Dempsey and Makepeace are stepping out for ITV

Dempsey and Makepeace will be on-screen partners once again, but this time they'll be busting moves instead of criminals.

The 80s crime-fighting duo, who are married in real life, are signed up to new ITV dance contest Stepping Out, according The Sun.

The couple, real names Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, will take part in the rival to Strictly Come Dancing which sees celebrity couples learn a new dance each week to perform live on the Saturday night.

Unlike Strictly the celebrities aren't partnered with professional dancers and the show concentrates on their home lives as they learn their routines. It was also announced this week that Denise Welch and new husband Lincoln Townley would join the show.

Stepping Out will screen later this summer on ITV.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.