16 times TV characters were replaced with suspiciously similar ones

John Nettles's DCI Barnaby was replaced by... Neil Dudgeon's DCI Barnaby. The latter is Tom Barnaby's cousin, with the same rank and personality. The show is called Inspector Barnaby in other countries, though, so fair enough.

Sweet but dimwitted bartender Coach was replaced by sweet but dimwitted bartender Woody Boyd, after Coach actor Nicholas Colasanto passed away.

After Richard Coyle quit Coupling after three series as dopey weirdo Jeff, pretty much the exact same character was introduced – Richard Mylan as dopey weirdo Oliver. He even has the same haircut, and almost the exact same face.

After 20 episodes of season 2, Austin St John (Jason), Thuy Trang (Trini) and Walter Jones (Zack) left the show due to contact disputes. To disguise this, body doubles, voice doubles and stock footage was used for the rest of the season. In season 3, they were simply replaced with new Rangers – Rocky, Aisha and Adam.

After actor Lennard Pearce died, the role of Grandad was replaced by Buster Merryfield's like-for-like (albeit beardier) elder Trotter Uncle Albert.

The long-running old codgers sitcom regularly replaced its elderly cast members with very similar additions. Only Peter Sallis appeared in every one of its 31 seasons. They rotated their trios more than the Sugababes, with 10 old boys in total.

Bitty Schram left Monk after three seasons as the detective's assistant Sharona, and was replaced be Traylor Howard's Natalie. The switch was so sudden that Natalie's lines were clearly meant for Sharona (at one point she mentions that she's never seen Monk's feet like it's a big deal – despite only taking the job in the previous episode).

After Shannen Doherty was written out of Charmed, there needed to be a third witch sister – as prophesied. Rose McGowan then quickly stepped in as Paige, an unknown fourth sister, who also had telekinesis powers just like her deceased sister Prue.

Megan Dodds left the sitcom after one series as Kate, the attractive landlady and girl of Lee's dreams, whom he shares a flat with. Sally Bretton then joined as Lucy, his new attractive landlady and girl of his dreams, who he shares a flat with.

Harry Enfield left the show as Gary's randy and slow flatmate Dermot after one series, to be replaced by Neil Morrissey's Tony – Gary's new randy and slow flatmate.

Not strictly a replacement like others in this list, but John Hurt's War Doctor was clearly meant to be Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, had the latter not opted out of appearing in the 50th anniversary special. And so the 'War Doctor' was shoehorned in, leather jacket and all.

Although they had slightly different personalities, Jack's replacement Jesse wasn't exactly a giant leap in character swaps after Scott Baio quit the show. Look, they even have the same pose!

Damon Wayans Jr's Coach appeared in the pilot but by the second episode he had been replaced by Lamorne Morris's Winston. Like Coach, he's an attractive, goateed, athletic African-American roommate of Nick and Schmidt's (they explained this by saying Coach was only subletting Winston's room). Coach did eventually come back, at least.

Mitchell was a reformed vampire with a shady past, who's sworn off blood and lives with a werewolf and a ghost. In series 4, he was replaced by Hal – a reformed vampire with a shady past, who's sworn off blood and lives with a werewolf and a ghost. Same goes for Annie/Alex and George/Tom.

Quirky Pauline (heh) replaced quirky Elaine as Doc Martin's receptionist after one series. He now has a third assistant in Morwenna, but she's not as quirky. Not quite.

After William was killed in World War I, Alfred arrived almost instantly. Like William, he's tall, fair-haired, bumbling and a love interest for Daisy.