Career: After a spell as a stand-up comic, Thompson teamed up with Fry and Laurie for TV sketch show Alfresco, starred in West End smash Me and My Girl, and acclaimed dramas Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War. Her first film was 1989's The Tall Guy. Already a familiar face in the UK, she became an international star thanks to her Oscar-winning role in 1992's Howards End. She later won another Academy Award, this time for writing the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility. She also wrote as well as starred in Nanny McPhee and its sequel. Thompson's other movies include Dead Again, In the Name of the Father, The Remains of the Day, Junior, Primary Colors, Love Actually, Stranger Than Fiction, I Am Legend, Brideshead Revisited, The Boat That Rocked, three Harry Potter movies and Saving Mr Banks.

Career: Winslet started out on TV, with roles in Casualty and The Dark Season, but it was her film debut in Peter Jackson's acclaimed 1994 drama Heavenly Creatures that set her on the road to success. She gained her first Oscar nod for Sense and Sensibility a year later, and stayed with period pieces for Jude and Hamlet. In 1997 came James Cameron's Titanic, which gained her another Academy Award nomination. Since then, Winslet has featured in an array of films, including Hideous Kinky, Enigma, Iris, The Life of David Gale, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Finding Neverland. She finally won an Oscar for 2008's The Reader. Her recent films include Labor Day and Divergent.

Career: After graduating from Rada, Rickman worked in repertory theatre. His big break came when he was nominated for a Tony Award in the Broadway production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He was passed over for the film version, instead making his big screen debut in Die Hard as the villain Hans Gruber. He went on to play a wide variety of roles on the stage and on the big screen. His other film credits included Truly, Madly Deeply, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Sense and Sensibility, the Harry Potter films, Love Actually and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Rickman also directed the movies A Little Chaos and The Winter Guest, and maintained a strong stage career. He died from cancer on January 14, 2016 at the age of 69.

Career: Grant started out as a member of comedy troupe The Jockeys of Norfolk. He appeared in his first film, Privileged, in 1982. Other early projects include The Detective, A Very Peculiar Practice, The Demon Lover and Ladies in Charge. He had higher profile roles in Maurice, The Lair of the White Worm and The Remains of the Day. His big break came when he was cast in Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. Big-screen productions since include An Awfully Big Adventure, Sense and Sensibility, Notting Hill, Mickey Blue Eyes, About a Boy, Love Actually and two Bridget Jones films. He could recently be heard in animated film The Pirates!

Career: Wise's first professional job was in Liverpool, starring in the musical Good Rockin' Tonight. He made his TV debut in the pilot episode of medieval drama Covington Cross in 1992, following it up with such forgotten projects as The Riff Raff Element and Typhon's People. His big break was period drama series The Buccaneers, which led to Oscar-winning movie Sense and Sensibility. Since then he's appeared in Judas Kiss, Hospital! (shown on five's opening night) Madame Bovary, Wonderful You, According to Bex and Hornblower. More recently he's starred in Cranford, Law & Order: UK and Homefront.

Career: Hardy made his TV debut in Twelfth Night in 1957 and went on to appear in a series of films and TV shows before the BBC drama All Creatures Great And Small made him a star in 1978. He appeared in another version of Twelfth Night in 1980. Other highlights include Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, The Far Pavilions, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sense and Sensibility, Shackleton, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He played William Whitelaw in Margaret, a 2009 TV film about the life of politician Margaret Thatcher. He died on August 3, 2017 at the age of 91.