Since the day they were born life for identical twins Paul and Peter Kingston has always been a bit of a laugh.

Being similar in so many ways has been a fascination for their friends and sometimes they are not afraid to take full advantage of their uncanny likeness.

"I met one girl and the following week was too ill to meet her, so Peter went instead," laughs Paul.

"She never knew actually," adds Peter. "That happened quite a few times," says Paul.

It becomes clear almost immediately on setting foot inside their East Wittering home that the lives of these two, who have just celebrated their 75th birthday, are jam-packed with joy and laughter. Upstairs, Paul bangs his foot on the floor.

"That's how I call him up," he jokes, pointing to the ground floor level where his brother lives.

For most siblings the thought of living together at home with their partners would be enough to drive them round the bend.

But this is Peter and Paul.

"Our wives say 'how can you have a terrible argument and five minutes later end up chatting as if nothing has ever happened'," says Paul.

The Kingston brothers grew up in Chiswick, London, and spent forty years making all kinds of mundane jobs as fun and interesting as possible.

Their first taste for entertainment came when the brothers had to sign up for national service with the army for two years when they were 18-years-old.

None of their army chums knew them by their first names, just as the 'twins'. They performed on stage, told jokes, and did sketches to entertain the lads.

"We were both dreading it at the time, and were sent to Catterick," recalls Peter.

"It was really very cold there in the winter. But we enjoyed it in the army. They couldn't officially break us up unless you got into a bit of trouble. We were warned a couple of times."

When the duo returned from service they held down a couple of other jobs including working at Wembley stadium.

"We were groundsmen at the stadium but that didn't last, the white line went wrong. The tractor went through the goal net," says Peter.

Paul and Peter also worked on the same bus service near their home, Peter being the driver and Paul on the ticket machine.

One of the funniest moments they can recall was being dared by their friends to park their bus at a local pub to see if any passengers noticed. They didn't. And the twins thought it was a barrel of laughs.

On another occasion Peter drove off leaving Paul to run behind in a panic carrying his ticket machine.

"It looked light but it was actually rather heavy," he laughs.

Then, for twenty years Peter and Paul got their kicks from making people laugh in Majorca. They worked at Pontin's holiday camp in South Devon before the summer seasons and then moved out to popular spanish resorts in Majorca, performing in hotels and managing an entertainments team. They were known for doing a quick-change act which always impressed audience members who didn't first realise they were twins.

In between all the giggles, Paul married his wife Mavis in 1966 and Peter married Kari in 1973.

The brothers followed in their parent's footsteps and bought a home together in East Wittering because they liked the coast. They are both keen sailors and own a 22ft boat, aptly named Applause.

To celebrate their 75th birthday the pair went sailing to Cowes where they stayed for a couple of days, taking their wives out for dinner on their return.

Life for the Kingston twins is still enriched with entertainment as they currently run their Hi-Kids Disco (Hi-Kicks for adults) business.

Says Peter: "We have had a very good life. If we go away we send each other texts every day about the weather or something. But we don't cry our eyes out!"

Adds Paul: "You've always got a partner, and I can say 'fancy going out in the boat or for a bike ride?' There's always somebody to go with."


Just the two of us

The lives of Carol Allen and Lindsey Green have been shaped and defined by being twins, writes Jo Rothery


It's a twin thing, that very special relationship which exists between twins - but it isn't as simple as some people might imagine.

And is it probability or coincidence that in a split second, just days after conception, an egg splits in two to produce identical twins?

That is a question which has fascinated sculptor Lindsey Green for as long as she can remember and led her to embark on in-depth research into the debate, the experiences of different sets of twins, and how twins are regarded by other people.

Her week-long series of Twin Thing events in Arundel in June, organised with her identical twin Carol Allen, attracted twins, both identical and fraternal, from all over Sussex who went along to share their experiences and have these recorded.

Lindsey and Carol, born in 1947 and identical, do not share the same birthday. Lindsey made her entry into the world shortly before midnight, Carol 90 minutes later.

Their mother and grandmother regarded their twinship as the most important thing in their lives and the girls were always dressed identically, down to their hair ribbons.

As toddlers, inspired by the Persil adverts of the time, they would go to fancy dress parties in identical white dresses - only one dress would be brilliantly-white, the other with a greyish tinge.

It was so difficult to tell them apart that at school they had to wear badges to differentiate them and they even shared the same 'best friends' for many years.

Highly intelligent, there was little sense of rivalry in terms of academic achievement as they would invariably both be virtually at the top of their class.

It was not until they were in their early teens that their individual preferences really began to come through and was reflected in their friendships, clothes and hobbies.

Although neither claim to have a strong telepathic connection, there have been some remarkable coincidences throughout their lives. Both have three children - boy, girl, boy - and they discovered they were expecting their first children on the same day, both having visited the same doctor that day to have their pregnancies confirmed.

And later that day, they both arrived at their parents' home to tell them grandchildren were on their way.

There are differences in the way they regard the state of being an identical twin. Carol, who works for Chichester Council for Voluntary Service, simply accepts being a twin as a fact of life and looks on it as a privilege.

Lindsey, though, is determined to delve ever deeper into the probability-coincidence debate and use her artistic talents to portray her own experiences and feelings.

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