Brian Cox meets Brian Cox: ‘Incredible scenes’ on BBC Breakfast as actor and professor finally meet

Their shared name led to an awkward misunderstanding

The actor Brian Cox and the professor Brian Cox have come face-to-face on BBC Breakfast.

The star of Succession and the physicist shared a sofa on Friday morning’s (18 November) episode of the morning show.

The pair told host Charlie Stayt that their identical names have led to a number of awkward incidents, one of which had happened the night before.

Actor Cox said they found themselves at the centre of a hotel room mix-up, and that he and Professor Cox almost ended up sharing a room.

He said: “Last night was very confusing when he arrived to the hotel and said there was two Brian Coxes so they said, ‘You’ve got two rooms.’

“He said, ‘No, I think there’s two Brian Coxes,’ and the hotel said, ‘We can’t have two Brian Coxes.’”

The academic chimed in: “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.’”

Professor Cox joked that he might have had to share a room with the Scottish actor, quipping: “It might have happened because he was going to cancel – I had that in my mind!”

This is not the first time that their identical names have led to a misunderstanding.

“Sometimes I’ll get in a car and the driver will say, ‘Ah I love Succession, I don’t like this astronomy stuff,’” explained the professor.

The actor also said that people often expect to meet the physicist instead of him.

Cox – who grew up in poverty in Dundee – recently presented a documentary titled Brian Cox: How The Other Half Life.

The Channel 4 special explored the actor’s complicated relationship with money and wealth.