29 Nov 2017

Glen Scanlon: what it's like to be an identical twin

From Afternoons, 1:20 pm on 29 November 2017

This week RNZ's Head of Digital Glen Scanlon sent out an unusual email to staff explaining that if he looks at you blankly or you see him with an unfamiliar woman and child, it's not him, it's his identical twin.

Identical twins Glen (left) and Sean Scanlon.

Identical twins Glen (left) and Sean Scanlon. Photo: Supplied

'My twin brother Sean has just moved to Wellington and is working in the public service. I'm letting you all know for a number of reasons:

- If you see someone who looks like me hanging out with Government ministers and think, aye, what the bloody hell is happening here. It won't be me.

- I don't want you thinking, when you say hello but the person who looks like me doesn't say hello back or looks blankly at you, that I'm being rude. It won't be me it will be him (that or I'm just playing with your mind).

- For those of you who have met my family, you see me about with a different woman and a son (I have a daughter). That won't be me either.'

Glen says that when he and Sean last lived in the same city, their identical appearance meant he got off to a somewhat shaky start with his wife Lucy.

"When I first met my now wife we were both working at The Dominion newspaper and my twin brother happened to be working downstairs at the Evening Post. I would say hello to her in the lift and I'd be very very friendly and it was all lovely, then other days this [identical] person would get into the lift and ignore her."

At the time Sean was also dating and is now married to a woman named Lucy.

Looks-wise, the twins seemed to grow apart for a while, then come back together, Glen says.

They're very close in height and weight, but Sean sometimes wears glasses and looks a bit more like the actor James Nesbitt.

"We both look at each other and say 'Gee, you're losing hair'."

Glen's daughter and Sean's son – who are genetically half-sister and half-brother – have no trouble telling them apart, he says.

Each calls their dad-like uncle 'Uncle Dad'.