Career: Broadbent caught the eye of casting directors following Illuminatus in 1976, a 12-hour sci-fi production. He worked with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and as the National Theatre of Brent, a two-man comedy troupe he co-founded with Patrick Barlow. Despite originally turning down the role of Del Boy, he played bent copper Roy Slater in Only Fools and Horses. Bigger parts came in the 1990s, in such projects as Life Is Sweet, Bullets Over Broadway, Richard III and Topsy-Turvy. He also starred in Bridget Jones's Diary, Moulin Rouge!, Iris (for which he won an Oscar), Gangs of New York, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and two Harry Potter movies. His recent work includes The Iron Lady, Cloud Atlas, Le Week-End, The Harry Hill Movie, Paddington and Get Santa.

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.

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: In 2004, Goode made his film debut in Chasing Liberty opposite Mandy Moore. Since then, he has starred on the big screen in Match Point (2005), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Watchman (2009), A Single Man (2009), Leap Year (2010), Cemetery Junction (2010) and Stoker (2013). He returned to TV with roles in Birdsong, The Poison Tree, Dancing on the Edge and Death Comes to Pemberley.

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.