Alan Bleasedale and Willy Russell - two of Liverpool's finest writers - often confused for each other....

Willy recalls: "I was coming out of a ward at the Royal, and a cleaner asked me 'Didn't you write Shirley Valentine?' I replied I did, and she turned to her colleague and said, 'I told you it was Alan Bleasdale!' "One man asked me 'Are you Alan Bleasdale - or are you Bill Oddie? I've been hired for events by people thinking I was Willie Rushton, who's been dead for six years."