Actor Brian Cox has met his match after bumping into his equally famous namesake.
Scientist Professor Brian Cox posted a photo to his Twitter account after meeting the Dundee-born film star who shares the same name.
The Oldham-born physicist – who has starred in a number of popular educational TV shows about the universe – joked that there was “an anomaly in the spacetime continuum” after meeting the Succession star.
There is an anomaly in the spacetime continuum…. pic.twitter.com/H81uIblqkI
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) January 26, 2020
In what may have been a reference to the film Back to the Future Part II, Prof Cox then joked he was “worried” that the pair’s meeting had created an alternate timeline and set their lives on entirely new courses.
I am worried about the consequences for the timeline ….
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) January 27, 2020
In the film series, antagonist Biff Tannen’s meddling with time travel created an alternative future reality which Marty McFly and Doc Brown were forced to correct.
Responding to the Tweet, astronomer Phil Plait wrote: “Just a glitch in the matrix. I’m sure the software will catch up.”
Other Twitter users used gifs and memes to make light of the two Brian Coxes meeting.
Two cannot occupy the same temporal location!
Now you need a third… pic.twitter.com/u8D1uch1ZN
— Jeremy Lash (@jezlash) January 27, 2020
Here’s another pair. pic.twitter.com/dNzMsqn4Rr
— Jimbo Loony (@JimboLoony) January 26, 2020
— Harry Mahon (@HarryMahon26) January 26, 2020
It comes just weeks after the Dundonian Brian Cox, 73, took home the prize for best actor in a TV drama series for his role in the hit HBO show at the Golden Globes.
Speaking at the Golden Globes after winning the gong, Cox said: “I just never thought this would happen to me so I’m a wee bit shocked.
“Well I never thought I’d make it. I thought my sell-by date had come quite some time ago.
“I’ve been doing reasonably well, I can’t complain, but then a role like Logan Roy just comes along once in a generation, once in a lifetime, and when you are given a gift like that you go ‘wow’.
“This is a bit of a pinnacle. I can’t ask for better than this.”
The actor, who once played Hannibal Lector in Michael Mann’s Manhunter, also recently topped The Courier’s Impact 100 list.