Career: De la Tour spent four years playing spinster Miss Jones in classic sitcom Rising Damp on TV, and also appeared in the 1980 film spin-off. She's rarely been out of work since, playing a wide range of roles on TV, film and stage. Among her most acclaimed small-screen projects are Duet for One, Cold Lazarus and Tom Jones; she's recently returned to sitcom with Vicious and Big School. On film she's featured in the Harry Potter franchise, Alice in Wonderland and Hugo. On stage, her recent collaborations with Alan Bennett, in The History Boys, The Habit of Art and People, have been resounding successes.

Career: Anderson appeared in Sky One's Hex in 2004 and Channel 4's Totally Frank in 2006 and 2007. He played Fingers in the comedy series Gavin & Stacey. From 2007 until 2009, Anderson played Ross Kirk in Emmerdale. He appeared in the TV comedy film Stuck (2007) and had a number of guest appearances in such shows as Doctors, Casualty, Bedlam, Midsomer Murders and Death in Paradise. Anderson played Danny Pink in 11 episodes of Doctor Who in 2014. Since then, he has played DC Vince Grady in DCI Banks, Daniel in Trollied, Patrick in Witless and Leon in Loaded.

Career: Alan Bennett's internationally successful play and film The History Boys boosted his profile. He co-hosted Big Brother's Big Mouth in 2007, the same year he re-teamed with Fat Friends' Ruth Jones to pen and star in BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, which was a huge, Bafta-winning hit. Corden also worked with Gavin & Stacey's Mathew Horne on sketch show Horne & Corden and the film Lesbian Vampire Killers. In 2010, he fronted a series of comedy chat shows for ITV1 revolving around that year's World Cup. Since then he has hosted Sky1's sporting quiz A League of Their Own and appeared in Doctor Who, The Wrong Mans, The Three Musketeers, One Chance and Gulliver's Travels. He has also been the subject on Piers Morgan's Life Stories and hosted the Brits. He returned to the stage in 2011 in the critically acclaimed One Man, Two Guvnors.

Career: Two years after The History Boys hit theatres, the original cast - including Tovey - were reassembled for a big screen adaptation. It proved to be the springboard that ignited his career, and he appeared opposite Rob Brydon on Annually Retentive shortly after, before bagging guest spots on Gavin & Stacey and Doctor Who. His face was fast becoming recognisable on British screens, and Russell T Davies even put his name forward as a potential replacement for David Tennant as the eleventh Doctor Who. After a stint on the BBC's Little Dorrit period drama, Tovey's long-awaited opportunity in a lead role arrived in 2008's Being Human. He also stars in the HBO comedy drama Looking and ITV's The Job Lot.

Career: Cooper's breakthrough came in 2004 when he originated the role of Dakin at the National Theatre in Alan Bennett's The History Boys. He went on to play the role on Broadway and in the touring production in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. He played the part for a final time in the 2006 big-screen version. Since then, he has starred in The Duchess (2008), Mamma Mia! (2008), Freefall (2009), An Education (2009), Tamara Drewe (2010), The Devil's Double (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and its 2014 sequel, My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2011). His TV credits include Down to Earth and Sense and Sensibility.