Ray Winstone says pants to being a sex symbol as he steps into John Thaw’s shoes in The Sweeney.

Steve Pratt takes off with the Flying Squad AS the original TV series was noted for its catchphrase “You’re nicked, put your trousers on”, perhaps it’s appropriate we should be talking about Ray Winstone’s underpants.

He plays rough, tough London flying squad detective Jack Regan in the new film The Sweeney and ends up in bed with a female detective.

Which is where his pants appear in a trouser-less sex scene. Mr Winstone, some have suggested, is something of a rugged sex symbol these days. He describes himself “a 55- year-old fat man”, but offers a piece of advice about seduction undergarments: “Don’t wear yellow when you’re in a sweaty room all day.”

“As for being a sex symbol, I don’t know what’s appealing to women,” he adds. “I think it’s the way you treat women that makes you sexy.

You’ve got to be genuine, a bit of a gentleman and a bit of a rogue at the same time. If that’s how it works fantastic.

I’m loving every minute of it.”

So we ask the lady sitting by his side – Hayley Atwell – the co-star who shared the scene with those yellow pants. “As a lady, I think charisma and presence and good manners and a sense of humour go a long way, more than a six-pack or arrogance,” she says.

“I’m much more naturally attracted to someone who carries himself with confidence – a genuine confidence not based on trying to impress anyone or trying to be something you’re not.”

So much for pants, but what has director Nick Love done with the iconic Sweeney, a trend-setting British cop show back in the 1970s and 1980s.

He’s made an action thriller that bears the Sweeney name and the unorthodox police methods of the time along with the central partnership of Jack Regan and his partner George Carter. John Thaw and Dennis Waterman from the original have been replaced by Winstone and singersongwriter Ben Drew, aka Plan B (and very good he is too).

LOVE’S memories of the original Sweeney were limited. “I was allowed to watch it if I was well-behaved, so I never saw it,” he says. “I’m 42 so I saw the later stuff, the last series. I started watching it when it started coming on satellite television.”

Winstone is old enough to remember it. “You had Dixon of Dock Green and Softly Softly, which were great shows, but Sweeney was probably the first show I can remember that came on TV that was down and dirty, and we could all kind of relate to it in a way. Well where I lived you could anyway. So it was kind of real on TV and was probably ground-breaking all over the world,” he says.

Screen bedmate Atwell had never seen it. “But I knew it was iconic and when I told people I was in it they started saying the catchphrases. I knew it had a huge impact of the time,” she says.

“The great thing about this was that it felt something completely new and fresh for now, not trying to remake anything. It just had a different interpretation of what this branch of the police were about and what they got up to.”

Drew hadn’t seen early episodes for another reason. “I had a prejudice against black and white films growing up. It didn’t seem as cool as the stuff in colour,” he admits.

“When I watched the original pilot and feature length version, I felt it was dated but said if we were going to do a version of it set now then I was up for it because it gave us the freedom to be inventive. Crime and language – the slang on the street – has changed and we have to move with the time and that what’s we tried to achieve.”

Winstone was always Love’s first choice as Regan over the six years or so it took to set up the movie. He spoke to Drew about playing one of the smaller roles and became convinced he’d be ideal as Carter. “I wouldn’t say he’s left-field, but he’s a raw talent,” says Love.

One of the biggest set pieces is a running gun battle in Trafalgar Square. It took a year of negotiating to gain the necessary permission, although the actors were only allowed to use silent guns. The sound was added in the edit.

“It’s terrifying. You don’t have a second shot. We had one Sunday to do it and the entire thing had to be lined up perfectly. Basically, all our money went into that one sequence,” says Love.

Winstone and Atwell, who plays one of the squad, trained at a gun club and then figured out how the detectives would work together as a team on an operation. “Because there was no sound to the guns I did find myself doing the oddest things and making these little sounds, these gun noises,” she says.

Drew wasn’t required to run around Trafalgar Square guns blazing.

“I chased another geezer,” he says. “The action sequences are all choreographed and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it. I had this stunt double, but got this egotistical envy towards him. I didn’t want him to do my stuff apart from smashing though the glass door.”

Everyone involved would be happy to do a sequel if the box office justifies it. “I’d jump at the chance to do it again,” says Winstone.

“I enjoy making films and some experiences are better than others.

Turning up and going to work every day on this was an absolute pleasure.”

  • The Sweeney (15) open in cinemas on Wednesday