The producer of a popular TV drama series about a Spanish village priest is seeking a Benedict XVI double. 

Voz Audiovisual, makers of the longrunning Galician series Padre Casares, says applicants should have “a striking physical resemblance to the Pontiff” but don’t need previous experience on the small screen or of acting: it turns out they won’t need to speak.

That may be just as well. Saying lines in gallego — the regional language of the series — in a high-pitched German accent would test  the skills of the even the most able actor.

Voz Audiovisual does not specify if candidates must be men. If that isn’t a precondition, they might consider this fine-looking old lady, whose photo has been circulating on the web on account of her remarkable likeness to the successor of St Peter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Austen Ivereigh is a fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, at the University of Oxford, and a biographer of Pope Francis. In 2020 he collaborated with Pope Francis on Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, published by Simon & Schuster. His most recent book is First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis, published by Loyola Press.