Taggart star to be killed off

The body of Taggart's DCI Mike Jardine is found on the banks of the Clyde by his colleague DS Jackie Reid.

TV bosses are not revealing how Jardine is killed in the episode to be shown in the new year.

Actor James MacPherson says his wife Jacqueline can't bear to watch his on-screen demise.

MacPherson told a Scottish tabloid: "Jacqueline doesn't want to watch it. But I deliberately didn't think about it being my death.

"It won't be so much a whodunnit? as a why did he do it? The killer is a guest star and someone who has already been in Taggart - although that narrows it down to most actors in Scotland."

The 41-year-old has been in the series since 1986, when he joined as sidekick to Taggart's original star Mark McManis, who died seven years ago.

MacPherson decided to leave the series when he suffered a collapsed lung during a flight last October.

He says he is moving into film directing, and is also to appear as a bad guy in the series Doctors. He said: "It takes me away from Jardine and it's a role I can get my teeth into."