Career: Samantha's first major movie, Under the Skin gained her a Best Actress Award from the Boston Film Critics Society. The attention made director Woody Allen take notice and he cast her as Hattie in Sweet and Lowdown, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Samantha then played a heroin addict in Jesus' Son, gave another superb performance in Morvern Caller, and was subsequently cast by Steven Spielberg for the sci-fi thriller Minority Report opposite Tom Cruise. The 2002 In America role, which saw her as a young Irish mother coping with life in New York City, won her numerous accolades and another Academy-Award nod. She gained more critical acclaim for her portrayal of Moors murderer Myra Hindley in Channel 4's drama Longford. She made her directorial debut in 2009 with Channel 4 drama The Unloved.

Career: Penry-Jones made his movie debut in 1994's Black Beauty. A role in Absolutely Fabulous came a year later. He gained bigger parts in Cold Comfort Farm, Cold Lazarus, and a TV adaptation of Jane Eyre. A part in acclaimed Stephen Poliakoff drama The Tribe made people sit up and take notice in 1998, the year before he won the prestigious Ian Charleson Award for his theatre performance in the RSC's Don Carlos. Projects since include Hilary and Jackie, Cambridge Spies, Charlotte Gray, The Four Feathers and the BBC drama Casanova. He's best known as MI5 agent Adam Carter in Spooks, which he left in 2008 in explosive fashion, but other projects include period drama Persuasion, Joe's Palace, The 39 Steps, Whitechapel, and Silk.