Outlander's Steven Cree has come out in defence of his home town of Kilmarnock after it got a bad wrap in The Scheme documentary.
Steven, best known for his role as Ian Murray in the hit Starz historical drama, defended his home town and admitted he was 'proud' to come from Onthank.
The Scheme was a BBC television documentary aired in 2010 which followed the lives of six families in Onthank and Knockinlaw housing schemes in Kilmarnock and many, including Steven, labelled it "poverty porn".
In a recent interview with The Herald, Steven, 41 opened up about his thoughts on the documentary: "The documentary series The Scheme – and I say "documentary" in inverted commas – was one of the worst-made TV programmes ever.
"After my mum and dad separated, then later divorced, we moved to Onthank. I lived in Onthank from the ages of seven to 16.
"When I watched The Scheme, it seemed to take advantage of people who lived there and had maybe hit hard times or weren't having the best fortune in life.
"It completely manipulated those people and almost tried to insinuate that if you live in Onthank, or in a council estate, this is what your life must be like, you must be a drug addict or not aspiring towards anything else.
He added: "My experience of living in Onthank wasn't like that at all. The Scheme gave Kilmarnock a bad name, it gave Onthank a bad name and it gave council estates a bad name. It was poverty porn. And done in the most snobbish way.
"I remember watching it at the time and it made me feel fiercely defensive of Kilmarnock and even more proud to be from there.
"For quite a long time afterwards, when I said that I was from Kilmarnock, people would jokingly say, "Oh, I hope you are not from The Scheme …" I would say, "Actually, I am." The TV series gave such an unfair reflection of life there."
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