A DOCUMENTARY covering a whistle-top tour of Scotland presented by the actor Alan Cumming has won a top TV award in the US.

NBC’s 1st Look: Scotland, which saw X-men star take host George Oliphant to see the sights of his home nation, was named best Lifestyle Program at the recent 60th annual New York Emmy Awards.

The popular lifestyle magazine show broadcasts across America immediately after the sketch show Saturday Night Live.

The episode, which was planned and developed by VisitScotland’s US Global Brand Team, saw Alan and George travel to Scotland for a week-long shoot, which took in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, Perthshire, Angus, Glasgow and Loch Lomond.

The aim of the programme was to inspire US visitors to follow in the pair's footsteps and generate tourism to Scotland.

The hosts also took in a traditional ceilidh in Glasgow, Glamis Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre and Alan’s home town of Aberfeldy in Perthshire

At the awards ceremony at New York’s Marriott Marquis’ Broadway Ballroom, NBC Producer Brian Mait gave VisitScotland a special mention in his acceptance speech, also telling attendees that they “should go visit Scotland”.

Helen Campbell, Head of Global Brand and Marketing Communications at VisitScotland, said: “Winning an Emmy Award is fantastic recognition for a programme that showed the Spirit of Scotland at its very best. We were delighted to work so closely with NBC and with Alan Cumming on this very special production and we hope it inspires more visitors from the United States to come here and discover exactly what Scotland has to offer.”

Alan Cumming said: “Considering I define myself as Scottish before everything else, it seems fitting that after five nominations for acting, I win an Emmy for expressing love and wandering around my homeland.”