Mr Brown and the look-unlikes: Photographer's search for PM's double

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But it's not for want of trying. Yesterday the notorious artist Alison Jackson - who has made a career photographing doppelgangers of the famous in amusing situations - took her quest for a Gordon Brown double to new lengths. And as these pictures show, it was not an unqualified success.

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'I'm prudent', 'No - I'm prudent': Hopefuls (from left), Derek Lange, Stuart Robertson and Sid Kenny

Jackson invited a clutch of lookalikes - or in most cases look-unlikes - to a casting session at the Metropolitan Hotel in Mayfair yesterday after the artist went national with her search in a magazine.

"I've been trying to work it out," she said of her relentless hunt for a convincing Mr Brown. "He's got this huge jaw and most people don't have a jaw that kind of size."

The most convincing of the hopefuls was 54-year-old Richard Wade, who shares the same lopsided bite and slighty chubby lantern jaw. And he had clearly tried to emulate Mr Brown's slightly raffish brilliantined comb-across.

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Eerily familiar: Richard Wade, 54, with the familiar lopsided bite and chubby jaw. Pictured with Alison Jackson yesterday. Will he prove the best of the bunch?

Another hopeful, Stuart Robertson, was less convincing than Mr Wade. But he was better than retired retailer Sid Kenny, 60, from Bedford, who said: "I realise I'm up against good competition here as it's a countrywide search.

The real McCoy: The Prime Minister Gordon Brown

"It was my friends who suggested that I do this. They know I'm a bit of a joker. I mentioned it to my wife and she was very enthusiastic."

The casting sessions were initially advertised in Esquire magazine, which will publish the picture of the winner.

Among the other contenders was Derek Lange, a property developer from Bow in East London. Not only did he arrive sporting Mr Brown's signature light blue tie but was clearly in character from the moment he arrived, mimicking the Prime Minister's famously awkward tennis shot.

Alison Jackson's most recent project was the Channel 4 show Blaired Vision, which featured a double for Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell.