Career: Dench made her professional debut with the Old Vic Company before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961, and has frequently worked on stage ever since. She became a household name in the 1980s thanks to sitcom A Fine Romance, for which she won a Bafta. She's also won the award for Four in the Morning, Talking to a Stranger, Iris, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, Shakespeare In Love (for which she picked up an Oscar too), A Handful of Dust, Mrs Brown and A Room With a View. Other notable productions include Chocolat, Notes on a Scandal, J Edgar, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its sequel, and several Bond movies, including Skyfall, in which she bowed out as M.

Career: After impressing in his breakthrough role, Wilby subsequently appeared in a miniseries based on A Tale of Two Cities, and co-starred with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in another acclaimed Merchant/Ivory adaptation of EM Forster, Howards End. Though the rest of Wilby's 1990s movies were not as impressively received, he continued to work regularly, turning up in Immaculate Conception, the First World War drama Regeneration, the children's movie Tom's Midnight Garden, and as the bitter lord of the manor in Ken Russell's TV project Lady Chatterley. Wilby reunited with Ismail Merchant in the producer's directorial effort Cotton Mary. He subsequently appeared among the distinguished ensemble populating Robert Altman's Oscar-winning period piece Gosford Park, Midsomer Murders, Poirot and The Great Train Robbery. He also continues to work on stage.

Career: Her big break came when she was cast in A Handful of Dust (1988), a role that won her an Evening Standard British Film Award for most promising newcomer. She went on to star in Bitter Moon (1992), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), The English Patient (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Random Hearts (1999), Gosford Park (2001), The Golden Compass (2007) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). Thomas has also acted in a number of French films, including Ne le dis à personne (2006), Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008), Partir (2009) and Elle s'appelait Sarah (2010).