Dirty Dancing TV remake confirmed

(Rex Images)

Get practicing your Dirty Dancing lifts because Baby is coming out of her corner and getting the remake treatment.

Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin has been cast in the lead as Baby, the part famously played by Jennifer Grey in 1987, for a three-hour adaptation on US television network ABC.

Wayne Blair from The Sapphires is directing and The L Word’s Jessica Sharzer is writing the screenplay.

Other roles are yet to be announced, as is an air date, but the decision to bring Kellerman’s back to life has stirred mixed, but generally distressed, reactions among fans.

Dirty Dancing tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with resort dance instructor Johnny (an unforgettable Patrick Swayze) while holidaying with her family in the Catskill Mountains in 1963.

Dubious about whether the magic of the original could ever be recaptured? One possible saving grace is that screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein, who penned it, is returning as executive producer, so clearly she thinks this risky idea could pay off. Perhaps she has forgotten the failed 1988 attempt at a TV revival, starring Melora Hardin and Patrick Cassidy.

Bergstein also led the charge on hit musical Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage in 2004, the same year that saw the release of dodgy prequel movie, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, starring Romola Garai.