FANS of the Scottish soap Take the High Road have slammed plans that will see their soap ‘rebooted’ to its beginning.

Fans of the long-running soap, which originally ran until 2003, and included stars such as Alan Cumming in the cast, have for years been watching half hour episodes on STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh.

However, the arrival of new channel STV 2 will mean the show is broadcast on a Saturday morning and the series will be ‘rewound’ to the beginning, when events in Glendarroch were first broadcast in 1980.

The two shows on a Saturday, fans say, will not be a satisfying replacement.

Fans have described the decision as a “huge blow” and noted it could take years for the programme to return to the point, more than 700 episodes in, where the narrative is now.

Highroad fan Dan Leitch, who has been organising opposition to the move on Facebook, said: “It has been running on the two channel since 2014 and we are just getting the point in the series where they made a lot of changes and it became more popular.

“This is really a frustrating move by STV. We are big fans and we’ve very faithfully watching for a long time now, and every day its a little escape from reality, and you get attached to the characters.”

STV 2 will broadcast the Irish soap, Fair City.