After 26 years, Glasgow’s Mean City bids farewell, as Taggart gets axed. To celebrate the demise of one of Scotland’s greatest exports, we showcase the great and the good of the guest stars who helped to light up our screens.

Robert Carlyle Long before he was ball-breaking Begbie, or leaving his hat on in The Full Monty, our Bobby was flexing his acting muscles as a fresh-faced, ambitious, pro-hanging politician in 1990’s episode Hostile Witness, opposite the incomparable Mark McManus.

Henry Ian Cusick We know him best as the dude from Lost but Scots-Peruvian actor Cusick, fresh from his appearances on the stage at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, landed a guest slot on 1993, playing Ian Gowrie in Fatal Inheritance.

Barbara Dickson Ah Babs, we know her so well as a singer, but that didn’t stop her using her vocal talents as Marie McDonald in 1995 Taggart episode Legends. She was on site to help Inspector Jardine infiltrate the seedy world of rock and roll.

Ashley Jensen When a caustic restaurant critic was found murdered in Taggart’s 2005 episode A Taste of Money, Ugly Betty and Extras actress Jensen was on hand to help find the ‘murdurer’. Figures really, having been primed for the part with previous roles in Scottish gems such as Rab C Nesbitt and City Lights.

Dougray Scott Mr Scott undoubtedly guest starred in one of Taggart’s scarier episodes (we didn’t sleep for weeks), when he played Colin Murphy in the terrifying Nest of Vipers in 1992. A role that would catch producers’ eyes for a role in The Crow Road before Hollywood superstardom (well, almost).