Schitt's Creek star 'emotional' tracing Glasgow roots

It is a world away from the remote town of Schitt's Creek.

However one of the stars of the popular sitcom has made an "emotional" visit to his family's roots - in Glasgow.

Eugene Levy spent time in the Gorbals for a new TV show, looking at the area where his mother Rebecca lived until she was a teenager.

While in Scotland Levy also visited the graves of his great grandparents and stopped off in Balmoral.

Levy told BBC Scotland's The Edit that he "wasn't expecting" the trip to Scotland to impact him as much as it did.

The four-time Emmy and Grammy winner said: "There was a connection made, almost from the moment I got to Scotland. It was much more emotional than I expected. "

His mother moved to Canada when she was aged around 12 or 13, and Levy told BBC Scotland that, while she never lost her Scottish accent, she never mentioned the harder side of growing up in a tenement as a child.

He explained: "She never talked about how difficult a situation it was growing up.

"That’s what hit a chord with me – it was four or five people in a room, sleeping in a kitchen, and she never talked about that.

"I’ve only seen some pictures of the Gorbals but I know it was a tough environment to grow up in."

However Levy found much to admire while in the country, which forms an episode of the second season of his TV series The Reluctant Traveller.

The Apple+ programme sees the veteran comedian and actor - who has starred in the American Pie teen comedy series and 1980s hit Splash - travel to different countries across the world and explore their culture.

The upcoming season is focused around Europe, and what Levy describes as "the continent’s hidden gems".

'The thickest brogue'

In Scotland, he described Glasgow as having a "great vibe" and found that the local dialect brought back memories.

He added: "My grandfather lived with us growing up and he had the thickest Scottish brogue.

"My mom always thought she’d lost her Scottish dialect but she never did, it was always there.

"So there was this familiarity hearing this. Scots have a really dry sense of humour that really appeals to me too. My uncles and aunts had that too."

In 2015 Levy co-created Schitt's Creek, about a formerly wealthy family forced to move to a remote town after losing their fortune.

The show became a major critical and commercial hit, and won all seven major comedy awards at the Emmys in 2020.