Watching episode 3, "The Unquiet Dead" of Series 1 of the new Doctor Who, it seemed the parlor maid, Gwyneth, was familiar. A quick Google revealed the actress as Eve Myles, also known for playing Gwen on Torchwood.
This seemed too much of a coincidence to me. Two characters with similar names (Gwen and Gwyneth) who both grew up in Cardiff on top of the (in)famous rift, both played by the same actress across two closely related shows.
Google fuelled research has found only this speculation:
there is a lot of fan speculation that Gwyneth goes through the rift and reappears in present time, and is in fact the same person as "Gwen" in Torchwood.
I'm not convinced, as Gwyneth clearly has telepathic (or similar) capabilities, never demonstrated by Gwen.
Are these characters actually (in-show) related to each other, or is this just a coincidence?
I've seen most episodes of both Dr Who and Torchwood, but haven't seen any of the "Confidentials"; I don't recall seeing Gwen ever talk about her family history - might be a better testimony about my fallible memory than anything else.