The joy of finding love later in life like Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner

As the harassed parents of Jake, Ben and Karen on BBC comedy series  <Outnumbered>, Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner perfectly portrayed the ups and downs of middle class marriage and parenthood.

Pete and Sue Brockman were the every-couple. For seven years, they had parents around the country howling with laughter as they watched the Brockmans cope with everything from nit outbreaks to hormonal teenagers, and ill-advised drunken snogs. 

They lived in a Victorian semi in West London - he was a long-suffering history teacher at the local comp, she a part time personal assistant and hard-working mum - who spent every spare moment looking after ageing parents, mad sisters, and their growing, demanding brood. Theirs was an utterly unremarkable, but wonderfully relatable, life. 

Add to that the genius decision by the producers to let the child stars improvise with the script (which reaped comic rewards, particularly from the littlest, Karen, who stole the show with her one-liners), and the programme’s refreshing realism quickly made it a firm family favourite.

Outside the show, both Dennis, 56, and Skinner, 53, were happily married - he to his second wife Kate Abbot-Anderson; she to her TV director husband Charles - and each had two children of their own. 

But after the final series ended in 2014, and their own marriages had sadly broken down (Skinner is said to have split from her husband two and a half years ago, while Dennis separated from his wife in 2015), it seems the TV couple discovered there was more than just on-screen chemistry between them.

It has been revealed that the Brockmans have been secretly dating, in real life, for over a year. A source told The Sun: “It’s always a sad moment when a marriage breaks up. So to have found each other after the ending of both their relationships is rather lovely.

“They were going through marriage breakdowns at very similar times, but it was quite a while after their separations that they got together last year.”

The source told how, having worked together for all that time, they didn’t see each other for two years after the show ended. “They’ve always been really friendly but they were living their own lives until they were both single,” the person added.

The two had been spotted out and about together, and had been open with close friends and relatives about their unexpected, new-found love - but most people hadn’t “quite cottoned on to it”, said the source.

Dennis has since confirmed the relationship, saying: “I am very, very happy, we are so very happy. It’s nice and, yes, so lovely.”

It’s the romantic tale which every midlifer looking for love - especially second time round - secretly hopes might one day be theirs. That intoxicating idea that just maybe, after all those years, the person you were always meant to be with was right in front of you all along. 

And it could be happening more and more. The Office for National Statistics say that, between 2009 and 2014, marriage rates among the over-65s rose by 41 per cent among men and 56 per cent among women, as increasing numbers of later-life romances have blossomed.

Hannah Martin, 46, and her partner Max, 53, were both divorced when they fell in love at the advertising agency where they worked as copywriters. Hannah says that in some ways that a second chance at love is sweeter than the first. “Just because you’ve been married before and you’re older, doesn’t mean you don’t have all the butterflies, hope and expectation - all the things that come with a new relationship, the excitement of it,” she explains.

“They’re just as strong, and just as valid, when you’re older.”

Like Dennis and Skinner, the couple kept their relationship private for as long as possible, wanting to get to know each other in a new way - far from the prying eyes of their friends and colleagues. “Everyone has their own agenda and expectation,” says Hannah, who now runs her own online magazine for mums called <the Talented Ladies Club>. “We kept it very much under wraps. It felt exciting, because you had this secret you both knew about. It became a bit more special because of that.

“Now we have a daughter (I already had a son from my previous marriage) and we’re getting married this year. We waited a while, though. Both of us wanted to get it right this time.”

Dr Lynne Jordan, psychologist and specialist in relationships and conflict trauma, says people coming into relationships later in life tend to have a greater sense of security and confidence in what they are looking for. "Generally, people have a much firmer idea about who they are and what they want. They come into it with a bit more security. If they come out of something that’s been difficult you come into it with a much stronger idea about what works and what doesn’t for you.

"The negatives could be that the older we get the more baggage we carry. That can make it more difficult to trust. So perhaps, if you do have some person in your life that you’ve known for a very long time but not in that way, it would be something that you’d be more likely to pursue because they’re kind of safe territory.

"It’s very different when you’re starting out, [when you're older] you don’t have that sort of pressure about children - do I want them, don’t I - which puts an additional pressure on a relationship. So you can perhaps take more risks."

Anna Pearson, 51, met her partner Paul, 52, at university, but it wasn’t until more than 20 years later that their friendship began to develop into something more.

“He was attractive, but I always felt he was a bit of a player back then,” admits Anna. “He had loads of girlfriends, and I started seeing someone else seriously in the second year, so nothing happened between us.

“We always kept in touch, and went to each other’s weddings in our early 30s. We started emailing about work, too, as we were both lawyers, and shared funny stories and annoyances.”

It was only much later, when both their marriages began to falter, that Anna began to rely on Paul, confiding in him more and more.

“By then we lived 100 miles apart, so we didn’t see each other much. But by our mid-40s we were both divorced. I was back in London, and we started meeting up as mates.

“It was great to see him, and he was so easy to be around. I loved the fact that he remembered who I was at 18, and still liked me 30 years later, and vice-versa. Gradually, it became clear that there was a romantic spark there, too,” she says.

Things progressed slowly, with the couple taking a good few months, to admit they were attracted to one another. “That was five years ago, and we are now happily committed. We have a lovely relationship, we enjoy the same things and understand each other totally,” says Anna. 

Knowing each other for so long as friends has help make their relationship stronger, she adds. “We’ve seen each other through so many eras and in so many situations.

“In a way, I’m glad we didn’t get together when we were young. I don’t think we would have had the wisdom to appreciate each other the way we do now.’