A BARRHEAD actor has been branded “repulsive” for sharing a “horrible comment” during the lead up to the Queen's funeral on Monday.

Shetland star Douglas Henshall came under fire for suggesting the Queen's coffin was empty in a Twitter post last week.

Hundreds of thousands of members of the public had filed past the coffin until, early on Monday morning, the final people who had queued through the night left the cavernous medieval hall.

Henshall tweeted on Friday: "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?"

What to expect at the Queen's funeral

The comment received over 9,000 'likes' but also faced backlash from other social media users.

One user replied:  "Would you even consider suggesting such an offensive opinion as that if the person in the coffin belonged to a member of your family and your friends and family came to pay their respects prior to their funeral? You're a repulsive individual!"

"What a horrible comment. People come to give their respects. Time to be quiet," added another.

A third said: 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."