Their feet are more used to comfortable shoes and clutch changes than tap heels and tricky dance techniques.

But when the call came for six National Express employees to swap the motorway for three weeks of intensive Irish dance training for a national television programme they were more than up to the challenge.

The men, based in Digbeth, Birmingham, took up the challenge to master the lightning-quick dance, with tuition from Irish dancing world champion and former Riverdance star, Colin Dunne.

Their motivation was helped by knowing who they were going to be performing for at the end of it all - 200 of their colleagues, friends, families and peers.

The drivers were selected after an audition to determine who had enough rhythm to master the speed and accuracy of the complex steps.

The six dancers, who enjoyed various levels of fitness, worked for four hours a day, five days a week for three weeks - and had the blisters, aches, and exhaustion to prove it.

Their training culminated in a four-day trip to Dublin where the men joined in jigs in pubs and tried to soak up some of the Celtic spirit.

And while they won't be tapping away in this year's St Patrick's Day parade in Birmingham, the results surprised them all.

The ITV1 documentary, called Dancing In The Depot, will feature the drivers staging their final performance.

The men who took part were Paul Olive, a former professional dancer in the West End, Paul Smallman, a driver on the Birmingham-to-London service, management trainee Danny Newby, Paddy Yates, service controller Rob Hatton, and Dean Johnson, a night driver.

Danny, aged 28, from Quinton, took part in the audition to prove to the drivers that management was not afraid to make a fool of itself occasionally.

"I wasn't expecting to get picked. I play a bit of football and squash and I'm always on the dancefloor when I've had a few drinks, but that's it as far as dancing is concerned.

"I actually enjoyed it far more than I imagined.

"There were times when one person would get it and the rest wouldn't and vice versa, and yes, there were a few cross words and tears, nothing major. That was just frustration that built up because it was so intensive.

"The shoes were very hard and the amount of blister plasters we got through was quite incredible. You are effectively dancing on high heels and we really suffered. I lost half a stone.

"But the final performance surprised us all because we genuinely nailed it. We all gained a lot of respect through doing it. Actually some people were jealous in a way, but wouldn't want to do it in front of the cameras.

"I'm definitely keeping it up. In fact National Express have found a professional Irish dance teacher who is prepared to train us all."

* Dancing in the Depot on ITV1 at 9pm on March 5.