Dan Wright and Paul Starkey had never met until a few weeks ago - now they have viewed online over one million times.

The reason? The duo's dance moves outside Morrisons Supermarket in Coalville have turned them into internet stars.

And it was not just a one-off - Dan now refers to his and Paul's shift as 'a show'

It became so popular with shoppers that people started filming it on their phones and sharing it.

And their routine to the Cheeky Girls tune was even retweeted by the original singers.

Now Dan and Paul even have their own TikTok account online - although they admit to not knowing that actually was until last week.

The pair did not even work in the same place until the Coronavirus outbreak saw the words 'social distancing' suddenly became an everyday term.

That meant extra help was needed outside the Whitwick Road store to monitor the queue of customers.

Paul was brought in as a security guard from the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham - while Dan was moved across from working in the store's refrigeration section.

And rather than just stand there, Dan decided to lift some spirits among the customers in a situation nobody wants to be in.

Danny, who would normally be studying at the University of Derby at the moment, decided to get shoppers involved with the equivalent of some audience participation.

And he told Coalville Nub News how suddenly becoming an internet sensation has been 'surreal' and revealed how it all started.

"Paul's the security guard at Morrison's, I'm just a colleague - I was working on the fridges, that was my regular role, before all of this happened," explained Dan.

"When it came to the point that the barriers were going to get installed outside, they asked if anybody was willing to stand outside and monitor the queue, I'm used to standing outside coaching football, so I offered it to my manager.

"One of us watched the door going out on the other one, the door going in.

"I was quite happy, and it started off like that - but now it's progressed to something that we call a show!

"Me and Paul usually work Mondays to Fridays together and noticed that on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, we actually have queues because there are so many people in the store.

"Now people asking us: "Are you dancing?"… And we always say: 'Don't you worry guys, we've got this ready for you!"

"Then we'll do YMCA, Agadoo, and stuff like that, originally started with the queues, and we didn't have any music or anything."

That gave them the idea that they could actually turn standing outside a supermarket into a fun visit.

Dan added: "It's a bit of a daunting experience coming here at the moment. How can we entertain them?

"A lot of people can feel anxiety and don't want to get into a queue. Some people are a bit impatient because they don't want to be in a queue.

"So we thought, let's try a Mexican wave.

"We tried it, and it went really well. After that, our manager posted it into a Morrisons colleagues' page, and said this is how we keep our customers entertained.

"Then every Morrisons store started doing the Mexican wave. So we thought, let's go one better." Morrisons Backs Coalville's Dancing Staff

And then, says Dan, is when the ideas really started flowing.

He added: "We then started to treat it like a visit to Alton Towers, we had all the barriers so we started saying: 'This is the Wicker Man, please keep your hands on your trolley at all times, because it's going to be one hell of a ride!'

"People started to have fun. So we came up with another game. It was based on Paddy McGuinness' 'Take Me Out'. So we changed it to Danny McGuinness' 'Take Me Shopping'.

"I'd walk up to a random customer, and say: 'What's your name? Where are you from? And what are you shopping for?

"So I'd shout something like: 'Janet from Coalville!' and everybody would start clapping and cheering. And it went on from there."

The pair then hit on the idea of introducing some music

Dan explained: "Then one weekend, I thought, if I was in the queue I want music. So myself and Paul invested in a speaker, the one we use outside the store now.

"I didn't mind doing that. And the manager thought it was a great idea. So we thought we could have some fun with this and play music. Then one day standing outside, I thought: 'I haven't sung YMCA for ages'.

"I turned to Paul and said: 'Do you know YMCA?' And he said: "Of course I know YMCA!'

"A few people joined in and from then on we started doing it every day. Then along came Agadoo. We also do Big Fish, Little Fish, Cardboard Box

"There is also a Lazy Town song called Bing Bang and and whenever that comes on me and Paul do the routine for that song. But it's our Cheeky Girls dance that was the most viral of all.

"But the Cheeky Girls have their own TikTok account and they posted our video with the message: 'Thank you Morrisons' - they also put it on their Twitter account Cheeky Girls Twitter Account

"We couldn't believe it. We had a pop party album, it just happened to come on and we started singing along to it.

"Then somebody said they wanted to record that on their phone and asked if it was okay.

"We said: "It's fine, we're happy to entertain you and keep you laughing'.

"People saw the video on the Spotted in Coalville page, and it's blown up since then. My brother lives in Reading, and it came up down there, he said to me: "What are you doing?'

"Someone else told me that their cousin works in Glasgow and they've seen it. It's gone up and down the country.

"It's all quite surreal to be fair, we just didn't expect it."

But Dan knows there is a serious side to all of this - because people are in an uncertain situation at the moment.

He added: "We just felt it was a daunting experience for the shoppers, we just try and make the best of it, there're people inside the store who are worried about catching Coronavirus, nobody wants that.

"We have to be there, because our needs us. I'm usually a university student, I should be there right now, but it's shut due to this. I thought I'd take advantage of this to save up some money.

"And it led onto this, which is obviously fantastic. We're just trying to create a positive environment to come into.

"We noticed as well that people are going inside and telling the checkout operators what we were doing. So the workers inside started to laugh too.

"They were making reference to it and we didn't know what they were talking about until we realised it was all over social media.

"Then one of our colleagues came in dressed as a toilet roll, to try and entertain the customers as well when we weren't there. Then somebody else came in as a superhero, so I dressed up as Spiderman, I had the full costume on outside Morrison's.

"We never thought anything like this would happen simply from dancing outside a supermarket.

"Before any of this ever happened, I didn't even know who Paul was, he used to work at the NEC in Birmingham, but because it's shutdown, his security company has taken on more jobs and now he's at Morrison's in Coalville. He hasn't been there long at all.

"Then we have another guy called Simon who comes on and goes the late shift, eveyone loves him, he's a great guy.

"We set up a TikTok account last week, I'd never even used it. I didn't have a clue what it was.

"But then somebody pointed out that we had 550,000 views on it. And it was me and Paul doing Agadoo.

"The video was then posted onto Facebook and got shared around, and my boss showed me that it had got 1.2 million views!

"We decided to do it for those who are isolated at home. We want people to stay at home, but it's boring being sat at home all day so if we can create something for people to watch and keep their spirits going that's great. It keeps people more positive and happier.

"And it gives a positive view of Coalville as well. I just try and get everybody involved and be nice. It's a very tough time for everybody. "

And Dan summed up what he and Paul are doing in one ideal sentence.

He said: "If you can just give that 30 seconds of happiness, and a smile for your day then me and Paul are more than happy with that. It's all we really want to do."