Sweeney co-stars John Thaw and Dennis Waterman had a real-life street brawl - on Christmas Day.
Dame Sheila Hancock, 91, revealed how Thaw - who played DI Jack Regan - and Waterman, who played sidekick DS George Carter - came to blows during a festive treasure hunt.
Speaking today (Fri) - ahead of an appearance on BBC1 show My Life at Christmas on Sunday (Dec 1) - Dame Sheila said the fist-fight started after Thaw’s dad, Jack, started cheating in the game.
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Sheila, who married John Thaw in 1973, said she had hidden written clues in and around their home, but that Jack didn’t understand the hints and started stealing them off other players, including his son, John, and Dennis.
She said the trio soon got into fisticuffs, with everyone throwing punches at each other, just like an episode of The Sweeney, which ran from 1975 to 1978.
Neighbours looked on, as if watching a real-life episode of the police drama, Dame Sheila said.
Dame Sheila said that Thaw - who died in 2002 - often got drunk while making Christmas dinner, but that one year she tried to 'lighten the atmosphere' by putting on a treasure hunt for guests, including Dennis and Jack.
She said: "He (Jack, John Thaw’s dad) was very competitive and he couldn’t understand any of my brilliant clues, so he used to pounce and steal them from the other team."
She told the Features supplement in The Daily Telegraph today (Nov 29) how she had hidden one clue in a phone box outside their home, which was found by John and Dennis - to the annoyance of Jack.
Dame Sheila said that Jack tried to grab the clue from the pair, which resulted in what she called a 'melee' between all of them - with neighbours peering out of their windows’ at the brawl.
The actress, who has a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award to her name, called the brawl a 'punch-up' between her husband and his 'best mate', Dennis, who died in 2022.
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Dame Sheila also revealed how she reckoned Jesus Christ would be ‘cancelled’ if he arrived on Earth today.
She said: "Christ wouldn’t have lasted a minute because he said exactly what he thought - he’d have been cancelled."
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