BBC Breakfast viewers were seeing double Brian Cox on Friday, as the actor and professor who share the same name finally came face to face on the show.
As well as it being a surreal experience for viewers, it turned out their meeting had been rather unusual for them too.
As they both sat down with Charlie Stayt on the Breakfast show, actor Brian – who is known for his role as Logan Roy in Succession – revealed a hilarious story that happened as they both checked into a hotel the night before their appearance.
“Last night was very confusing when he arrived to the hotel and said there was two Brian Cox’s so they said you’ve got two rooms,” he said.
“He said, no I think there’s two Brian Coxes and the hotel said we can’t have two Brian Coxes.”
Professor Brian then continued: “They wouldn’t check me in! I had to change my name.
“I had to get a picture out on my phone and say, ‘this Brian Cox, he’ll be coming later’ and he said, ‘I know neither of you – I don’t watch television.’”
The scientist joked he might have had to share a room with his fellow Brian, adding: “It might have happened because he was going to cancel – I had that in my mind!”
He added: “Sometimes I’ll get in a car and the driver will say, ‘Ah I love Succession, I don’t like this astronomy stuff’,” with the other Brian saying the same thing also happened to him.
Prior to appearing on BBC Breakfast, Professor Brian had teased the hotel mix-up on Twitter, writing: “I’m on @BBCBreakfast in the next hour talking about Black Holes - with the ‘other’ Brian Cox. One day I will tell the full story about me trying to check into the hotel last night.
“Confusion doesn’t begin to describe it.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One and BBC News.