From: MDuPree@world.std.com (Micky DuPree)
Subject: TAGGART primer for Yanks (was: Favourite Mystery Shows)
Summary: Great show; limited distribution in the States.
Keywords: Taggart, Mark McManus, Strangers
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 19:17:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep24.151825.59156@cc.usu.edu> sll28@cc.usu.edu (Lorna
Payne) writes:
>Has Taggart ever been shown on Mystery!?  I don't remember this show at
>all.

Unfortunately, "Taggart" has never been shown on PBS's nationally
distributed anthology show "Mystery."  To my knowledge, only a few
enlightened local PBS stations (e.g., WNED Buffalo, PBS Allentown, and
maybe a Seattle station) have carried it, and to complicate matters
further, I believe that only about one series' worth (what would be
called a season in the U.S.) circa 1987 has been made available by
Scottish Television for purchase in the U.S.

Detective Inspector Taggart of the Glasgow Police is not a soft sell.
He's an honest cop and a reasonably decent chap, but he's not only gruff
on the outside, he's gruff on the inside, too.  He gives the people
close to him a hard time, although to be fair, they don't make his life
perfectly easy either.  His wife is wheelchair-bound, and she's written
a book on sex for the invalid.  One of his partners is a born-again
Christian.

In article <CC.92Sep25124018@arran.dcs.ed.ac.uk> cc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Chris
Cooke) writes:
>In article <19st2qINNja@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM>
>martin.baines@uk.sun.com (Martin Baines - Sun UK - SE Manager
>Cambridge) writes:
>
>>     Interestingly, Taggert is the only one in this list that is not
>>     based on a book character, but completely original
>
>Arguably, he's based just a teensy bit on Hugh McIlvanney's "Laidlaw"
>books.

My own humble guess would be that someone got the idea for "Taggart"
after seeing "Taggart" star Mark McManus play Detective Chief
Superintendent Lambie on the Granada cop show "Strangers" (another show
that's in limited distribution to local PBS stations in the U.S.).
"Strangers" was supposed to be a vehicle for Don Henderson as the
incongruous self-taught scholar and head-cracker Detective Sergeant
Bulman, a character that he has inexplicably carried through at least
three different series that I know of.  By the fourth episode I grew
irritated with Bulman and was much more interested in finding out who
the ballsy little Scotsman was.  When I got a chance to see "Taggart"
later, I felt I was seeing a slightly more acerbic version of Lambie.
(A friend of mine independently saw the two series in reverse order and
remarked that Lambie was a slightly mellowed Taggart.)

The plots in "Taggart" are amazingly convoluted.  I usually give up
trying to follow them and just soak up the matter-of-fact atmosphere,
the fresh characterization, the unsentimental acting, and the Glaswegian
accents.

In article <Bv50Cu.4oz@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> john@monet.uwaterloo.ca
(John Robinson) writes:
>I imagine ["Taggart"] hasn't made it to Mystery because some of the
>Scots accents are a bit thick.

Every time an American says this, a poster with a Scottish address
threatens to send us "Rab C. Nesbitt," on which the Glaswegian accents
are supposed to be so thick they say even the English request subtitles.
:-) I'm still waiting.

-Micky