{"id":4557,"date":"2025-04-22T11:18:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burn-the-priest.com\/?p=4557"},"modified":"2025-04-22T11:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:34:42","slug":"im-a-pope-lookalike-whos-never-actually-been-booked-as-the-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/burn-the-priest.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/im-a-pope-lookalike-whos-never-actually-been-booked-as-the-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a Pope lookalike who\u2019s never actually been booked as the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brian Holdom has been offering his Pope lookalike service for more than a decade (Picture: Brian Holdom)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A rent-a-Pope lookalike who’s never been booked as the Pope and looks more like Jim Bowen than the Pope says it might not be too long until he hangs up his own Pope’s cassock.<\/p>\n

Brian Holdom has worked as a lookalike for 20 years, bringing Henry VIII, Blofeld from James Bond<\/a>, and Winston Churchill to events, parties, weddings<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old worked in sales and marketing before turning his hand to the lookalike industry, after a friend told him he could make money out of his more than passing resemblance to actor Donald Pleasence.<\/p>\n

Brian got fed up of being approached for autographs over the years, and seeing people get annoyed when he revealed he was not in fact the actor who starred in You Only Live Twice.<\/p>\n

So he decided to create his own Blofeld character and turned his mistaken identity into a globetrotting career.<\/p>\n

Brian was starring as a Pope in a play at his local theatre about 12 years ago when one of his fellow cast members told him he looked a bit like Pope Francis, who became head of the Catholic Church in 2013 and died on Easter Monday<\/a> aged 88.<\/p>\n

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Do you see the resemblance? (Picture: Brian Holdom)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He decided to add the Pope to his repertoire and popped some pictures onto his website<\/a> – but Brian, from Croydon in south London, tells Metro <\/strong>he’s never actually been hired to play the pontiff.<\/p>\n

‘I performed in a local play, and people were saying at the time when I got the costume on, people were reacting differently around me,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘People were saying “you do realise you do actually look like the current Pope”, so because I do the other characters I thought I’ll add it to my website as a bit of fun.<\/p>\n

‘I’ve never actually performed as the Pope as a lookalike though.<\/p>\n

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The real Pope Francis pictured in 2019 (Picture: EPA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I’ve had several enquiries over the years but for whatever reason I’ve never been able to take them up on it.<\/p>\n

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