Career: Irons made his TV debut in 1971 in the series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and landed several other roles throughout the decade, including in the children's series Play Away. But it was in the 1980s he became widely recognised, thanks to the movie The French Lieutenant's Woman and TV tour de force Brideshead Revisited. These made him a sought after leading man and he went on to appear in productions such as Dead Ringers, Damage, Lolita, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Reversal of Fortune, for which he won an Oscar. He also lent his voice to The Lion King and has trodden the boards on Broadway, starred with his son Samuel in Danny the Champion of the World, and had a major role in The Borgias.

Career: Earned her Equity card at Manchester's Library Theatre in 1979. Two years later, she made her TV debut in sitcom Agony, while her first movie was Underworld in 1985. Her big break came later that year, playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain, in Dance with A Stranger, but it was the role of Queen Elizabeth I in Blackadder that made her a household name. She turned down the Glenn Close role in Fatal Attraction, and has since played numerous tough or unusual women in projects such as The Crying Game and Sleepy Hollow. Miranda provided the voice of Mrs Tweedy in Chicken Run, and gained Oscar nominations for Tom & Viv and Damage. She appeared in the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated movie The Hours, while recent offerings include The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle and Made in Dagenham. TV successes include thriller Rubicon.

Career: Rejoined Merchant Ivory in 1987 to play a homosexual in Maurice, alongside James Wilby and Hugh Grant. The controversial role gained him fans of both sexes. He has tackled numerous challenging parts since, including a transvestite villain in Open Fire and the lover of a sex-change male in Different For Girls. He won the Best Actor award at the Montreal Film Festival for his part as a naive young man seduced by an older woman in Intimate Relations. Other notable productions include The Madness of King George, Mrs Dalloway, The Blonde Bombshell, Take A Girl Like You and Fortunes Of War. Graves has appeared on Broadway in Closer, and The Elephant Man. Has become a regular in a raft of top-notch detective shows, including Wallander, Lewis, and Sherlock and is very much in-demand.

Career: Binoche's first film was Liberty Belle in 1983. She then decided to concentrate on the cinema rather than the stage, and quickly became a major star in France. Her first English-speaking role came three years later in An Unbearable Lightness of Being. Despite offers of work, she turned her back on an international career to return home. She's continued to appear in both international and French projects. Among the highlights are The English Patient (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar), Hidden, Three Colours: Blue, Chocolat, Breaking and Entering and Dan in Real Life.

Career: He gained international recognition in 1996 for his role as one of the kidnappers in Fargo. He went on to star in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Armageddon (1998), Mercury Rising (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Chocolat (1999), Minority Report (2002), Bad Boys II (2003) and The Brothers Grimm (2005). From 2005, he had a recurring role in Prison Break as John Abruzzi. He continues to be heavily in demand for film and TV roles. Some of the TV shows he has starred in include CSI, Monk, Weeds, Covert Affairs, Wilfred, Leverage and NCIS: Los Angeles. He has also voiced a number of characters in video games.

Career: He completed his training in repertory theatre before making his West End acting début in A Touch of Spring by Sam Taylor at the Comedy Theatre. He has also played the Criterion, the Gielgud, the Vaudeville and the National Theatre. As an actor, he is probably best known for his portrayal of the incorrigible Lord Kilwillie in the popular series Monarch of the Glen. Other acting credits include Our Friends in The North, and Sharpe, alongside plenty of cinema hits. As a TV writer, he is responsible for creating scripts for Little Lord Fauntleroy, which won an International Emmy, and Bafta-nominated The Prince and the Pauper, which he also produced. Since his Oscar success with Gosford Park, he has written a novel called Snobs, and penned the scripts for West End musical Mary Poppins, the films Vanity Fair and Young Victoria, and the TV sensation Downton Abbey. He took up a seat in the House of Lords in 2011.

Career: Thewlis had a number of minor roles in films and TV series, including an episode of Only Fools and Horses, until he landed his breakout role in Naked (1993). During the 1990s, he appeared in such films as Black Beauty (1994), Total Eclipse (1995), DragonHeart (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Divorcing Jack (1998) and The Big Lebowski (1998). Thewlis was cast as Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and went on to appear in the next four films in the series. His other credits include Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), The Lady (2011), Macbeth (2015), Wonder Woman (2017) and the TV series Fargo.