BBC Scotland 'crossed a line' ahead of 2014 referendum, claims Alan Cumming

Actor Alan Cumming was a prominent supporter of the 2014 Yes campaign. Picture: Greg Macvean

Alan Cumming, a prominent supporter of the 2014 Yes campaign, accused the broadcaster of "bias" in interviews he conducted ahead of the crunch vote five years ago.

“I felt like the BBC, it was very biased, even with the interviews that I did," he told pro-independence tabloid The National.

"And I’m not a politician, I was someone who was supporting it. I found the attitude of BBC Scotland incredibly biased and some of the things they were saying and questions they were asking and things they were posing to me really crossed a line.”

BBC Scotland flatly rejected the actor’s assertions, saying it continued to cover the constitutional debate with “fairness and balance”>

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Mr Cumming, who has predominantly lived in the United States for more than two decades, added: "When it's a public funded television network that is being so biased on a political issue that concerns the whole country I think we have to speak up about that, because that's actually veering into state totalitarianism in a way - like a state-funded organisation that is giving me a message that is actually very biased towards the present government."

The actor, who helped launch the 2014 Yes campaign at a cinema in Fountainbridge, continued: "I've heard stories from within the institution of the BBC, that yeah, there is great bias there. It's not a secret."

A spokesman for BBC Scotland told The Scotsman: ‘Our comprehensive reporting of the 2014 referendum was fair and balanced. The ongoing debate about whether Scotland should be an independent country is a hugely important story which is given high levels of coverage across all of our news output.

“We reject allegations of bias and continue to cover the story with fairness and balance in line with our editorial guidelines.’