Pairs of people I always confuse with one another, just on the strength of their vaguely similar names.

• Laura Linney - Lindsey Lohan
• Fern Britton - Fearne Cotton
• Sam Rockwell - Dean Stockwell
• Mark Steel - Mark Thomas
• David Thewlis - David Threlfall
• Mick Hucknell - Michael Hutchence
• Toby Litt - Tim Lott
• Annie Lennox - Alice Cooper

Some of these I feel more justified in than others. The two Marks, for instance, are to all intents and purposes the same person - Annie and Alice, I accept, are not. In some cases, such as the Marks or Messrs Litt and Lott, I know there's two of them, but can never remember which wrote / appeared in what. In some cases, I think both people are one of them: I know, for instance, that there's a cosy middle aged TV presenter called Fern, but until I started writing this I'd never really established whether her surname was Britton or Cotton. Google now shows me that Fearne Cotton is a remarkably different kettle of fish. And in other cases, I have until recently thought there was one person, of whose name I was not certain, who had had the careers of both. Excusable, perhaps in the case of the two English actors of similar age called David Th-----; less so in the case of Messrs Hutchence and Hucknell. And positively actionable in the case of Mesdames Linney and Lohan.