Death in Paradise's Ralf Little dons dress as he eyes up Strictly Come Dancing stint

Ralf Little seemingly donned a dress and a blonde wig live on stage, to the delight of more than 3,000 fans, as he and Will Mellor re-enacted a Strictly Come Dancing scene. The Death in Paradise star had been performing a comedy show as part of his Two Pints With Will and Ralf Live tour in Nottingham when the stunt took place - and Express.co.uk was there to capture the action.

Will thrust his hips and even performed a lift as he relived his dancing days, following his Strictly debut with Nancy Xu back in 2022. The crowd erupted into cheers as the famous duo, who worked together in their 20s on the hugely popular show Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, shimmied around the stage.

Ralf had jokingly mocked his pal earlier in the show for "constantly crying" on the video footage of the show that he'd seen. He'd also playfully dismissed his sidekick as a "low-rent cheesy cruise ship entertainer" - but in spite of that claim, he seemed to thoroughly enjoy getting into character as his dance partner.

The pair had hinted that a performance might happen moments earlier, when Ralf shared his thoughts about watching Will on Strictly. "You pull each other close and you're face to face that close to each other and you must be thinking, 'I've got to kiss her,'" he observed.

"Honestly, I was watching [Will's performance] and I defy anyone to not feel that. Is there anyone in the world who wouldn't feel that?" He then turned to Will and added: "I'd dance like that with you and f*****g feel that!", only for him to retort in no uncertain terms: "No, you f*****g wouldn't!"

However, moments later, the pair performed their explosive show finale by getting themselves onto the dance floor - minus any kissing scenes of course.

Could it be that Ralf might follow in Will's footsteps and start his own Strictly Come Dancing journey?

He's certainly agile, as he has a history as a semi-professional footballer, while many actors in the showbiz industry have signed up for the BBC show in the past, from Sherlock's Amanda Abbington to Emmerdale and Waterloo Road's Adam Thomas.

He's never expressed an interest in the show before, but his dancefloor debut followed on from his announcement just three weeks earlier that he is quitting Death in Paradise.

There's no news as yet about what his next role might be, so could Strictly Come Dancing 2025 beckon for the star, who started out in showbiz as Antony on The Royle Family?

Meanwhile, the Nottingham show brought plenty of other laughs to the audience, with Ralf revealing the one embarrassing moment which would mean, for him, that "suicide was the only option".

There was a serious moment when he discussed feeling "no emotion" while filming his final police station scenes on Death in Paradise.

The audience also roared with laughter as they saw Ralf jokingly zap Will with an electric shock while gleefully admitting: "I love it so much!"