Lord Sugar confused with Sid James on 'Jeremy Vine On 5'

Watch: Alan Sugar mistaken for Sid James

Lord Sugar has been mistaken for late actor Sid James on the Jeremy Vine show.

The TV presenter ran a segment on his Channel 5 show Jeremy Vine On 5 discussing possible contenders to challenge Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the leadership of the country.

Vine said: "Let's throw some names around here... now let's go a bit wilder - Deborah Meade, Martin Lewis the money saving expert. Or what about Alan Sugar himself. Could he do it? He's a conservative supporter."

The image shown on screen captioned 'Alan Sugar' was not that of The Apprentice star, businessman and member of the House of Lords, but one of the late comedy actor Sid James, who died in 1976 aged 62.

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If Vine spotted his production team's error he did not let on, quickly moving on to his next suggestion.

James — famous for starring in the Carry On movies with Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques — had grey curly hair and a similar, craggy face shape to Lord Sugar.

Many viewers did spot the mistake and James' name was quickly trending on Twitter under the topic of Business and Finance.

Lord Sugar, 74, is an avid Twitter user, but has not yet commented.

Sanjeev commented: "Sid James ? Carry on Sir. Al..."

Richard tweeted: "They were such a carry on though. They do look similar. My sympathy is with Sid James."

And Maxine wrote: "Was that a joke, or do they really think Sid James is Alan Sugar? Who knows. #JeremyVine"

It's certainly not the first time the wrong picture has been used for a celebrity on morning television.

In 2020 Britt Ekland appeared on Good Morning Britain and pointed out the show had used a picture of a lookalike on their photo wall.

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The former Bond girl appeared on the ITV show to chat to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid but was quick to point out that the main photo in the montage behind her was not actually of her.

Ekland said the lookalike “went to a Bond premiere years ago and everyone thought it was me, but of course I was not there".

She added: “It doesn’t bother me. Everyone knows what I look like.”

The previous year Bonnie Tyler left GMB producers red-faced when she pointed out they had used a picture of a tribute act during her interview.

The singer said: "“That’s not me! It looks like me when I was young."

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