Faces

In the New Avenger's Story "Faces", the brilliant plastic surgeon, Dr Prator, recruits drifters from the Mission for the Distressed and Needy and replaces prominent government officials with

their perfect double.

Steed meets a politician he knows well, but the man walks straight past him - and when questioned, he has no idea who Steed is. Then Steed learns that other leading figures in the government have also been acting strangely. When one of them dies from an illness he didn't have, the clues lead Purdey and Gambit to an establishment in the East end of London run by a cosmetic surgeon.

But it is happening in real life. According to a secret police file, code named "Operate Xerox", the man above could be replaced with a Look A Like? Indeed the transformation might have already taken place. Look for strange changes in behaviour, like the call for a States run Reform Commission rather than an Independent one, and it is obvious.

Why has Johnny from X-Factor mysteriously disappeared? Does X-Factor stand for Xerox-Factor? Look below, and you will see a startling resemblance.

And word reaches me that a second candidate with political experience is also being groomed to sing from the same song sheet.