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: Vegas's big break came in 1997 when he was nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his TV debut in the one-off Johnny Vegas TV Show the following year. In 2001, he landed a role in the Paul Whitehouse sitcom Happiness, which won him the Best Newcomer trophies at the Royal Television Society and British Comedy Awards, although it was arguably his appearance in a series of cult adverts with a sock monkey for ITV Digital that made him a household name. Since then, he's been a regular panellist on Shooting Stars, acted in series Tipping the Velvet, Bleak House, Dead Man Weds, Ideal, Massive, Benidorm, Still Open All Hours and presented his own show, 18 Stone of Idiot. He was also in Johnny Depp film The Libertine and The Harry Hill Movie.

Career: Walliams' TV debut came in Sky One's Games World in 1993. In 1995 he and Lucas teamed up for the first of three shows at the Edinburgh Festival. They also made Rock Profiles for UKTV, in which they parodied famous musicians. But it was Little Britain that made them stars in 2003; they followed it up with Come Fly with Me. Walliams has also appeared in films such as Run, Fatboy, Run, Dinner for Schmucks and The Look of Love, and on stage in No Man's Land. He's swum the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar with James Cracknell and a 140-mile stretch of the River Thames, all in aid of Sport Relief. Walliams joined the judging panel of Britain's Got Talent in 2012, and is the executive producer and star of the Agatha Christie adaptation Partners in Crime.

Career: Pemberton began his professional career on stage, but suffered a setback when he had a heart attack at the age of 25 while working in Germany. He went on to feature in Ken Russell's Alice in RussiaLand in 1995, but it was The League of Gentleman that was his first major success, first on radio, then on TV and film. He also appeared in the remake of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Gormenghast, Shameless, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and Blackpool. The latter co-starred David Tennant, and the duo were reunited in 2008 for a two-part Doctor Who adventure. Other projects include the Woody Allen film Match Point, Lassie, Psychoville, and Benidorm.