A LARGS cafe owner who hosted film stars Kelly MacDonald and John Hannah for the shooting of a BBC drama says he ‘doesn’t think he would do it again’.

Thomas Buskie, owner of the Green Shutters Café, said that the filming had ‘knocked the café and customers out of their routine’.

Mr Buskie told the News he had been approached around four months ago by makes of the BBC drama ‘The Victim’, featuring Trainspotting star MacDonald and Hannah, who appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Mr Buskie said: “I thought it would be nice for Largs and for the Green Shutters, but to be honest it threw us out of our routine.

“We have regular customers that are older that we take care of, so it was a bit of an inconvenience for them as well.

“To be honest if they asked me to do it again, I don’t think I would.”

Filming at the location was done over two days, Wednesday April 4 and Thursday 5, with the location chosen due to its proximity to the waterfront.

Mr Buskie added: “Of course, every single person involved in the filming was lovely and they left everything exactly as they found it.

“They brought all their own soft furnishings and posters and they changed the name, so it wasn’t the Green Shutters, it was called The Duthrie Café.

“It’s funny cause my niece came to visit – and I haven’t seen her in years – and when she saw the name of the café she assumed I had sold it and so just she went back to Glasgow.

“It wasn’t that exciting for us to be honest. We didn’t really see any of the acting, they came with all their own waitresses and such.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the end result though, I mean I have it all on CCTV, but there is no audio, so it will be interesting to see it all put together when it appears on TV.”

The drama is based on a Greenock man being the victim of a brutal attack after being branded a notorious child murderer living under a new identity.

The series follows the trial and looks back over the past five months to determine if the man is a victim of mistaken identity – or the convicted murderer he is accused of being.

Mr Buskie explained that producers were more than happy to discuss the series with the customers when they were in looking at the Green Shutters on a location scouting mission.

The owner explained that he was paid the same amount he would normally have taken over the two days in which he shut the tearooms.