waste ground car park Pike walks past is now new housing.

3 - Away Match

Our hero has to recover money from a group of posh rowdies.

We begin at what very much looks like the houses on Great Western Terrace, where Pike goes debt-collecting.

Pike and Sam stop at a petrol station somewhere in the highlands where they pick up an older woman. Almost certainly this is the Cluanie Inn in Glen Moriston at the western edge of Loch Cluanie. The inn’s on the A 87 road to Skye.

Other scenes outdoors passing through hills may not be so easy to identify.

And there’s the scene between hills where Pike is threatened with a shotgun.

The big mansion, shown near the end is Duncraig House, near Plockton.

The final shot shows Pike and Sam waiting for their ride home. Best guess is the A 87 at Loch Shiel (Kintail, not the much larger loch of the same name near Fort William) with part of the Five Sisters in the background. I might be wrong: there doesn’t appear to be a layby at that loch now, and there’s only a couple of spots where one could have feasibly existed in the past.

4 - None So Blind

Construction site: Meadowside Granary in background? Warehouse (?), cobbled street scene. David Maxwell haulage (based in Clyde St/Oswald St apparently) sign in background. Interior of warehouse has glass roof in centre. Motorway pillars under Kingston Bridge, A804, i.e. western side of Pentagon Centre.

5 - Pig In The Middle

The prison scene at the beginning was filmed at Barlinnie Gaol. The gatehouse where Pike parks is still there, but sits behind the new entrance and visitor area (built 1990s?).

The stakeout location is the junction of Hillhead Street and Bower Street, up the West End.

The “Cellar” club has nothing really to identify its location, apart from the distinctive railings, which remind me of what we saw in The Short Price Premium, but the wall doesn’t match.

6 - A Slight Case of Absolom

Filmed on Skye, apparently.

7 - Four Walls

No location information available.

Copyright Gavin McCord, 2025.

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