They've been dubbed Stormont's Starsky and Hutch and last week Basil McCrea and John McCallister were looking more like 70s crime fighters than ever.

Sporting a bruising black eye and a retro moustache, all the Ulster Unionist duo were missing was a souped up Ford Torino.

Like any good cop show, both characters had an intriguing back story for their facial anomalies.

Basil's brush with a fallen tree while driving home in last weekend's storm has already hit the headlines and one look at his wrecked car showed how fortunate he was to escape with just a puffy eye.

But some Assembly colleagues have apparently been less sympathetic.

"I've heard them all already," he sighed.

"Most are asking if it was Tom Elliott with a chainsaw!"

John's top lip transformation was rather more planned as the South Down MLA is participating in the increasingly popular "Movember" month-long 'tache growing challenge to raise money for cancer charities.

But if he wasn't turning as many heads as Basil in Parliament Buildings, there was a good explanation.

Despite almost two weeks' germination, the shoots were hard to spot.

So hard that UUP press officer Louise Scott had to apply a much-needed touch-up with a mascara pen ahead of a photoshoot to promote his fundraising efforts.

It was one of her last tasks before leaving the post she's held for more than two years to take up a new job as head of communications with the Yorkshire Building Society in Bradford.

"These are the moments I'll really miss," she deadpanned, wiping away a smudge from new deputy leader's face.

To donate to John's "Movember" challenge in memory of 24-year-old Rathfriland woman Louise Gibbons, who died two years ago of cervical cancer, contact his office on 028 4372 4400 or 19 Causeway Road, Newcastle.