Gary Neville pays a visit to Manchester set of Noel Clarke’s drama Viewpoint

Football pundit Gary Neville was spotted paying a visit to the Manchester set of Noel Clarke’s upcoming ITV drama Viewpoint on Friday.

Donning a black T-shirt with distressed jeans and carrying a large backpack, the 45-year-old former Manchester United ace was seen talking to security as he arrived.

It is not known what the purpose of the sportsman’s visit to the set was, but he arrived as stars Clarke, 44, and Bronagh Waugh, 37, continued to shoot scenes.

Donning a casual denim ensemble as part of his costume, Kidulthood star Clarke strolled alongside former Hollyoaks actress Waugh.

Auburn-haired Waugh also sported casual gear, stepping before cameras in a denim jacket, teamed with a plaid shirt and black leggings.

Their day on the set comes after Clarke backed down on his claim that he demanded producers ‘fix’ the lack of diversity on ‘day one’ of shooting the new ITV project. 

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday, the actor initially claimed that he had immediately called in producers and insisted upon quick action to apparently dismiss some staff and replace them with trainees. 

But Clarke has since backtracked on his statements, instead suggesting that nobody had lost their job and ‘it wasn’t as big as it was made out to be’.

He told Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Radio 5 Live on Thursday: ‘I come onto set and I look around, probably wasn’t day one – probably more like day two – and I’m like this is not enough.

‘And I spoke to people and they said yeah fine you’re right, we’ll do something about it. It wasn’t as big as it was made out to be. 

‘I was like “it’s a production in association with my company. I’m here leading the show, this is not how it should be”.It was a five minute conversation where the person said – I completely agree with you we’re on it. 

‘Nobody’s losing any jobs, nobody’s getting replaced or anything like that. It’s so there’s space to get people on the ladder. And that’s what’s happened.’

While not revealing the name of the project, his initial comments came the same day ITV announced he would be starring in gritty new police show Viewpoint.  

Mr Clarke had said: ‘I’m on a job now which I can’t mention and I came in on day one and I’m the lead actor and I was like, ‘The crew’s not diverse enough, fix it, fix it.’

‘I don’t care if there’s trainees, because this job’s trainees is the next job’s runner, then the next job’s assistant, then they’re a supervisor, then in five year’s time or three year’s time, we have more people in the business from different backgrounds; socio-economic, not just about colour.’

ITV has not responded when asked if Viewpoint was the show in question, or if there was a wholesale change in production personnel as a result of Clarke’s request. 

The actor has regularly spoken out about racism and previously claimed TV channels refused to back his Sky One show Bulletproof because it was led by two black actors. 

Clarke and actress Waugh will be starring together in Viewpoint – the first ITV drama to begin filming since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The programme, which is headed up by Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer, follows a tense police surveillance investigation into a close Manchester community.