Is that another young Dance partner, Charles?

He may be preparing to celebrate his 62nd birthday this week but it seems that Charles Dance’s passion for young companions shows no sign of abating.

The actor was seen strolling with an elegant blonde on London’s Hampstead Heath last week – the latest in a procession of attractive young women whose company he has enjoyed since divorcing his wife of 33 years, Joanna, in 2003.

The couple chatted happily as they enjoyed the autumn sunshine on Parliament Hill, less than a mile from Dance’s home in Kentish Town, North London.

Stepping out: Dance with his latest companion

Earlier they had emerged from his terrace bachelor pad and taken a 20-minute drive in the actor’s classic black Mercedes to a furniture shop called Of Special Interest, where the pair briefly browsed the antiques.

One onlooker said: ‘She seemed young enough to be his daughter. They weren’t in the shop very long and just asked about a clock.’

The star of the BBC costume drama Bleak House and the ITV series The Jewel In The Crown was dressed casually in a blue sweat-shirt and jeans with matching scarf, while his partner wore similar attire – a blue zip-up top, beige cords and trainers.

Old flames: Dance has previously been out with Sophia Myles, left, and Shambhala Marthe

After the break-up of his marriage to his sculptress wife – which produced a son, Oliver, now 33, and daughter, Rebecca, 24 – Dance admitted he was ‘not the greatest husband in the world’. Since then he has been dating a string of women young enough to be his daughter.

Even before his divorce, Dance was linked to Emilia Fox, the actress daughter of Edward Fox and Joanna David, who was 27 at the time.

And within months of his separation, he was dating actress Sophia Myles, who was just 23.

He had met the vicar’s daughter two years earlier on the set of the ITV adaptation of the Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby but he split from her abruptly after two years, leaving her ‘devastated’.

Since then he has been escorting statuesque former Gucci model Shambhala Marthe on and off. Dance even gave 36-year-old Miss Marthe, who came to Britain from her native France 11 years ago, a ring he bought from a bazaar stall as a ‘love token’.

Now, despite a busy schedule filming a new TV series called Trinity, set in the Cambridge college, and a punishing exercise regime that includes weightlifting, yoga and weekend swims in the unheated outdoor pool on Hampstead Heath,
it appears he has found time for another dalliance.