AN old soldier speaks for more people than you might imagine on Stockton's Tilery estate the day after TV's Benefits Street was screened.

"I didn't look at it," says 77-year-old, John, "I wouldn't waste my bloody time on something like that."

Tellingly John, smartly dressed as befits a man who has worked on public transport nearly his whole life until his retirement, is too worried to give his full name. "I don't want the hassle."

He is far from alone in that. In fact, of the 15 people approached, only two give their full names - whether positive or negative about 'documentary' following the residents of Kingston Road.

All the others were wary of being stigmatised for just living on the Tilery.

One of the two who did give their name was one of the 'stars' of the show. Julie Young, a 53-year-old mother of six, has already been doing a host of TV interviews and issued a statement to The Northern Echo via a press officer for the TV production company who was outside her home.

"I don't regret taking part," she said. "It showed life on the street as it is. We have challenges, but we're a real community who stick together."

There's plenty of support for that point of view but, more particularly, there's a lot of personal support for Julie who was shown providing round-the-clock care for her severely brain damaged son, Reagan.

One of those was Lynda Wright, in her late 60s, of nearby Talbot Street, who said: "It wasn't too bad. Not as bad as I expected, and I feel sorry for that mother looking after her son. But there's plenty of druggies around here, too."

As we speak a lad on a bike whizzes up and asks for money for an interview, swearing over his shoulder after being told 'no.'

Others, too, take against reporters. The programme suggested journalists were trying to take photographs inside people's homes without permission - certainly untrue in the case of The Northern Echo and other local media.

But it seems to have been believed and today's visit prompted a flurry of choice language.

Newly re-elected Stockton North MP, Alex Cunningham, was also featured and attracted some criticism. "It took a TV programme for him to bother coming down here," said Jennifer, 29.

Mr Cunningham himself is steadfast in his view that the programme is bad for the town.

"It met my expectations," he said. "Vulnerable people, being exploited."

Asked about his own portrayal and criticism of not having previously been on the street, he said: "I'm not worried about that, they filmed me, I gave my opinions, it's fair enough. I believe I did right by going down, a number of times now, to show my support for the people of the street."

Bob Cook, Labour leader of Stockton Borough Council, unexpectedly manages to take a positive from the programme.

“We’re lucky to have such fantastic community spirit in our borough so we weren’t at all surprised to see plenty of it on show in last night’s opening episode," he said.

But he went on to focus on the town's response - the PositivelyStockton campaign which has attracted the support of tens of thousands of Stocktonians proud of their borough and their town, TV programme or not.

Find our more about the campaign at positivelystocktonontees.co.uk