One is the autocratic leader of the largest country on Earth, the other a humble television presenter.



Yet for Her Majesty the Queen, apparently the two are hard to tell apart.



Veteran journalist Andrew Marr has revealed that during a state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the monarch had to constantly remind herself she was talking to the foreign leader rather than "that chap from the BBC".



Marr told a Royal Television Society event that the Queen made the quip to an aid after an open carriage ride with Mr Putin.



"She and Putin were in the carriage coming from here [Parliament] to Buckingham Palace and because it as an open carriage and there was a translator everyone could see them taking as they went up the Mall," he said.



Marr said a palace contact told him a royal aid had later said to the Queen: "Your Majesty, you were talking to the Russian President very vigorously - can I ask what you were talking about,"



According to the interviewer, the Queen replied: "I was just trying to say to myself all the time that this is the President of Russia and not that chap from the BBC."



Responding to a question about how the BBC was viewed around the world compared to other broadcasters, Marr also said the corporation was well regarded and "very different from Russia Today, which is a straightforward propaganda channel for Vladimir Putin".



"Whatever you think of the BBC, I don't think people would call it a straightforward propaganda channel for Theresa May," he added.



Marr was appearing alongside Sir David Attenborough, who said the BBC was making too much reality TV, such as "cookery and gardening shows", and not enough new material which educates viewers.



He also defended the licence fee as "one of the biggest bargains in Britain".