Mike Nesbitt said people either loved or hated the UUP broadcast

It has emerged that officers called at the Ulster Unionist Party headquarters in Belfast last week after receiving a report from a worried onlooker about the welfare of the bleary-eyed man.

He was actually an actor who took the lead role in the UUP’s pre-poll film, which aired on Wednesday evening.

The premise of the broadcast was the dressing gown-clad man had just woken from a 15-year plus sleep and stumbled into UUP HQ at the junction of the Holywood Road and Belmont Road in east Belfast to be informed how the political landscape had changed while he was unconscious.

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UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said: “Whoever phoned the police is obviously a good neighbour and citizen.”

He described the broadcast as “Marmite” because people either loved it or hated it.

“I have had more reaction than we have ever had to any election broadcast.

“It is a bit Marmite. I would say it is four or five to one positive.

“We set out to provoke a reaction because we are very conscious that apathy could be the winner (in the election) and we have certainly succeeded.”