North and South

Daniela Denby-Ashe (Actor) .. Margaret Hale

Richard Armitage (Actor) .. John Thornton

Born: August 22, 1971 in Leicester

Best Known For: BBC period drama Robin Hood, and Spooks.

Early-life: Richard Crispin Armitage was born on August 22, 1971, to parents John and Margaret, an engineer and secretary respectively. He was raised in Leicester and attended Pattison College in Coventry, before heading off to Budapest, Hungary, when he was 17 to join the circus. He eventually went to the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts to train as an actor. He also plays cello, guitar and flute.

Career: Armitage's first appearance on screen was in Brit-flick This Year's Love, with several small roles in Doctors, Casualty and Spooks following shortly afterwards. He landed the part of Capt Iain Macalwain in ITV1's Ultimate Force in 2003, and his star rose even higher thanks to Cold Feet, where he played Lee, and a major role in costume drama North & South, based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel. He's since starred in a TV version of Macbeth, The Golden Hour, George Gently and Robin Hood. Armitage also took over from Rupert Penry-Jones as the male lead in Spooks.

Quote: On being asked what he knew of the Impressionist movement before starring as Claude Monet: 'I've eaten my dinner off placemats and sent Mother's Day cards with Monet's Water Lilies on them, but that was about it.'

Trivia: He has provided the voiceovers for a number of TV and radio advertisements.

Sinead Cusack (Actor) .. Hannah Thornton

Lesley Manville (Actor) .. Maria Hale

Born: March 12, 1956 in Brighton

Best Known For: Her work with director Mike Leigh.

Early-life: Lesley was born in Brighton on March 12, 1956. She trained as a soprano singer from the age of eight and went on to secure a place at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. She made her professional stage debut in the 1972 West End musical I and Albert and had a recurring role on Emmerdale Farm in the mid-1970s, playing Rosemary Kendall.

Career: A frequent collaborator with Mike Leigh, Manville has appeared in a number of his films, including Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Another Year (2010) and Mr Turner (2014). In 2011, she starred in Mike Leigh's play Grief at the National Theatre. Her other stage roles include His Dark Materials, The Alchemist, All About My Mother, Her Naked Skin, Six Degrees of Separation, and Ghosts, for which she won an Olivier Award. On the small screen, Manville has starred in David Copperfield, The Cazalets, North & South, and Cranford. More recently, she has appeared in Mayday, Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, and River.

Quote: 'I think that distributors and marketing companies realise that there are a huge number of women over 40 who want to go the cinema and see films about themselves.'

Trivia: Manville received an OBE in the 2015 Birthday Honours.

Tim Pigott-Smith (Actor) .. Richard Hale

Born: May 13, 1946 in Rugby

Best Known For: The Jewel in the Crown.

Early-life: Tim Pigott-Smith was born on May 13, 1946, in Rugby. He graduated with honours from the University of Bristol (he frequently returns there as a guest drama lecturer) in 1967, and completed his acting training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. On leaving, he went straight into the theatre, appearing in numerous plays and winning supporting roles on the small and big screens, including a couple of Dr Who adventures and Clash of the Titans.

Career: Pigott-Smith's big break came in 1984 when he landed one of the lead roles in ITV's Jewel in the Crown, the lavish miniseries which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. He's worked steadily ever since, most notably appearing in The Remains of the Day, The Chief and The Bullion Boys, as well as narrating documentaries, audio books, appearing on stage in such productions as The Iceman Cometh, alongside Kevin Spacey, and directing various plays. His credits also include appearances in a number of hit movies, including Gangs of New York, Johnny English, Alexander, V for Vendetta, Quantum of Solace and Alice in Wonderland.

Quote: 'If something isn't done very soon to draw people, especially young people, back into classical theatre, it could die out completely in the next 25 years.'

Pauline Quirke (Actor) .. Dixon

Born: July 08, 1958 in London

Best Known For: Playing Sharon in Birds of a Feather.

Early-life: Pauline Perpetua Quirke was born on July 8, 1959, in London. Along with her siblings Sean and Kitty, she was raised by her mother Hetty in a tenement flat with no hot running water. At the age of nine, she joined a drama club arranged by her English teacher and started winning small parts in children's TV shows and Dixon of Dock Green. This led to bigger roles in series such as ITV's You Must Be Joking. In 1976 she was given her own show, Pauline's Quirkes.

Career: In 1980 she made a brief appearance in The Elephant Man. Bigger roles came in Shine on Harvey Moon and Angels. In 1989, she was cast in the sitcom Birds of a Feather alongside best friend Linda Robson; it ran for nine years. In 1996, Quirke earned critical acclaim for her role in psychological drama The Sculptress, and was praised for her performance as a bereaved mother in Our Boy. She also appeared in Office Gossip, Real Women, Maisie Raine, Being April, Down to Earth and The Thieving Headmistress before having a two-year stint in Emmerdale. While appearing in the Yorkshire-based soap her character underwent the trauma of losing a son, which coincided with the actress losing six-and-a-half stone in weight. She's since starred in Broadchurch and the ITV revival of Birds of a Feather.

Quote: On nearing her target weight of 11 stone: 'I won't put myself through any surgical procedures if there's an alternative. It's all manageable. I've never been hungry.'

Trivia: Quirke suffers from osteoarthritis and has had a hip replaced. She suffers from stage fright. Her son, Charlie, plays Travis in Birds of a Feather.

Brendan Coyle (Actor) .. Nicholas Higgins

John Light (Actor) .. Henry Lennox

Emma Ferguson (Actor) .. Edith Lennox

Travis Oliver (Actor) .. Capt Lennox

Jane Booker (Actor) .. Mrs Shaw

David Fleeshman (Actor) .. Landlord

Tom Charnock (Actor) .. Williams

Frank J Lauder (Actor) .. Stephens

Anna Maxwell Martin (Actor) .. Bessy Higgins

Best Known For: Bleak House.

Early-life: Born Anna Charlotte Martin in Beverley, East Yorkshire, on May 10, 1977. She has an older brother called Adam, and their mother gave up her job as a research scientist to raise them. Their father was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company; he died after a battle with cancer when Anna was 24. After leaving school, she studied history at Liverpool University, then enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career: Martin's TV debut came in an episode of Midsomer Murders, but she first made a mark on the acting world on stage, thanks to an acclaimed performance in the National Theatre's epic, six-hour adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials during the winter of 2003 and 2004. A year later she won a Bafta for her performance in the BBC's Bleak House; she picked up her second Bafta for Poppy Shakespeare in 2008. In fact, everything Martin touches seems to turn to gold - she's suffered very few flops or misfires in her career so far. On stage she's impressed in the likes of The Entertainer, Cabaret and Measure for Measure, while other TV projects include Freefall, Moonshot, South Riding, The Bletchley Circle and Death Comes to Pemberley (which was partly shot in her home town). Martin has been less active on film, with Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) and Philomena (2013) the highlights.

Quote: On period dramas: 'I just don't like it: the hair, the make-up, the corsets, the hours in costume. I'd rather have no make-up on and wear an anorak.'

Trivia: When she was a child, Martin wanted to be Whitney Houston.

Jane Cameron (Actor) .. Young woman

Ian McHale (Actor) .. Stone

Jo Joyner (Actor) .. Fanny Thornton

Born: February 23, 1978 in Harlow, Essex

Best Known For: Playing Tanya Branning in EastEnders.

Early-life: Born Joanne Mary Joyner on May 24, 1978, in Essex. She has an older brother called Dan. The family later moved to Oxfordshire, where she grew up. She says she always wanted to act, and after finishing her A levels, enrolled in the Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 1999 with a BA. She then spent a couple of years in Manchester looking for work, eventually honing her craft on the stage.

Career: Joyner's big break came with the acclaimed drama Clocking Off. She went on to do a few other northern projects, including Fat Friends and Silent Witness, as well as the period miniseries North and South, before she bit the bullet and moved down to London. She then landed a role in nursing drama No Angels, and has been busy ever since. In 2005, Joyner played a Big Brother contestant in two episodes of Doctor Who, and also appeared in Spooks. She showed off her comedy skills in the sketch show Swinging (winning a Rose d'Or comedy award in the process), before landing the part of Tanya Branning in 2006. Despite her character taking a couple of prolonged breaks, she remains hugely popular with fans.

Quote: On whether she'd like to go to Hollywood: 'I couldn't lose the weight and take the pressure of it all being about looks! I'd love to do it when I'm 50 or 60, like Julie Walters or Brenda Blethyn. Then it's more about what you do and being a good actor.'

Trivia: Joyner has won two British Soap Awards.

David Crellin (Actor) .. Slickson

Shaun Hennessey (Actor) .. Henderson

Martin Walsh (Actor) .. Hamper

Tim Faraday (Actor) .. Watson

Jonathan Magnanti (Actor) .. Harkness

Caroline Pegg (Actor) .. Mrs Boucher

Kay Lyon (Actor) .. Mary Higgins

William Houston (Actor) .. John Boucher

John Finn (Actor) .. Overseer

Carl McCrystal (Actor) .. Henderson worker

Brian Percival (Director)

Kate Bartlett (Producer)

Sandy Welch (Writer)

6:40 pm - 8:00 pm, Sunday, March 8 on U&Drama +1 (60)

About this Broadcast

Season 1, Episode 1

Cast & Crew

More Information

Did You Know..

Before / After