Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller are the new stars

David Soul, Paul Michael Glaser and Antonio Fargas, aka Huggy Bear, greeted fans at the screening in London's Leicester Square.

Wilson, 35, and Stiller, 38, arrived in a replica of the show's famous red and white Ford Gran Torino.

The red carpet had a white stripe down the middle, just like the car.

The film reviewed Meet its stars

Soul and Glaser starred as the undercover police detectives in 88 episodes of the show, which made the pair into stars when it began in 1975.

The show ended four years later with Starsky and Hutch apparently sacked after a sting operation that went wrong.

'Striped tomato'

Glaser said he had fond memories of the show - apart from the car.

"I never liked that car," he said. "First of all, I thought it was ugly. Secondly, I thought it was ridiculous to have two undercover policemen driving around in a striped tomato."

Of the remake, star Owen Wilson said: "So much of what made the series popular was the way those guys played off each other. Hopefully we have our own sort of give-and-take one that is slightly more comedic."

The original stars also attended

One of their most popular characters in the original show was sometime-informer Huggy Bear, played by Antonio Fargas. Rapper Snoop Dogg picks up the role in the film.

Fargas paid tribute to the rapper's acting.

"I think he is today's Huggy. He works very well so I am very pleased at what he did and I am glad he got the role," he said.

Starsky and Hutch broke ground as one of the first police dramas to show a seamier side of crime, including prostitutes, pimps and police informers.

After the show finished, Soul moved to London and returned to the singing career he had before the programme.

Wilson and Stiller, two of America's biggest comic actors, have already appeared in films together including Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums and Meet The Parents.