Video: Irvine Welsh deleted scene in ‘Filth’

Irvine Welsh pictured during filming for 'Filth'. Picture: Ian Rutherford

The scene shows Edinburgh author Irvine Welsh, who wrote the book the film is based on, portraying a reporter at the Edinburgh Evening News, called ‘Brian Scullion’, who has a run-in with James McAvoy’s character, policeman Bruce Robertson.

Dressed in stereotypical journalist garb of trench coat and broad-brimmed hat, Welsh is seen clutching a 1920s-style camera, questioning McAvoy as the corrupt Robertson in a scene filmed in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket.

Although brief - the clip lasts for less than a minute - the scene was cut out of the final version of the film as director Jon S. Baird felt it was ‘just a bit too surreal a bit too early in the film’.

And although Baird was worried about what Welsh might think when he discovered his scene had ended up on the cutting room floor, the director revealed: “He’d totally forgotten he was supposed to be in [the film].”

It isn’t the first time Welsh has appeared in a cameo role in a film of one of his books - he appeared in 1996 film Trainspotting as the drug dealer Mikey Forrester, who sells suppositories to Ewan McGregor’s character Mark Renton.