Career: Firth worked steadily throughout the 1980s in notable projects such as Falklands drama Tumbledown, A Month in the Country (opposite Kenneth Branagh) and the period offering Valmont. But it was the 1995 costume drama Pride and Prejudice that made him a superstar. Since then, he's notched up roles in several successful films, including The English Patient, Fever Pitch, Shakespeare in Love, The Importance of Being Earnest, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Love Actually, both Bridget Jones movies, both St Trinian's films, The Accidental Husband, Mamma Mia! and A Single Man. It was 2010 movie The King's Speech that really consolidated his reputation. It garnered a number of glittering awards and Firth's Bafta Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role was consolidated by an Academy Award for Best Actor. Films since include Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Magic in the Moonlight.

Career: Walters' first acting job was at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, where she caught the eye of playwright Alan Bleasdale - the beginning of many collaborations. She appeared in his first stage success, Scully, in 1974, and in Boys from the Blackstuff in 1980, a year after making her TV debut in Victoria Wood's Talent. She reunited with Wood in the series Wood and Walters, and reprised her stage role in Educating Rita on the big screen, earning an Oscar nomination. Walters has worked steadily ever since. Her most notable projects include Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Pat and Margaret, Mamma Mia! and the Harry Potter films. She was awarded an OBE in 1999, gained a second Oscar nomination for Billy Elliot in 2000, and won a Bafta (her seventh) in 2010 for her performance in TV drama Mo.