Eddie Izzard looks like Clare Balding at Sports Personality awards (2025)

  • Comic and presenter shared stage at BBC Sports Personality awards
  • Eddie Izzard sported blonde hair swept to the side...just like Clare Balding
  • On Twitter, viewers called Izzard a 'Clare Balding impersonator'
  • Andy Murray scooped the top prize at the annual celebration of sport

By JO TWEEDY FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

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When Eddie Izzard took to the stage at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards yesterday evening, viewers were quick to note that the funnyman bore more than a passing resemblance to Clare Balding, who was co-presenting the show.

Funnyman Izzard, 53, arrived on stage sporting an electric blue trouser suit, heels and a slick of scarlet lipstick while 44-year-old Balding opted for a very festive petrol blue sparkly knee-length dress with long sleeves and LK Bennett suede heels.

However, the pair wore their blonde hair in an almost identical style - swept to the side - which saw their appearance on stage, close to the end of the awards, spark a deluge of comments on how similar the comic and the sports presenter looked.

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Separated at birth? Viewers of Sunday night's BBC coverage of the Sports Personality awards thought so...and quickly took to Twitter to comment on the similarities

The 53-year-old comic appeared at the BBC #SPOTY to present the Unsung Hero award..but was upstaged by his own hairstyle...or rather its resemblance to Clare Balding's trademark do

The joke's on Eddie: Twitter was awash with comparisons between the comedian and sports presenter

'Clare Balding impersonator':Iranian-British stand-up Omid Djalili added to the tweets

'Eddie Izzard looks more like Clare Balding than Clare Balding,' piped up racing and boxing broadcaster @AlexSteedman.

Another, @nickincumbria, wrote: 'Eddie Izzard, picking up award for best Clare Balding tribute act'.

Elsewhere, @ms_d_kebab simply left it to a hashtag to do the work, writing: '#Twinnies.'

Izzard, pictured with Eamonn Holmes, was raising awareness about the#bigthankyou campaign, which aims to celebrate volunteers who give up their time to help people enjoy sport

...some Twitter users suggested that Izzard had deliberately modelled himself on Ms Balding, while others felt that his feminine attire was a direct response to boxer Tyson Fury's controversial comments about homosexuality

The comparisons kept coming, with one Twitter user, @ms_d_kebab using the hashtag #Twinnies to describe the pair

Clare Balding, Lineker and Gabby Logan (left-right) hit all the right notes during the BBC SPOTY awards, which were aired on BBC1 yesterday evening

Transvestite Izzard has dressed in women's clothing throughout his career and was at the event to promote the #bigthankyou campaign, which aims to celebrate volunteers who give up their time to help people enjoy sport.

The event, screened on BBC one at 7pm on Sunday evening, saw Andy Murray walk away with the top prize.

The tennis world number two made light of a recent dig that had the personality of a 'wet weekend in Worthing. Murray, whose wife Kim is expecting the couple's first child in the new year, quipped that he thought the remark was 'a bit harsh...on Worthing.'

Tennis star - and recent Davis Cup victor - Andy Murray (centre) poses with second-placed Kevin Sinfield (left) and third-placed Jessica Ennis-Hill after he scooped the award's Personality of the Year trophy

Clare BaldingEddie Izzard

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Eddie Izzard looks like Clare Balding at Sports Personality awards (2)

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Eddie Izzard looks like Clare Balding at Sports Personality awards (2025)
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