MISSING LINKS

HOW two seemingly unrelated figures in the news are joined by a series of unexpected connections.

MICHAEL SHEEN

The actor has criticised Prince William for supporting England at the World Cup, despite being Prince of Wales. The Welsh star is the great-great-grandson of a female lion-tamer, while his father Meyrick works as a Jack Nicholson lookalike. On screen, Sheen has doubled for Chris Tarrant, David Frost, Kenneth Williams, Brian Clough and – in three separate projects – Tony Blair. Other actors who have played the former PM include…

DAMIAN LEWIS

… although his unsubtle performance in 2007’s Confessions Of A Diary Secretary was not his finest. One critic likened it to ‘someone frantically waving a cardboard cutout on a stick’. The Homeland star used to be a North London neighbour of Amy Winehouse, both living in Prowse Place, Camden. But in 2006 he moved a couple of miles to Tufnell Park, buying his house from…

HUGH LAURIE

In his younger days the actor shared a home with his comedy partner Stephen Fry. They once got some plasterers in – and inspired them to become comedians too. Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse went on to create The Fast Show. At Cambridge University, Laurie was a keen rower and a member of the (losing) 1980 Boat Race team. Others to have participated in the famous challenge include…

LORD SNOWDON

… who coxed Cambridge’s team to victory in 1950. He also invented a type of electric wheelchair. Fun fact: soon after his wedding to Princess Margaret, the photographer’s waxwork was stolen from Madame Tussauds. It was later found in a phone booth by a member of the public so deferent they didn’t dare open the door in case they were intruding on a private call. Others who have had their waxworks stolen include…

THE TELETUBBIES

… taken from the storage depot of Ireland’s National Wax Museum in 2007, along with Hannibal Lecter and Bob The Builder. The Teletubbies show was last week revived in America by Netflix, but with an unsettling new Sun described by one viewer as a ‘giant severed baby head’ floating in space.