The Simpsons: 10 Guest Spots That Almost Went To Someone Else

10. Colm Meaney in “In the Name of the Grandfather”

For some reason, celebrities still appear on The Simpsons despite the fact that most modern episodes are about as funny as a vasectomy. One of the better HD editions of the show is Season 20's, "In The Name Of The Grandfather", where the family go to Ireland to take Grandpa to his favourite pub.

The establishment's landlord, Tom O'Flanagan, is portrayed by Colm Meaney, who made his name as Miles O'Brien across several series of Star Trek. Whilst Mr. Meaney is a great actor and did a good job pulling pints in this episode, Homer and Grandpa were almost served their Guinness by a knight of the realm.

It was reported before this episode aired that none other than Gilderoy Lockheart - or Sir Kenneth Branagh for you Muggles out there - had been cast in the role of Tom. Branagh even went as far as to record his lines for this episode, but, for some reason, they were never used. Whilst Branagh would have been good in this episode, t's perhaps best that Sir Ken didn't get the role here as he was actually born in Northern Ireland, not the Republic.