They jailed the wrong twin: The incredible story that inspired Arrested Development

There's always a moment in a TV show when you realise the creators are struggling for ideas.

It's when the plotlines get a bit too bizarre, so they take a jump over a shark into outlandish territory.

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In US comedy Arrested Development, that moment happens when the series jailbird George Bluth manages to steal the identity of his identical brother Oscar.

The innocent Oscar, meanwhile, gets locked up because nobody believes he isn't George.

And laugh as they might, viewers of Arrested Development conceded that something that ridiculous could never happen in real life.

Only it did.

A Russian prisoner managed to escape jail with authorities none the wiser, after he switched places with his identical twin brother.

The man, known only as Roman, was in the prison when his brother Ruslan decided to let him have a taste of freedom.

Ruslan and Roman switched places, with Ruslan going behind bars for a stint to give his brother a break midway through his sentence.

Roman intended to swap back with Ruslan later down the line, but he changed his mind and -  adding insult to injury - then ran off with his brother's girlfriend.

Ruslan was left stuck in prison, unable to convince his jailers that he was the identical twin of the real culprit.

He ended up serving his brother's entire sentence.

Roman, meanwhile, was arrested on a different charge and jailed elsewhere.

Ruslan later ended up back in prison for another crime he actually committed.

The whole saga unfolded during the 1990s and was publicly reported in 2002.

Arrested Development went to air in 2003.