Fans are stunned after they discover the tiny real life age gap between Juliet and Sam

Since its release 14 years ago Love Actually has become a bona fide Christmas classic. 

Watching Hugh Grant dance awkwardly to The Pointer Sisters is, for many, a sign the festive period has well and truly arrived. 

But fans of the film have taken to Twitter in shock after realising just how close in age Keira Knightley, who played Juliet, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played Sam, were when it was filmed.

Juliet is a blushing bride embroiled in a complicated love triangle while Sam is the cherubic boy in love with his classmate Joanna in the film which follows the intertwined stories of various characters in the build up to December 25.

With the characters at such different stages in their lives, fans were stunned to find out there is in fact just FIVE years between them. 

Keira was just 17 when filming took place, while Thomas was 13. 

This means the actress was 12 years younger than her love interest Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and 10 years younger than her on-screen husband Peter (Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor). 

Dozens took to Twitter after discovering the tiny age gap, one wrote: 'Keira Knightley in Love Actually is only five years older than the little boy Sam that plays in the school band for the American girl if that doesn't come as a shock nothing will.' 

MailOnline