I’m a Paul Chuckle lookalike – people always say the same thing when they notice the resemblance
THIS bus driver looks just like kids’ TV star Paul Chuckle to me. To you?
John Simpson, 57, has been nicknamed “Chuckles” by colleagues after they heard how passengers kept pointing out the striking similarity.
And even laughter legend Paul himself has commented on how he could be “my doppelganger” after John sent him a photo online.
John, who has been on the buses for 20 years, said: “Over the past few years, I have had more and more passengers mentioning that I looked like Paul Chuckle.
“I take it as a big compliment as I am a big fan. Someone comments on the likeness most days.
“I always get the catchphrase, ‘To me, to you’ when they get on.”
John, from Gainford, Co Durham, was even teased about it by a comedian while at a show in Blackpool with wife Denise, 63.
He said: “As soon as I walked in, he ripped straight into me saying, ‘Nice to see Paul Chuckle arriving safe and well’. I had people come up to have their photograph taken with me. I loved it.”
ChuckleVision ran for 21 series between 1987 and 2009, starring hapless brothers Barry and Paul Elliott, from Rotherham.
Barry died of cancer in 2018, aged 73.
John met the pair in 2014 after a panto in Darlington.
But he said there was no resemblance then as he did not have a moustache.
And he said of his new-found fame: “It seems to have come with age. I laughed it off at first, but if it is bringing laughter into people’s lives, then I think it is brilliant.”