Career: While working in a department store in LA, Lansbury met a casting director through her mother. He offered her a role in the 1944 film Gaslight; she was just 18, but it landed her an Oscar nomination. Roles in National Velvet, Blue Hawaii and Bedknobs and Broomsticks followed. She gained further Academy Award nominations for The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate. She's also worked extensively on stage, winning a record five Tony Awards. But it was playing Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote, that turned her into a household name. More recently, Lansbury has appeared in Nanny McPhee and Mr Popper's Penguins.

Career: Brandon made his professional debut alongside Al Pacino in a New York stage production of Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? His first TV appearance was in Medical Centre in 1969, while his debut movie, Lovers and Other Strangers, came a year later. Various small roles in films and TV shows such as Police Story, A Change of Seasons, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, and St Elsewhere followed. He finally became a star when he was cast as a London-based US cop in Dempsey and Makepeace in 1985. When the series ended, he continued to work steadily in numerous projects, most notably West End hit Jerry Springer: The Musical. He's also appeared in Hustle, Episodes, Mr Selfridge and Captain America: The First Avenger. In August 2013, he teamed up with his wife, actress Glynis Barber, for ITV's dancing reality series Stepping Out.