Actor Brian Cox has paid tribute to former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, saying he was “one of the greatest political thinkers” the British Isles ever produced.

The Succession actor was friends with Mr Salmond, who died in North Macedonia at the age of 69.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said Mr Salmond was “a lot of fun”.

“He was very entertaining.

“He had great humanity, he was probably, I think, one of the greatest political thinkers, certainly Scotland has ever produced, and I think possibly these islands have ever produced.

“He was an extraordinary man.

“I think his essential appeal was his humanity and how he came across to other people.”

He said when he first met Mr Salmond he was a disillusioned Labour supporter.

“I felt the one place where social democracy was happening was back in my own country, so I suddenly had to rethink my own feelings and Alex enabled me to do that,” he said.

He said Mr Salmond was a “great parliamentarian”.

“That was his great gift, that’s what he loved more than anything else, it was the debate.

“He loved actually, ironically, being in the House of Commons, which was funny.”

He said Mr Salmond “pleaded the cause” of Scottish independence with “great humanity and great understanding”.

“Scotland has been a second-class nation for a long time, and Alex went to battle on that,” he said.