Career: Parkinson's first TV job was as a producer at Granada. In 1969 he began hosting the channel's Cinema programme. By 1971 he was working for Thames TV, presenting Teabreak with wife Mary, before getting his own chat show at the BBC which saw him interview such stars as Ingrid Bergman, Orson Welles, James Stewart and John Wayne. More than a decade later the series was dropped. He had a short-lived term at TV-am and appeared on the shows Give Us A Clue, one-off drama Ghostwatch and Going for A Song. In 1998, his chat show was revived and proved an instant hit. It switched from the Beeb to ITV1 in 2004 and ran until 2007 - the same year he retired from his Sunday morning Radio 2 programme.

Career: After leaving the Army, Williams landed work as a professional actor in repertory companies. On the strength of his performance in a production of Saint Joan, he was hired by a radio producer to do voice characterisations in radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour. His popularity on radio soared in the 1950s and 1960s when he starred with Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne. Williams also appeared in a number of revues on the stage in the West End, but he was best remembered for his comedy roles on the big screen in the Carry On films. He appeared in 25 of the Carry On films between 1958 and 1978. When the film work dried up, he became a regular on TV talk shows. He died on April 15, 1988 at the age of 62.

Career: Smith rose to prominence on stage during the 1950s thanks to regular West End roles. Her first film, 1956's Child in the House, didn't set the box office alight, but she eventually gained international acclaim thanks to her role in Othello nine years later. She won an Oscar for 1969's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and has since appeared in such acclaimed productions as California Suite (for which she picked up another Academy Award), A Room with a View, and Gosford Park. She became a Dame of the British Empire in 1990. More recently, Smith gained a new fan base thanks to her role as Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies, appeared in the films Ladies in Lavender and Keeping Mum, and TV series Downton Abbey. She has also battled breast cancer.