A star is born – Paisley has a new acting sensation who has taken the small screen by storm with his appearance in a new TV show.
Jazz Carruthers is an aged dog from Ralston who has had a late-in-life pivot to an acting career and is starring in a new TV series filmed in the Highlands.
Jazz plays the part of Bess, who is owned by a retired police officer played by Scots actor David Hayman, in Paramount’s production Chemistry of Death.
The series is based on the best-selling books of the same name by Simon Beckett, and sees forensic pathologist David Hunter, who has recently given up his work, to settle down as a doctor in the rural village of Manham in Norfolk.
When a woman is found dead, David finds himself being pulled into the investigation.
Owner Faye spotted an advert on Facebook from a casting agency looking for an older collie to fulfil a role in the series and immediately put Jazz forward for an audition with Animal Wrangler’s, Bozena Bienkowska, who is also from Paisley.
As part of preparation for his role, 13-year-old Jazz even had a go at a bit of method acting, preparing himself for a pub scene by going on visits to pubs with Faye.
She said: “He’s quite calm now but he used to be crackers when he was younger. I don’t think you would have been able to get him to sit still and pay attention. But he’s quite laid back now.
“He had been asked to sit at someone’s feet in a pub environment for a scene. I don’t take my dogs to pubs. But I needed to do it and make sure that he would sit down. He would just walk around the whole room speaking to everyone.”
Jazz has some poignant moments in the series, particularly in one of the final scenes where his relationship with Hayman’s character provokes a strong emotional response in a pivotal moment in the show.
And watching it was tough for Faye, who confessed that she only started viewing to see Jazz’s performance but ended up quite invested in the storyline.
“I was watching the programme and there were murders all the time," said Faye. "In every episode there seemed to be another murder and I thought, ‘God, if they kill my dog I think I will need to take a week off work because I don’t think I could have coped with it’."
Chemistry of Death is available to watch on Paramount + and on Prime Video.
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