Career: After graduating, Fry and Laurie enjoyed a successful comedy partnership. Fry was a millionaire by 30, thanks to a successful rewrite of the Noel Gay musical Me and My Girl. He has appeared in numerous films and TV projects, including Blackadder, Jeeves and Wooster, Wilde, Thunderpants, Kingdom and The Hobbit. He's also written several books, and is well-known as a charming raconteur. He made his movie debut as writer and director with Bright Young Things, based on Evelyn Waugh's book, Vile Bodies. Fry is the presenter of comedy quiz QI, he has also made several acclaimed documentaries, including ones about manic depression and Aids, and he is the reader for the British versions of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series of audio books.

Career: Davies performed his first stand-up gig in 1988, and by the early 1990s was a rising star, picking up rave reviews at Edinburgh. He later gave up playing clubs to concentrate on radio. His Radio 1 series, Alan's Big One FM, led to TV appearances on shows such as One Foot in the Grave, before he was cast as the lead in Jonathan Creek, the light-hearted mystery drama that made him a household name. Other acting work includes Bob and Rose, A Many Splintered Thing, The Brief, Marple, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), Lewis and Whites. He presented the three-part documentary Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution for Channel 4 in 2010 and was a judge in 2011 on ITV talent show Show Me the Funny. He's also appeared in West End hit Auntie and Me. He has been a permanent panellist on irreverent quiz QI since the show began in 2003.

Career: Cox's earliest TV appearances were as an extra in cult TV series The Prisoner. He has been a mainstay in the world of TV and film ever since, popping up in Hammer House of Horror, Minder, Frasier and Deadwood. He played Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter, Michael Mann's adaptation of Red Dragon. (The name was later spelled Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs). He has appeared in a string of major Hollywood offerings, including The Long Kiss Goodnight, X-Men 2, Troy, The Bourne Supremacy, Zodiac and Red. On the stage he has appeared in Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew and King Lear. He has also voiced characters in the video games Killzone and Manhunt.

Career: Manford was nominated for the Perrier Award in Edinburgh in 2005 for his show Urban Legends. He then became a regular at comedy clubs across the UK. His first major TV appearance was as a guest on the Channel 4 panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats; he later replaced Dave Spikey as a team captain. His stand-up shows are hugely popular and he has given snippets of his routine on shows such as Live at The Apollo and Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. He was an instant hit as host of The One Show but quit after some Twitter indiscretions. In July 2012, he revealed some versatility by appearing in the West End revival of the musical Sweeney Todd. In 2015, he starred in the BBC One drama Ordinary Lies and played Leo Bloom in a touring version of Mel Brooks' The Producers.