Meet elderly couple whose dancing in Leeds city centre has brought crowds to tears and sent them viral

The couple have captured the hearts and imaginations of hundreds of thousands of people who have witnessed their dancing on Briggate, The Headrow and Albion Square over the years and watched videos of them shared online.

Alan, 89, and Carol, 87, never fail to take the chance to dance along to the range of buskers performing on the city's streets after catching the bus from their home in Batley.

And whether swaying along to a balladeer or bopping to a Grime MC, crowds always gather to watch and tears tend to be shed.

"Sometimes the music is a bit off key but we will try and dance to anything", Alan said.

"It's a beautiful thing when you look around and you have a crowd of people enjoying it."

Unsurprisingly, the YEP found that they were as delightful and charming in person as they are on their viral videos, as they told of how they met, their shared love of dancing and their newfound online fame.

Somewhat fittingly and inevitably, the couple first met at a dance hall in West Yorkshire some 70 years ago.

Alan, who was a soldier in the Army at the time, said: "I had come out with a friend and Carol had seen me dancing before. I saw her across the room and used what was considered a modern chat up line.

"I approached her and said: 'I'm taking you home tonight' and she said: 'OK'. And I've been taking her home every night since."

The couple have now been married for 68 years and have three children, six grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

"How amazing is that?", said Alan.

"All non-smokers, healthy and fit. We've made sure to instil that influence on them over the years. It's delightful."

Dancing has also been a constant throughout their relationship. Alan and Carol went to dance lessons in the early days of their marriage and have gone on to perform in front of crowds the world over.

Alan said: "We've danced in Canada, China, and at Edinburgh Castle, Ben Nevis, Blackpool Ballroom.

"If there's good music playing then we dance. The first time we danced in the street I just said to Carol 'let's just do what we enjoy' and we've not stopped since."

The buskers in Leeds have become familiar with the duo and even change the songs they're playing when they see them approaching to entice them to stop and give a quick performance.

Alan said: "20 years ago when buskers started playing in the streets was when we started dancing to them. But we never stay through the whole thing. We do one or two songs, throw a couple of bob in the box and then disappear. We don't want to make it all about us.

"Sometimes we will plan it so we join from opposite sides of the crowd. I will walk in the middle and ask Carol to dance and then we disappear from two sides."

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He added: "There's a lady rapper who saw us the other day and said: 'I'm glad to see you two, I've written a song for you'.

"Some people might find us a pain in the backside but we just love it."

On Valentine's Day, a video of Alan and Carol dancing in Leeds was shared online and watched more than one million times by people across the globe.

Alan said: "We were absolutely gobsmacked.

"We danced the following weekend and blocked Briggate. We looked around and there was people of all nationalities filming and smiling. It was just lovely."

The couple say they are now even stopped by people who recognise them and tell them how moved they were by the videos that have been shared.

Carol said: "It's just so lovely that so many people have been touched by it."

Some of their most precious moments haven't been caught on film, though. Alan said: "The other week we danced along to a girl student on Briggate and she had a lovely voice. After we put a couple of bob in I asked if she had done it a while and she said it was her first time.

"I told her that she should stick to the singing and she responded 'you two have given me the happiest moment of my life'.

"You can't buy stuff like that."

Alan added that the couple have no plans on stopping any time soon - and hope to continue putting smiles on faces for years to come.

"We dance because we love dancing", he said.

"It's an added bonus that people enjoy it. And we will keep doing it until we can't any longer."