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Cagney and Lacey to reunite

Cagney and Lacey’s Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly are to reunite on ‘Loose Women’.

The pair – who played New York City police detectives Christine Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey respectively – will join forces once again as part of the ITV talk show’s Reunion Week next week, 32 years after the 80s drama series came to an end.

An insider told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We’ll be reuniting the pairings on screen and they’ll relive their highlights from working together and their most memorable times on sets.

"We find out what they’ve been up to since, if they’ve stayed in contact and how they look back on the shows that made them household names."

The reunion special will also feature ‘EastEnders’ duo Patsy Palmer and Sid Owen, both 48 – who played Bianca and Ricky Butcher – and Vicky Entwistle, 52, and Bruce Jones, 67, who are better known as Coronation Street’s Janice and Les Battersby.

Sharon, 77, and Tyne, 74, played the crime-fighting duo on the drama, which aired between 1982 and 1988. The show played heavily on the contrast between the two women’s lives, with Lacey a married mum, and Cagney was single and an alcoholic.

Although Sharon won two Emmys for her role as Cagney, she admitted she suffered with alcoholism off screen.

She previously said: "As soon as they’d yell ‘wrap’, a Styrofoam cup with Scotch and ice was put in my hand. I’ve battled demons. My character on ‘Cagney & Lacey’ was an alcoholic. I was facing the same demons.

"I hated to look at myself on screen. The only time I’d watch myself, I’d mix myself a stiff drink and after a couple I’d say, ‘Looks good to me.’ "

Tyne – who has won a total of six Emmys in her career – went on to find success as Mama Rose in ‘Gypsy’ and Clytemnestra in ‘Agamemnon’.

She previously said: "I got lucky with ‘Cagney & Lacey’ and got to be a hero. Then I played my share of villains."