Douglas Henshall, the outgoing star of BBC drama Shetland, has come under fire for sharing his thoughts on those who queued to witness Queen Elizabeth II's coffin lying in state at Westminster Abbey. The Scottish actor mused on Twitter that the coffin might be empty and people did not like it.
"Do you think the queue would be so long if people knew that the Queen isn’t in that coffin ? Or do they know and it’s just symbolic?" asked the star, who is leaving his role on the BBC detective drama after seven series, this year.
People accused him of being 'unkind' while others went stronger with their words and told the actor to 'wind his neck in.'
Angela Langley replied: "A lot of people are very upset our Queen has died. Why be unkind?"
"What a horrible comment. People come to give their respects. Time to be quiet," Sally said. Claire L Hart added: "Do you think you could just wind your neck in for a while and respect people’s grief and the grief of a family and acknowledge that no one is queuing to see a body or a coffin. Honestly such a brilliant actor and yet completely devoid of basic respect."
Malcolm Hill kicked right off on Twitter, replying: "What a nasty tweet Why do people like you decide to tweet vile remarks particularly at a time when thousands of people are queuing for hours to pay their respect to the Queen. Why undermine what they are doing."
But Douglas was not backing down, replying to some of those who were furious about his musings. He said: "It’s not nasty or vile, and I’m not undermining anyone. I simply asked a question. Jesus. Enjoy your retirement." And he denied he was being disrespectful, saying: "I’ve been very respectful. I haven’t tweeted anything about the Queen, and nor did I say anything about her husband when he died. All I’ve done is ask a valid question on the nature of collective grief."
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