One is Bristol Rovers’ new goalkeeping coach David Coles, the other is veteran light-entertainer Bobby Davro. Twitter user Mick Porter faceswapped them and now it’s impossible to tell them apart. So, really, this is not a shit lookalike at all – it’s an eerily accurate one.
I once spent an afternoon at Portsmouth FC’s training ground being coached by Coles, as part of an FA Cup-related press junket, and I remember at the time (this would have been a decade or so ago) thinking how much he resembled Davro. He’s also a lovely fella. David James was also there… ah, hang on, I found the article (calling it an article is a bit of a stretch) I wrote about that very afternoon: David James teaches me to stop a 90mph shot… or not
Bonus Davro:
It’s always good to be reminded not only of Davro’s brush with death in the stocks, but also Keith Chegwin’s vivid recollection of that traumatic day:
It was one of the worst days of my life, the worst day of my career certainly. Bobby had asked me to go on this new show he was filming – a semi game show quiz type thingy. For the life of me I don’t remember what it was called, I’m not sure anybody knows. I have been on 3,500 TV shows, I cannot be expected to remember them all.
What I do know is that we filmed it in Manchester, Bobby was the host, the guests were me, Jim Bowen, and what’s his face… Blair! Lionel Blair. Someone had an idea to end the show by putting Bobby in these stocks. You don’t look at the safety aspects of props when you’re doing these things. In retrospect we definitely should have. God, the Manchester studio floor was concrete! Concrete.
Bobby’s in the stocks, we undress him, dance around him, throw a few tomatoes at his face, then suddenly there’s a gasp… Bobby’s going over. Oh God, Bobby’s going over. Both his hands were in the stocks, he couldn’t break his fall. I remember the “whomp” as he face planted into the concrete, from quite a height really. Oh my God, I can’t tell you what it sounded like as he just nose dived into the floor. The sound of it, you know. That’s what you can’t appreciate from the video footage, you really heard him hit that floor.
My first reaction was to grab hold of Bobby’s body and see what was going on. I think I shouted something, like, “Oh Bobby!” He was conscious, but delirious. Zonked out. Stunned. Someone must have called an ambulance because the paramedics seemed to get there quick and they rushed him off to hospital.
Once Bobby had gone, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. I remember going back to The Portland Hotel where it was such a tragic scene. We all just sat there not knowing what to do as we waited for news of Bobby from the hospital. Eventually Bobby walks into the hotel bar, God, he was in a hell of a state. The left hand side of his face was really bad. He said that in the hospital the doctors told him that if he hadn’t have managed to just turn his head slightly the millisecond before impact, he would have broken his nose in a massive way. His face would have caved in. It was terrible. So, so terrible. God.
The clip is now used at the BBC for health and safety courses, so you know, something positive came of it I guess.