Career: Following acclaimed performances at university, Jacobi joined Birmingham Rep. He was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the National Theatre Company. He made his film debut alongside Olivier in 1965's Othello. Since then, Jacobi has continued to make acclaimed appearances on stage and screen. Among his films are The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, Love Is the Devil, Gladiator, Gosford Park, The King's Speech and Hereafter. He inspired Kenneth Branagh to become an actor and worked alongside him in Henry V, Hamlet and Dead Again. Jacobi won a Bafta for I, Claudius in 1977, starred in the medieval-set series Cadfael, played The Master in Doctor Who, is the narrator of In the Night Garden and scored a surprise hit with Last Tango in Halifax.

Career: Swift made his TV debut opposite Warren Mitchell in a 1963 episode of Love Story. His first film was Catch Us If You Can (1965). He would later star in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). For the next 20 years, he worked solidly as a character actor on stage, TV and radio. His TV credits include The Liver Birds, South Riding, The Brothers, Hazell, The Nesbitts Are Coming, The Gentle Touch, and The Pickwick Papers. His life changed in 1990 when he was cast as Richard Bucket in the hugely popular BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. The role made him a household name and it ran for 44 editions. He returned to the world of sitcoms in 2009 when he began starring opposite Roger Lloyd Pack in The Old Guys.