Glasgow radio gem The McFlannels was first Scottish soap

First broadcast on March 18, 1939, it was a radio serial about Glasgow families - Scotland’s very first soap.

There were the posh McSilks, middle class McCorduroys and working class McFlannels. Lots of Scots stars appeared, including Molly Weir, who played ‘Poison’ Ivy McTweed, and Rikki Fulton.

Mary Fraser, remembers it well, as part of a happy Glasgow childhood.

“I was born in Rotternrow in 1938 and lived at 252 Cathedral Street – I remember Paddy’s the cobblers, the Grafton chippy, Brechin’s Butchers and the Montrose Street Dairy, run by two sisters who measured out the milk with a jug from two large cans,” she says.

“We moved to 10 Canning Place, off Cathedral Street. I remember Bobby’s goods workshop, where you took the accumulator to be ‘serviced up’ otherwise you wouldn’t hear The McFlannels on a Saturday night…”

(For younger readers, an accumulator was used in wireless sets, like a rechargeable battery. It was normally given to the local garage or hardware merchant for recharging., who would give you your spare unit while this was being done.)

Mary, who now lives in Doncaster, adds: “Canning Place was a most unusual mix of properties – main door houses, tenements, garden flats and sublets. I could go on... I moved south in 2002 to a lovely village, but I will always be a Glasgow city girl.”

Do you remember the McFlannels? Do Mary’s reminiscences spark any happy memories for you?

Get in touch - ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk