This dog has changed my life. If it weren’t for Coco there would be no ‘dog porridge’ and it’s likely I would never have taken part in the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making championship.

For it was just after lockdown, early 2022, that I entered aforementioned competition with a speciality of dog porridge (I sometimes eat porridge for lunch between PT sessions and give Coco her own wee serving). We love oats so much that we were happy to spend a blissful weekend in the Highland village of Carrbridge, stirring oats competitively. I made it to the final round of the competition, six of us finalists competing for the esteemed trophy. No win! I vowed to return. This year’s Golden Spurtle will be live streamed on October 4th to Tracy’s fitness studio. All proceeds to Mary’s Meals.

And in 2023, I returned. Before the competition Coco and I were filmed for a documentary on the Golden Spurtle. The crew filmed in Pilrig Park, my allotment and outside the studio. I didn’t think much about it, and then competed again in 2024. Fast forward just over a year and in April this year, a sneak preview of the film at the very village hall in which it was filmed. It was at the screening that Coco and I saw that we’d made the final cut. It was so exciting to be in a film with my dog about one of my favourite foods. I was on cloud nine and Coco slept through the whole film.

The Golden Spurtle premiered at the Edinburgh International Film festival in August. It had gone down very well at the Copenhagen and Sydney film festivals, full houses and extra screenings required. The week before EIFF, the official film poster was released (see pic) with Coco included. Coco the fitness pug, clown, constant companion now also a moofie star!

A photocall was arranged in the Caledonian hotel on the day of the premiere. We were on family holiday in Bamburgh, so Coco and I caught a very friendly and clean Trans Pennine Express train to Waverley mid-festival. We sauntered through Princes Street Gardens, stopping for a bowl of water under a tree (Coco, not me). The marble foyer of the Caledonian hotel was cool but busy. A wide-eyed PR lady bubbled with enthusiasm for our doggy star, Coco. Photos were taken, we were led up to a conference room on the 1st floor and then the group shot with Director Constantine Conti, Producers Rebecca Lamond and very happy John Archer and some of us contestants in front of a logoed black screen. Very Hollywood. Coco got a bit excited and did zoomies around the packed boardroom. Photobomb!

Photoshoot over, we caught the 16 bus to the Cameo to watch the audience go in to the first official UK screening. A queue formed down the street and we got too hot so sat under a tree in Bruntsfield Links. A taxi to Leith, tram to Waverley and final train back to Berwick-Upon-Tweed marked the end of a very hectic day. The screenings at Filmhouse and Vue cinemas were also sold out. It was rather surreal. The List, The Skinny and Guardian all awarded the film an agreeable 4 stars.

The film itself? It follows the final year of retiring porridge chieftain Charlie Miller. The beautiful scenery is captured lovingly with a colourful cast of characters, competitors and villagers, warming the heart like a good bowl of oats. It was also totally unscripted, which makes it even funnier. The List review surmises: “The Golden Spurtle is a documentary about porridge, but behind its loving shots of sumptuous oats and gruel-thin misfires is a meditation on ageing, community and the difficult necessity of letting go.”

I love that this film has gone down so well so far, as it has such a positive message for these anxious times. It feels a bit weird writing about a film that me and my dog appear in (for thirty seconds), so I’ll finish with a quote from The Skinny:

“This is an incredibly funny film, with most of the comedy emanating from the disconnect between the competitors’ passion for creating the perfect bowl of porridge and the inherent futility of such an endeavour, given that every bowl passed in front of the camera looks identical.” But they taste different!

The Golden Spurtle in Cinemas 12 September, Griffen Studio will livestream the 2025 Golden Spurtle competition.

www.goldenspurtle.com

Bluesky: @tracygriffen

www.griffenfitness.com