Agatha Christie's Marple - A Murder Is Announced - 7:25 pm Monday, December 29 on ITV3 +1

Geraldine McEwan (Actor) .. Miss Marple

Alexander Armstrong (Actor) .. DI Dermot Craddock

Born: August 14, 1970 in Rothbury, Northumberland

Best Known For: The Armstrong and Miller Show.

Early-life: Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong was born in Northumberland on March 2, 1970. His father is a distant relative of Ralph Richardson, and an appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? showed him to be a direct descendent of William the Conqueror. Alexander was a gifted pianist as a child but was nervous about featuring in concerts. At Cambridge University, he performed with the Footlights entertainment troupe, where he was the comedy partner of Spooks creator David Wolstencroft.

Career: Armstrong made his film and TV debuts in 1994 in There's No Business and A Breed of Heroes. He was introduced to Ben Miller in 1996 and their subsequent success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe led to their first sketch series in 1997; they've worked together a number of times since on various projects. Armstrong played the lead in short-lived sitcom Beast. He has also appeared in Birthday Girl (2001), I Saw You, TLC, Saxondale, Life Begins, The Trial of Tony Blair, Mutual Friends, Woody Allen's Match Point (2005) and Scoop (2006). Armstrong was the voice of supercomputer Mr Smith in The Sarah Jane Adventures, appeared in the 2011 Doctor Who Christmas Special and has presented the BBC game show Pointless since 2009. In recent years, he has also voiced Danger Mouse in the revival of the animated series and presented Rome's Invisible City, Land of the Midnight Sun and Don't Ask Me Ask Britain.

Quote: "Offers come up all the time, and I'm getting better at saying no to things, and just picking the things that amuse me."

Trivia: In 2010, he won a Bafta TV Award for The Armstrong and Miller Show.

Zoe Wanamaker (Actor) .. Letitia Blacklock

Born: May 13, 1949 in New York

Best Known For: Playing a variety of strong women.

Early-life: Born May 13, 1949, in New York, the daughter of acclaimed actors Charlotte Holland and Sam Wanamaker. At the age of three, her family fled the US before her father could be called by Senator McCarthy's notorious House of Un-American Activities Committee; the family settled in the UK. Zoë decided to become an actress at age 10 after spending a summer in Stratford-Upon-Avon watching her father. Both parents tried to persuade her not to go into the profession but she enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1970.

Career: Wanamaker spent 25 years with the RSC and National Theatre, and continues to appear on stage. She made her TV debut in 1975 in Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill. Her most memorable work has come on the small screen in projects such as Edge of Darkness, the first episode of Prime Suspect, A Dance to the Music of Time, Love Hurts, My Family, David Copperfield, Gormenghast and Doctor Who; she also has a recurring role as Ariadne Oliver in Agatha Christie's Poirot. Films include Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Wilde.

Quote: "I think there is a niche for Beauty and the Beast, but there are also people who want to see good drama, who want to be moved by something."

Trivia: Despite her English upbringing, she remains a US citizen and received an honorary CBE in 2000.

Elaine Paige (Actor) .. Dora Bunner

Born: March 05, 1948 in London.

Best Known For: A string of West End and Broadway musicals.

Early-life: Born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff in London on March 5, 1948. Her father was an estate agent and her mother a milliner. Elaine's original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, but it was after listening to the film soundtrack of West Side Story as a teenager that evoked her desire for a career in musical theatre. She was a member of her school choir and her first stage role was playing Susanna in a school production of The Marriage of Figaro. She went on to attend the Aida Foster Theatre School. After graduating, her first job was modelling children's clothing.

Career: Paige's first professional stage appearance was the role of a Chinese urchin in the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - the Smell of the Crowd in 1964. At the age of 20, she made her West End debut in Hair. During the 1970s, she played roles in a number of musicals, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, Billy and The Boyfriend. Her big break came when she was offered the title role of Eva Peron in the first stage production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. She played the role for 20 months between 1978 and 1980 and her performance won her an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Musical. She went on to achieve success in Cats, Chess, Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sunset Boulevard, The King and I and Follies. She has also released a number of albums and since 2004, she has hosted her own Radio 2 show called Elaine Paige on Sunday. In December 2013, she was a contestant on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special.

Quote: "Learn to take rejection, keep fit and work only with the best in your field."

Trivia: Paige has acted in a number of TV shows, notably in an episode of Agatha Christie's Marple. Her signature song is Memory from Cats.

Virginia McKenna (Actor) .. Belle Goedler

Frances Barber (Actor) .. Lizzie Hinchcliffe

Born: May 13, 1958 in Wolverhampton

Best Known For: A string of performances on the stage and the small screen.

Early-life: Born May 13, 1958, the fourth of six children from a working class family in Wolverhampton. She couldn't afford to go to drama school; instead, she did a postgraduate degree in theatre studies at Cardiff University. At one point considered working for the Samaritans: "I went to a Samaritans meeting and had an initiation period, but it wasn't for me."

Career: Started acting with Hull Truck Theatre Company, and by 25 had been accepted by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Had bit parts in Michael Palin comedy The Missionary, and A Zed and Two Noughts. Achieved a mainstream breakthrough in 1987 with the movies Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, and Prick Up Your Ears. Has worked steadily since, with highlights including epic miniseries Rhodes, John Thaw drama Plastic Man, and Michael Caine movie Shiner. Other projects have included the Pet Shop Boys' West End musical Closer To Heaven, and TV offerings Manchild, The IT Crowd, New Tricks, Where The Heart Is, Funland, Doctor Who, The Fattest Man in Britain, Silk, The Spa, and Psychobitches.

Quote: "It wasn't meant to happen to a girl from Wolverhampton."

Trivia: In 2005, she appeared alongside Ian McKellen in the Old Vic's pantomime production of Aladdin.

Cherie Lunghi (Actor) .. Sadie Swettenham

Born: April 04, 1952 in London

Best Known For: The Manageress and a series of coffee adverts.

Early-life: Cherie Mary Lunghi was born on April 4, 1952, in Nottingham, the daughter of an Italian and his English wife. She was raised in London by her mother and her aunts after her father returned to Italy. Cherie began acting as a child on radio and in TV and eventually studied at Homerton College, Cambridge. Her acting training came at the Arts Educational School and the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has also been keen on dancing, aerobics, horse-riding, painting and playing the piano from an early age.

Career: Lunghi started out on stage, but made her TV debut in a 1968 episode of the BBC's classic Sherlock Holmes series. She's worked steadily ever since on the small and big screens, cropping up in the likes of Edward & Mrs Simpson, Excalibur, Tales of the Unexpected, The Monocled Mutineer, The Mission, and Ellis Island. However, it was popular footballing drama The Manageress which made her a major TV star in 1989. Since then, Lunghi has appeared in the likes of The Buccaneers, A Question of Guilt, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jack and Sarah, EastEnders, Cutting It, Midsomer Murders and Casualty 1906. She was a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2008.

Quote: "It's intriguing to get your head around people who have evil intent. It's pretty complicated."

Trivia: Lunghi has narrated Who Do You Think You Are?

Christian Coulson (Actor) .. Edmund Swettenham

Richard Dickson (Actor) .. Mr Rowlandson

Matthew Goode (Actor) .. Patrick Simmons

Born: April 03, 1978 in Exeter

Best Known For: Dancing on the Edge.

Early-life: Matthew William Goode was born in Exeter on April 3, 1978. His father was a geologist and his mother was a nurse who directed amateur theatre. He studied drama at the University of Birmingham and Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Early TV credits include guest roles in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Marple.

Career: In 2004, Goode made his film debut in Chasing Liberty opposite Mandy Moore. Since then, he has starred on the big screen in Match Point (2005), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Watchman (2009), A Single Man (2009), Leap Year (2010), Cemetery Junction (2010) and Stoker (2013). He returned to TV with roles in Birdsong, The Poison Tree, Dancing on the Edge and Death Comes to Pemberley.

Quote: "I'm always pretty tense about everything when it comes to work."

Trivia: He tends to be cast in roles that require a posh accent.

Sienna Guillory (Actor) .. Julia Simmons

Keeley Hawes (Actor) .. Philippa Haymes

Born: February 10, 1976 in Marylebone, London

Best Known For: Her roles in Spooks, Ashes to Ashes and Line of Duty.

Early-life: Clare Julia Hawes was born in Marylebone, London on February 10, 1976. She trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School and also had ten years of elocution lessons. At 17, she left home and worked in a casino until being spotted by a modelling scout and signed up by Select.

Career: During the 1990s, Hawes starred in music videos for the likes of Suede and James before gaining roles in TV in Heartbeat, Karaoke and The Beggar Bride. She got her TV breakthrough when she appeared as Zoe Reynolds in spy drama Spooks from 2002 until 2004. Then she went on to appear as Rose in The Vicar of Dibley, as Jane in Death at a Funeral (2007) and as the voice of Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider video game series, starting with Tomb Raider: Legend. She was cast as Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes, a spin-off of the series Life on Mars, in 2007 and the series lasted until 2009. Following this, she appeared in such TV series as Identity and Upstairs, Downstairs. In 2014, she joined the cast of Line of Duty as Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton and guest starred as Ms Delphox in Doctor Who. More recently, she has appeared in The Missing and The Durrells.

Quote: "I've nothing against stay-at-home mums, but I love going to work, I love what I do and I wouldn't want to start resenting my home life if I was staying home 365 days a year."

Trivia: She was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Leading Actress for her performance in Line of Duty.

Gerard Horan (Actor) .. DS Norman Fletcher

Nicole Lewis (Actor) .. Myrna Harris

Lesley Nicol (Actor) .. Nurse McClelland

Christian Pederson (Actor) .. Rudi Schertz

Robert Pugh (Actor) .. Archie Easterbrook

Claire Skinner (Actor) .. Amy Murgatroyd

Catherine Tate (Actor) .. Mitzi Kosinski

Born: May 12, 1968 in London

Best Known For: The Catherine Tate Show and Doctor Who.

Early-life: Born Catherine Ford on May 12, 1968, in London, she was raised in the distinctive and iconic Bloomsbury Centre by her florist mother Josephine. Catherine has revealed that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. She attended Notre Dame High School for Girls, then the Sylvia Young Theatre School and later graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama and Royal National Theatre. She also spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career: Tate's TV career began with small parts in serial dramas Casualty and The Bill, while her comedy talent was nurtured on The Harry Hill Show, Big Train, That Peter Kay Thing and Wild West, a series she made while pregnant. As well as her critically acclaimed comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, she has also appeared in Bleak House, on the West End stage and in the US version of The Office. The comedienne acquired a new set of fans when she became Doctor Who assistant Donna Noble; she reunited with co-star David Tennant in Much Ado About Nothing in London's West End during the summer of 2011.

Quote: Of her Doctor Who appearance, she joked: "I was holding out for a summer season at Wigan rep but as a summer job this'll do."

Trivia: Tate is the patron of the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust.

Stewart Harcourt (Writer)

Matthew Read (Producer)

John Strickland (Director)

Rebecca Eaton (Executive producer)

Phil Clymer (Executive producer)

Michele Buck (Executive producer)

Damien Timmer (Executive producer)

Agatha Christie's Marple: A Murder Is Announced

7:25 pm - 9:30 pm, Today on ITV3 +1 (116)

About this Broadcast

A Murder Is Announced
Season 1, Episode 4

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