Career: Helena's professional debut came at 16 in a TV commercial, swiftly followed by small-screen movie Pattern of Roses. The film Lady Jane followed, but it was 1985's A Room with a View which made her a star. Roles in Hamlet, Howards End and Frankenstein followed, and she was Oscar-nominated for 1997's The Wings of the Dove. The actress went on to prove she could do more than just period drama in projects such as Fight Club, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and lent her voice to animated movies Corpse Bride and Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. She made her musical debut in the big-screen version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She's since appeared in Dark Shadows, Les Miserables and Burton & Taylor, and played Bellatrix Lestrange in several of the Harry Potter movies.

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: Mirren was snapped-up by the Royal Shakespeare Company and tackled numerous classical parts. She's continued to appear on stage throughout her career, alongside TV and film roles. Her most famous TV role is Jane Tennison in police drama Prime Suspect. Her first movie was Herostratus in 1967. More famous parts came in Caligula, The Long Good Friday, Excalibur, The Mosquito Coast, Calendar Girls and Elizabeth I. In 2003 she was made a Dame and three years later won an Oscar for The Queen. She's also been nominated for The Madness of King George, Gosford Park and Hitchcock. Other big-screen outings include State of Play, The Last Station, The Tempest, Brighton Rock, Red and the remake of Arthur.