Twins

[lankeela]

Have there ever been identical twins in a UK soap? The ones I can think of are all totally different - Demi and Darren Miller, Peter and Susan Barlow, The Macdonald brothers, Peter and Lucy Beale, there are probably loads more - surely the odds of so many sets of twins being unidentical are millions to one?

[rugeleyboy]

i might sound stupid here but didnt hollioaks have identical twin sisters??

saying that............. i never saw them together??

[Ethel]

There have been lots of identical twins in soaps over the years.

Babies. They prefer to use identical twins to play one baby - so hopefully one isn't crying when needed.

[loonytunes]

To split hairs a little, I think you mean twins who look like each other rather than identical twins. Twins is the name given generically to multiple birth resulting in two children. They share a womb but can be genetically different.

Around one in three sets of twins is identical. This occurs because the fertilised egg divides in two while it is still a tiny collection of cells. The self-contained halves then develop into two babies, with exactly the same genetic information. Twins conceived from one egg and one sperm are called identical or 'monozygotic' (one cell) twins. The biological mechanisms that prompt the single fertilised egg to split in two remain a mystery. Approximately one quarter of identical twins are mirror images of each other, which means the right side of one child matches the left side of their twin.

Around two in three sets of twins are fraternal. Two separate eggs (ova) are fertilised by two separate sperm, resulting in fraternal or 'dizygotic' (two cell) twins. These babies will be no more alike than singleton siblings born at separate times. The babies can be either the same sex or different sexes, with the odds roughly equal for each.

Some researchers believe there may be a third type of twin, although medical opinion is still divided. It is proposed that the egg splits in two, and each half is then fertilised by a different sperm. This theory is an attempt to explain why some fraternal twins look identical.

One reason why film and programme makers do not use people who look alike is that it confuses the public. That's why everyone has a different first name and, in the US, they will choose characters for long running shows, eg. soaps and cop programmes, who look different. Two dark haired men in a programme will generally wear different coloured clothes if they are in the same scene for this reason.

[Shazza36]

Yes Hollyoaks had twin sisters- Mel and???? They were Justin's sisters and were killed in the fire at the dog i think

[diamondrocks]

she was called sophie but if i rememeber correctly they had one with straight hair and the other curly so you could tell the difference

[BenDToy]

There were twin boys on Brookside in the early days. Can't remember their names though. Also, not strictly what you want but many young children are played by twins. eg Bethany in Corrie.

[lankeela]

Thanks all, yes I know lots of babies are played by twins as they can't work for too long, but my point was that some of the twins don't even look related, yet alone twins! They are not even similar in colouring or height yet all the twins I have known have been fairly similar if not identical. They at least looked related. Just take the MacDonald boys, or Darren and Demi. Surely there are some sets of identical twins who have become actors? Mind you they could even use one person and have computer generated whatsits these days.

[wigglebum]

There was twins in neighbours that looked a like Christina and Caroline I think they were

[tonymclark]

I guess the problem is there are few identical twin actors, and those that are around may not be the age of the characters the production team need.
Identical twins featured in a Doctor Who story in the 1980's and the actors were awful...!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episode guide/twindilemma/

I would think for soaps, the actors they choose are chosen for their acting abilities rather than for their looks.

[.v.natco.v.]

There were identical twins in hollyoaks, they were called mel and sophie-they were together loads. I could never tell who was who when i watched. But they got killed of in the big explosive fire a couple of months ago.