Career: Following a spell on stage, Bonneville made his TV debut in teen sitcom Dodgem. He spent the next few years dividing his time between theatre, TV and film work, having small parts in such projects as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Cadfael, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Tomorrow Never Dies, Bugs, and Mosley. He had a regular role in sitcom Holding the Baby, but finally became a recognisable face thanks to the movie Notting Hill in 1999. Since then he's appeared in The Cazalets, Madame Bovary, The Gathering Storm, Tipping the Velvet, Doctor Zhivago, Twenty Twelve, and Love Again. He won rave reviews for his role in the TV comedy Freezing and Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story. However, he's become a TV superstar on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years thanks to his starring role in period drama Downton Abbey. Recent projects have included W1A and The Monuments Men.

Career: Hawkins made guest appearances in TV shows Casualty and Doctors but her first break in front of the camera came in Mike Leigh's film All or Nothing (2002). Since then, she has starred in Vera Drake (2004), Layer Cake (2004), The Painted Veil (2006) and Cassandra's Dream (2007). She won a number of awards, including a Golden Globe, for her portrayal of Poppy Cross in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). Her other film credits include An Education (2009), Never Let Me Go (2010), Made in Dagenham (2010), Submarine (2010), Blue Jasmine (2013) and Godzilla (2014).

Career: At 16, Kidman made her TV and film debuts in Young Talent Time and BMX Bandits respectively. Roles in Bush Christmas and A Country Practice followed. In 1989, Dead Calm and miniseries Bangkok Hilton brought her international acclaim, and launched her career in America. Future husband Tom Cruise cast her in Days of Thunder, while To Die For proved she was more than just a pretty face. Since then, she's appeared in a number of Hollywood movies, including Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge!, The Others and The Hours (for which she won an Oscar). More recent films include Rabbit Hole, The Paperboy, The Railway Man, Grace of Monaco, Before I Go to Sleep and Paddington.

Career: Whishaw made his film debut in The Trench (1999). His other film credits include Layer Cake (2004), Stoned (2005), Brideshead Revisited (2008), The Tempest (2010) and Cloud Atlas (2012). He has played Q in the James Bond movies Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). More recently, he has voiced the title character in Paddington (2014) and appeared in The Lobster (2015), Suffragette (2015), The Danish Girl (2015) and In the Heart of the Sea (2015). On the small screen, he has starred in Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice, The Hollow Crown, The Hour and London Spy.

Career: Walters' first acting job was at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, where she caught the eye of playwright Alan Bleasdale - the beginning of many collaborations. She appeared in his first stage success, Scully, in 1974, and in Boys from the Blackstuff in 1980, a year after making her TV debut in Victoria Wood's Talent. She reunited with Wood in the series Wood and Walters, and reprised her stage role in Educating Rita on the big screen, earning an Oscar nomination. Walters has worked steadily ever since. Her most notable projects include Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, Pat and Margaret, Mamma Mia! and the Harry Potter films. She was awarded an OBE in 1999, gained a second Oscar nomination for Billy Elliot in 2000, and won a Bafta (her seventh) in 2010 for her performance in TV drama Mo.

Career: Playing mainly minor roles, Capaldi went on to feature in episodes of Minder, C.A.T.S. Eyes, The Lair of the White Worm, Rab C Nesbitt, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Agatha Christie's Poirot and the miniseries Selling Hitler. He returned to the big screen when he wrote and starred in 1993's low-budget Soft Top Hard Shoulder. Guest starring roles followed in Prime Suspect 3, The Vicar of Dibley, Judge John Deed, My Family and Midsomer Murders. His profile raised significantly in 2005 when he began playing foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in BBC comedy The Thick of It, a role that won him a Bafta. He also played Tucker in movie spin-off In the Loop. Always in-demand, his other TV credits include Skins, Torchwood: Children of Earth, The Nativity, Getting On and The Hour. He is currently playing the twelfth incarnation of the Time Lord in Doctor Who, a role he had long coveted.

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: After graduating, she spent the next six years working in repertory companies across the UK, proving her versatility in a wide variety of parts. Her big break came when she gained a place with the National Theatre company in 1982. Staunton quickly landed increasingly larger roles and won numerous awards in the process. Her TV debut was in 1986's The Singing Detective, while her first film, Comrades, was made a year later. Since then, she's appeared in such acclaimed projects as Much Ado About Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, and Shakespeare in Love. She was Oscar-nominated for Vera Drake, and also appeared in period drama Fingersmith and the movie Nanny McPhee, before earning millions of new fans in the guise of Dolores Umbridge as part of the Harry Potter franchise.

Career: Gambon became a member of Laurence Olivier's first Royal National Theatre company, and made his movie debut in 1965's Othello, alongside the star. His role in long-running TV show The Borderers led to an audition for James Bond. Parts in such forgettable productions as The Beast Must Die and Nothing But the Night came next. It was The Singing Detective in 1986 that finally made him a star. He's worked steadily ever since in the likes of Maigret, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Gosford Park, Doctor Who, Quartet, Sleepy Hollow and Fortitude. He took over playing Dumbledore in Harry Potter following the death of Richard Harris. He's won BAFTA TV awards for Perfect Strangers, Longitude, Wives and Daughters, and The Singing Detective.

Career: In 1994, Lucas appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, returning a year later with Walliams. The pair enjoyed a sell-out tour in 1997. Lucas also worked with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer on The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Vic and Bob in Catterick. He reunited with Walliams for the spoof documentary series Rock Profiles, before creating the radio show Little Britain, which moved to TV in 2003; they also created Come Fly With Me in 2010. Lucas has enjoyed success on the stage in a number of production and popped up in Casanova, The Wind in the Willows, Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Bridesmaids. He also fronts BBC One comedy show The Matt Lucas Awards.