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.

Career: Wilton worked on the stage until 1972, eventually making her TV debut in An Affair of Honour. Her first film was 1977's Joseph Andrews. BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles made her a household name in 1984; it ran for four series. She's also appeared on TV in The Monocled Mutineer, The Borrowers, Talking Heads 2, The Whistle-Blower, Lucky Jim and Falling. Movie work includes The French Lieutenant's Woman, Cry Freedom, Clockwise, Iris, Shaun of the Dead and Calendar Girls. Sci-fi fans will know her best from her role as British Prime Minister Harriet Jones in Doctor Who; the role was written specifically for her by Russell T Davies, with whom she'd previously worked on Bob and Rose. Her recent work includes The History Boys, Five Days, South Riding and Downton Abbey.