Alexander Gerald van Hoogenhouck-Tulleken and Christoffer Rodolphe van Hoogenhouck-Tulleken (born 18 August 1978), known as "Dr. Xand" and "Dr. Chris", are British doctors, television presenters and identical twin brothers. They are best known for presenting the children's series '' Operation Ouch!''. Chris has become well known for his two-part television special for BBC One entitled ''The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs''. Xand has also presented shows without his brother.

Family and early life

Chris and Xand van Tulleken were born to Anthony van Tulleken, an industrial designer, and his wife Kit, a publisher. Their younger brother is the film director Jonathan van Tulleken. They are descended from Dutch Rear-Admiral (1762–1851; originally Jan , of a family traced back to the fifteenth century, who changed his name in 1822 and was raised to the nobility in 1842 with the rank of '' Jonkheer''). The van Tulleken twins were educated at Hill House preparatory school, then King's College School, an independent day school for boys in

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, southwest London, followed by St Peter's College (Chris) and Somerville College (Xand) at the University of Oxford.

Life and career

Both Chris and Xand van Tulleken presented Channel 4's ''Medicine Men go Wild'', and

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's '' Trust Me, I'm A Doctor'' alongside Michael Mosley. Chris was the expedition doctor for

's ''Operation Iceberg'', and has appeared in ''Top Dogs: Adventures in War, Sea and Ice'' (

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

), ''Holiday Hit Squad'' ( BBC One), ''Museum of Life'' (

), ''The Secret Life of Twins'' ( BBC One), as well as ''

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. It began in 2002 as a one-off special, expanding to the current arrangement of 10 episodes, broadcast during December a ...

'' and '' The Wright Stuff''. Chris was also doctor to a team led by Bruce Parry which recreated the 1911 race to the South Pole in the BBC documentary ''Blizzard: Race to the Pole''. The brothers presented ''What's The Right Diet for You? A

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

Special''. Chris van Tulleken was named as an emerging British talent in 'The Brit List 2013' by

ShortList A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

magazine. In 2015, the pair presented another ''Horizon'' episode, titled ''Is Binge Drinking Really That Bad?'', in which Chris and his identical twin brother Xand tested the effects of drinking moderate amounts of alcohol daily (Chris) and bingeing weekly (Xand). Chris and Xand appeared on Series 5 of '' Hacker Time''. In 2016, alarmed by the steep rise in prescription medicine in Britain and dubious as to its efficacy, Chris completed a television show for BBC One called ''The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs''. It was a two-part social experiment in which he aimed to take over part of a GP surgery and attempt to find practical ways to treat patients and stop patients' prescription pills. In January–February 2019, they presented a documentary series called ''The Twinstitute'', repeated in 2020. In ''Surviving the Virus: My Brother & Me'', after contracting COVID-19, Xand was left with an irregular heartbeat.

Personal life

It was revealed in an episode of '' Operation Ouch!'' (Series 6, episode 9) that Chris van Tulleken has a wife and a daughter. His wife Dinah gave birth to a second daughter in June 2020. In a 2016 episode of ''

'' titled ''How to Find Love Online'', Xand stated that he was single and a user of online dating. He has a son from a previous relationship.

Humanitarian aid

Until February 2018, Alexander and Christoffer were patrons and board members of the medical aid and healthcare charity

Doctors of the World UK Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

, which is a member of the international

Médecins du Monde ''Médecins du monde'' (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which provides emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates to end health inequities. It was f ...

network. In 2015, Alexander and Christoffer ran the London Marathon for Doctors of the World, raising over £3,400. Xand van Tulleken was a patron of the medical aid organisation Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin), which merged with Save the Children in 2013, and reported for

in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, Burma, in 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tulleken, Christoffer 1978 births Living people Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine British identical twins British television presenters People educated at King's College School, London