It's always a jarring surprise to see British stars show up on US TV out of nowhere. Here are nine familiar faces we really didn't expect to see show up across the pond.

1. June Whitfield, Friends

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There aren't many actors who can say they've performed alongside Tony Hancock and Lisa Kudrow, but Dame June Whitfield, who's happily still going strong in her ninth decade, can.

The one-time Terry and June darling was one of a host of British thesps roped in for this fourth season two-parter which saw the Friends crew up sticks to London for Ross's impending marriage to Helen Baxendale's Emily Waltham (Dame June plays the Waltham family's housekeeper).

A pre-House Hugh Laurie also pops up for a scene-stealing turn as "gentleman on plane".

2. Billy Connolly, Columbo

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In the 1970s, the murderer in your typical Columbo mystery was usually played by an ageing Hollywood movie legend. By the time of its revival, though, it was more likely to be Norm from Cheers or Spinal Tap's speccy drummer.

But its most surprising killer was when, in the 2000 episode 'Murder with Too Many Notes', the Big Yin turned up playing a film composer who murders a musician who has been ghostwriting most of his recent work.

It's hardly a vintage episode, but Connolly (who plays it with his natural Scottish accent) acquits himself pretty well.

3. Bruce Forsyth, Magnum PI

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The late Sir Bruce did a fair bit of acting in his younger days (you can spot him as one of the baddies in Bedknobs and Broomsticks), but his role in Magnum PI in 1986 was hardly a stretch. He played a lottery show host, but sadly didn't share any screen time with TV's second sexiest moustache-owner, and the show's star, Tom Selleck.

4. Stephen Fry, Bones

Although his erstwhile comedy bud Hugh Laurie was enjoying Stateside success in the ratings-guzzling House, Stephen Fry, for the most part, preferred to stay on British shores. Occasionally, however, in between QI gigs and Radio Four shows, he'd jet off to America to play the semi-regular character of Gordon Wyatt in the popular crime drama Bones. As good as he was, though, he was always more Stephen Fry than Gordon Wyatt.

5. Boy George, The A-Team

It's the most awkward butting of worlds, this smash-up between the tough, testosterone-drenched machismo of The A-Team and the gender-bending strangeness of Boy George. In this 1986 episode, Faceman was trying to book a country and western singer by the name of Cowboy George for a gig at an Arizona watering hole, but who turned up instead? Yup, you guessed it, Boy George.

It's just about possible to swallow the idea that BA Baracus is a big fan ("Boy George! Wow!" the man-mountain beams), but certainly not that a room full of grizzled rednecks would whoop and holler when Culture Club start belting out 'Karma Chameleon'.

File this one under: 'Seemed like a good idea at the time.'

6. Guy Siner, Star Trek: Enterprise

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Most famous as the René-fancying Nazi Hubert Gruber in 'Allo 'Allo!, the American-born Guy Siner has worked on both sides of the pond. Look closely and you'll spot him in David Lynch's Lost Highway, and indeed he's the only actor to have appeared in both Seinfeld and The Brittas Empire.

He also pops up in a Star Trek: Enterprise episode, playing the father of the ship's British armoury officer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed.

7. John Cleese, Cheers

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The Fawlty Towers ledge played an old mate of Frasier Crane's in the episode 'Simon Says'. Cleese's character, after doing some marriage counselling work with Sam and Diane, concludes they should split up immediately.

Cleese's turn on the hit eighties sitcom was deemed such a success that plans were drawn up for a reappearance two years later, only Cleese backed out at the last minute. "The once fondly remembered name of Mr Cleese was – how shall we put this? – not," says former Cheers scribe Ken Levine.

8. Peter Davison, Magnum PI

The Tom Selleck-fronted, Hawaii-set crime show flew to Britain for the 1985 two-parter 'Deja Vu', enlisting the services of recently-retired Doctor Who Peter Davison as the eager young majordomo of Higgins' ancestral home.

Other British names to look out for in Magnum's only UK-set episode include Games of Thrones' Julian Glover and Are You Being Served?'s grouchy janitor Arthur English as 'Newspaper Seller'.

9. Phil Collins, Miami Vice

It's difficult to fathom now, in an era of pretty boy popstars like Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik, that 30 years ago one of the decade's biggest-selling male singers was a short, balding thirtysomething who looked more like a plumber than a Grammy winner.

But Phil Collins was indeed a bona fide star, and even popped up in one of the eighties' most era-defining shows where he played a Cockney con man named Phil the Shill, spouting some very un-Miami Vice-like lines such as, "You're a right wanker, son."

From: Digital Spy