Being a city of eleven, or even twelve million, it's reasonable enough to run into someone who will remind you of someone you already know.

I'm getting that sensation virtually daily; there's an American who goes to the vegetarian takeaway that I do, who is nearly the body double for a young Michael Caine, even down to the thickish back-rimmed Get Carter like spectacles he's always wearing.

Whether that's a studied gesture or a careless one, I'll leave to the Gods to decide, or him to 'fess up to. But it's certainly disorientating to be standing at the counter with young Alfie in front.