Stephen Mangan jokingly took aim at Gogglebox viewers who mistook his sister Anita for his wife, as he pointed out their remarkable resemblance. The actor, 57, and his younger sister, 56, are frequent collaborators, having published a number of best-selling children's books and appeared together on the Celebrity version of Gogglebox.
However, Stephen has complained that some fans watching them on the Channel 4 show assumed that Anita was actually his wife, despite him pointing out that they 'have literally the same face'. The siblings appeared together on Radio X's The Chris Moyles Show on Thursday morning to promote their latest children's book, Welcome to Weird Street - written by Stephen and illustrated by Anita.
Explaining how much work she put into the illustrations, Anita said: 'I put work upon myself, because I'm only supposed to draw 40 drawings and I normally do about 80.' Host Chris quipped that she was being taken advantage of by her famous older brother, saying: 'You're an idiot. You're not getting paid and you're doing double the work.'
Stephen cut in to argue: 'I mean, look at our faces. We have the same face with different hair.' Though Dominic Byrne agreed: 'You do look very similar', Chris shot back: 'I don't know, I wouldn't say that. I think Anita is a very attractive woman.'
Stephen then added: 'Someone saw us on Gogglebox once and said, "Your wife doesn't half look like you?" The Episodes star protested: 'I said, "It's my sister!" We have literally the same face!' as the group burst out laughing.
Stephen's actual wife is fellow actress Louise Delamere, 56, who is best known for her roles in Holby City, Waterloo Road and Channel 4's No Angels. The couple tied the knot back in 2007 and are parents to three sons, Harry, 18, Frank, 15, and 10-year-old Jack.
Stephen and Anita have collaborated on a number of bestselling books, including The Fart that Changed the World and The Day I Fell Down the Toilet. The siblings, as well as youngest sister Lisa, share a strong bond after having lost both their parents to cancer at a young age, with their debut children's book, Escape the Rooms, being inspired by the loss.
Stephen was just 22 years old when their mother was diagnosed with colon cancer, tragically passing away just six months later, aged 45. Her loss prompted him to follow his heart and pursue a career in acting, landing a place shortly after at RADA. But 14 years later, their father then tragically died of a brain tumour, aged 62, also six months after receiving his diagnosis.
'You feel so helpless when something like that happens to someone you love,' Stephen previously told Metro. 'A lot of people live in denial and don't want to think about what might happen because it's depressing. I find being aware the clock is ticking makes being alive feel more special. You can't go around thinking you're going to die all the time but life is precious because there isn't that much of it.'
'It's a source of tremendous sadness to me that my parents never got to meet my children. It feels wrong but what can you do? You have to get on with it.'
After their dad's death, the three siblings pooled their money to buy an £800,000 country house where they and their families could spend time together to celebrate their parents' lives, which Stephen has said was 'the best decision I ever made.'
In a joint interview with The Guardian in 2022, he and Anita opened up on growing up together, how losing both their mum and dad brought them closer and why they decided to join forces to make children's books.
'There were only 14 months between us, so I can't remember life without her,' said Stephen. 'We were very close, even in our teens.' Anita added: 'Despite our differences, we would always play together: doing Muppet songs, performing little plays for our babysitters. We were left to our own devices and would disappear in the woods for whole days – making dens and dragging out all our parents' possessions from the house and back indoors before they noticed.'
She explained how their connection only grew stronger after the loss of their parents, with Anita crediting Stephen for helping her get through the tragic period by stepping into the 'big brother role'. 'Our parents' deaths were awful, but the key to healing is being together, and the grief has brought Stephen and I closer,' she recalled. 'There's no stiff upper lip in our family. We just let it all out. It's hard at the time but useful, too. I felt so comforted that Stephen stepped into the big brother role and dealt with so much of the logistics. In the worst possible scenario, it was lovely to be around him.'
Stephen echoed: 'When [Mum] died, and when Dad died 14 years later, I was so grateful that we were always very open in expressing how we felt. We would go out for meals and it would end up with us sitting around a table in a hysteria of tears.'
While he also explained how they came to work together, joking: 'My parents would be delighted and surprised that we are now working together – although I'm not sure how delighted they'd be that the second book is called The Fart That Changed the World. When we first started talking about collaborating on something, I thought it could be a long poem that I could knock out in a week. Anita's idea was: why don't you write a 50,000-word book and I'll do some doodles instead? She won. And I've started to turn down acting roles because I love writing so much. Most of all I love trying to write ridiculous things for Anita to draw. That's what this whole thing is, really. Me trying to make my sister laugh.'
Yet Stephen previously admitted that his successes in his career and alongside Anita often feel bittersweet, as he never got a chance to share them with his mother. 'Mum never met my wife or children, she never knew I'd be an actor, or her eldest two would end up writing books together,' he told The Times in 2023. 'Every first night and every book launch and every time a new show comes on television, you feel that heart-breaking pain, because there's a deep instinct to go, "Look, Mum!"'
Last year, the comedian paid a heartfelt tribute to his parents on Desert Island Discs, describing their humble working-class origins as Irish immigrants who came to the UK in the 1960s. He described them as 'bright, life loving, warm' and 'delightful' and added: 'They lived life, they were very happy together and very much in love. We had a very happy household.' Stephen told the show: 'Having the parents I had shaped me. I never got to know my mum as an adult and that has stuck with me. But I'm grateful to have them as parents, I lucked out.'
