'TECS APPEAL; REBUS AND TAGGART STARS JOIN FORCES FOR CHILDREN IN NEED.

Byline: Brian McIver

FORGET Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, Scotland is about to get the ultimate cop showdown - Rebus vs Taggart.

The stars of the iconic TV 'tec shows are joining forces for a Children In Need spoof which brings Scotland's toughest cops together for the first time.

Taggart star Alex Norton, right, who plays DI Burke in the Glasgow-based show, says his face-off with Edinburgh's Ken Stott is the biggest east/west clash since the Cold War. The actors teamed up for the one-off sketch to help raise money for the BBC charity and Alex said they both had a great time filming it.

The sketch, to be shown on Friday, November 20 on BBC1, sees the cops brought together by a murder at Harthill services on the M8.

And the encounter in the motorway cafe parodies the famous face-off between Pacino's cop and De Niro's robber in the movie Heat.

Norton said: "It's always something I've hoped would come together and it's great that it has finally happened.

"Hopefully, people will enjoy watching i t as much as we enjoyed making it.

"We set it up as a bit like the scene in the film Heat where Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have their famous meeting in the coffee shop.

"We thought that would be a funny comparison for the first meeting of the two programmes. Although, I'm more like Robert De Nearly and Ken is Al Cappuccino."