Ken Stott expels teen theatre-goers

Gritty TV cop Ken Stott seems to have been trying to live up to his on-screen image by administering some impromptu (and apparently undeserved) discipline to a group of teenagers at a West End theatre.

The actor, best known for his lead roles in TV's Messiah, The Vice and Rebus, is currently appearing in Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge at the Duke of York's theatre. During a recent performance Stott (above, with co-star Hayley Atwell) apparently took a dislike to a group of schoolchildren sitting in the stalls, halted the performance and demanded that they be thrown out of the playhouse.

However, according to other audience members, the youths had done nothing wrong. "I was in the audience last night, less than six feet behind the so-called 'guilty' school children who were forcibly removed," one theatre-goer told the Evening Standard. "They did absolutely nothing wrong, and in my view were in fact impeccably behaved... and when questioned none of the theatre employees could give a good reason for Ken Stott's extraordinary and irrational reaction."

However, quoted in the Telegraph, another member of the audience said that Stott's action may have been warranted. "From where I was sitting, I wasn't too aware of them - I definitely did hear them giggling at a few inappropriate moments though. Since they were in the front row, I'm sure they must have been really irritating to the cast."

Stott has made no secret of his dislike of teenage theatre-goers in the past. "We have children coming to see the show and it's not fun," he wrote recently. "If they're watching something they don't really understand, it has an adverse affect on them and an adverse effect on the performers. They tend to come in large groups and we actors do not welcome large groups." ·