Career: Barker joined the Oxford Playhouse in 1951 and other theatrical work in the West End followed. His theatrical success led to radio work, and he featured in 300 episodes of radio sitcom The Navy Lark, which ran from 1959 to 1977. His big break on TV came in the late 1960s when he appeared alongside Ronnie Corbett and John Cleese on The Frost Report. Barker went on to star in Porridge, Open All Hours, and, with Ronnie Corbett, formed one of the best-loved double acts of the 1970s and 1980s as The Two Ronnies. He also appeared with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the film Robin and Marian, a bleak version of the Robin Hood legend. Barker retired from acting in 1987 to run an antiques business, but returned briefly to star as Winston Churchill's butler in acclaimed 2002 TV movie The Gathering Storm, and alongside Maggie Smith in My House in Umbria in 2003. He died of heart failure at a hospice in Oxfordshire on October 3, 2005, at the age of 76.

Career: Sykes provided scripts for Fraser and Frankie Howerd, before moving on to radio shows such as Educating Archie and Variety Bandbox. In 1955, he wrote and directed the spoof Pantomania, beginning his career in TV. By 1957 he was almost totally deaf, forcing him to lip-read his fellow actors so he didn't miss his cues. The 1960s saw him team up with Hattie Jacques for the first time since his radio days, and their comedy partnership lasted until her death in 1980. As well as his eponymous sitcom, Sykes other credits include silent comedy The Plank (which he also directed), Curry and Chips, and The 19th Hole, as well as various stage plays and such movies as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Others, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He died on July 4, 2012, at the age of 89.

Career: Briers' film career began in the 1960s with British features including Bottoms Up, Murder She Said, and The Girl on the Boat. He turned his attention to TV, gaining fame initially in the sitcom Marriage Lines, but it's probably for The Good Life that he will be best remembered. He teamed up again with its creators, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, on the 1980s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. Briers went on to join Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company, taking on more classical and Shakespearean roles including King Lear and Uncle Vanya. He's also appeared in Monarch of the Glen, Peter Pan, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Torchwood. He voiced the cartoon Roobarb twice - in 1974 and 2005.