Starter for 10

James McAvoy (Actor) .. Brian Jackson

Born: April 21, 1979 in Port Glasgow

Best Known For: Shameless, X-Men: First Class and Wanted.

Early-life: Born in Port Glasgow on April 21, 1979, he is the son of a psychiatric nurse and a builder. His parents divorced when he was seven and he was brought up by his maternal grandparents in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow due to his mother's ill health. He has a sister and a younger half-brother. A visit to his school by actor David Hayman sparked an interest in acting, and Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room. James had already been accepted by the Royal Navy when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). He selected the acting route and moved to London after graduating in 2000.

Career: McAvoy made guest appearances in a steady stream of TV shows (including The Bill, Band of Brothers, Foyle's War, State of Play and Early Doors) and movies until he caught the British public's imagination in 2004 playing Steve McBride in Shameless. A year later he became known to worldwide audiences for his role in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Since then he has been much in demand and starred in The Last King of Scotland, Penelope, Becoming Jane, Atonement, Wanted, the X-Men franchise, Filth, Muppets Most Wanted and Trance. He has also voiced characters in Gnomeo & Juliet and Arthur Christmas. McAvoy is a big fan of Celtic FC.

Quote: 'I always believed that I never wanted to be an actor. I only did it because I was allowed to do it and I had to do something.'

Trivia: Wed Shameless co-star Anne-Marie Duff in 2006. They have a son, Brendan. McAvoy describes their quiet way of life as: 'mundane, and I love it that way'.

Alice Eve (Actor) .. Alice Harbinson

Born: February 06, 1982 in London

Best Known For: Playing Carol Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Early-life: Alice Sophia Eve was born in London on February 6, 1982 to actors Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan. She has two younger brothers, Jack and George. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was young before returning to the UK when she was 13. She spent a year at the Beverly Hills Playhouse before reading English at St Catherine's College, Oxford. She appeared in a number of student productions, including The Importance of Being Earnest and The Colour of Justice.

Career: Early TV roles came in Hawking, The Rotters' Club and Agatha Christie's Poirot, but she is largely known for her film work. On the big screen, she has appeared in Starter for 10 (2006), Sex and the City 2 (2010), Men in Black 3 (2012), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014).

Quote: 'I'm a girl's girl, in all the ways you can be girlie. Nails and chats and gossip magazines and reality TV and pop culture.'

Trivia: She has heterochromia - her right eye is green and her left blue.

Rebecca Hall (Actor) .. Rebecca Epstein

Born: May 03, 1982 in London

Best Known For: Being a rising star of British acting.

Early-life: Rebecca Maria Hall was born in London on May 3, 1982. Her father is director Peter Hall and her mother is American opera singer Maria Ewing. Her parents divorced in 1990. She has five half-siblings. Rebecca was head girl at Roedean School, then studied English literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where she started acting, but dropped out just before her final year. She made her TV debut as a child, playing young Sophy in The Camomile Lawn, which was directed by her dad.

Career: Hall did more TV acting work as a child, but then took a gap for her studies until 2002, when she made her professional stage debut in her father's production of Mrs Warren's Profession. More successful theatre appearances followed before she made her film debut in 2006's Starter for 10. The Prestige followed before Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona became her big Hollywood break. Since then Hall has juggled TV and movie work, taking starring roles in the likes of Red Riding (for which she won a Bafta), Frost/Nixon, Dorian Gray and Parade's End. Her recent work includes Iron Man 3.

Quote: 'I wrote reams of poetry the other night about how sad and tortured I am. I love the solitary, romantic idea of writing.'

Trivia: She holds dual UK and American citizenship.

Catherine Tate (Actor) .. Julie Jackson

Born: May 12, 1968 in London

Best Known For: The Catherine Tate Show and Doctor Who.

Early-life: Born Catherine Ford on May 12, 1968, in London, she was raised in the distinctive and iconic Bloomsbury Centre by her florist mother Josephine. Catherine has revealed that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. She attended Notre Dame High School for Girls, then the Sylvia Young Theatre School and later graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama and Royal National Theatre. She also spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career: Tate's TV career began with small parts in serial dramas Casualty and The Bill, while her comedy talent was nurtured on The Harry Hill Show, Big Train, That Peter Kay Thing and Wild West, a series she made while pregnant. As well as her critically acclaimed comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, she has also appeared in Bleak House, on the West End stage and in the US version of The Office. The comedienne acquired a new set of fans when she became Doctor Who assistant Donna Noble; she reunited with co-star David Tennant in Much Ado About Nothing in London's West End during the summer of 2011.

Quote: Of her Doctor Who appearance, she joked: 'I was holding out for a summer season at Wigan rep but as a summer job this'll do.'

Trivia: Tate is the patron of the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust.

Dominic Cooper (Actor) .. Spencer

Born: June 02, 1978 in London

Best Known For: Mamma Mia!

Early-life: Dominic Edward Cooper was born in London on June 2, 1978 to Julie and Brian. He has two older brothers, Nathan and Simon. His sister died in a car accident before he was born. He also has a half-sister and a half-brother. He graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2000. His early acting career involved minor roles in TV and the theatre.

Career: Cooper's breakthrough came in 2004 when he originated the role of Dakin at the National Theatre in Alan Bennett's The History Boys. He went on to play the role on Broadway and in the touring production in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. He played the part for a final time in the 2006 big-screen version. Since then, he has starred in The Duchess (2008), Mamma Mia! (2008), Freefall (2009), An Education (2009), Tamara Drewe (2010), The Devil's Double (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and its 2014 sequel, My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2011). His TV credits include Down to Earth and Sense and Sensibility.

Quote: 'You never feel like you've done your best work. You always think you could be better.'

Trivia: Cooper was nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award for his work on the Broadway production of The History Boys.

Mark Gatiss (Actor) .. Bamber Gascoigne

Born: October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham

Best Known For: The League of Gentlemen.

Early-life: Born October 17, 1966, in Sedgefield, County Durham. He grew up opposite a Victorian psychiatric hospital, where both his parents worked. While at college, he had a job there as a gardener. Gatiss claims he always wanted to escape from what he regarded as a grim, northern childhood, although now accepts that Heighington, where he lived, is actually a pleasant village. After school, he took a year out to travel around Europe, then began a drama course at Bretton Hall near Leeds.

Career: Gatiss eventually settled in London, where he hoped to earn a living as an actor but made ends meet writing Doctor Who books. He and friends Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson formed The League of Gentlemen in 1995, which had successful stints on stage, radio, TV and film. Since then he's appeared in Bright Young Things, Marple, The Quatermass Experiment, Nighty Night and Jekyll. Gatiss was also script editor on the first Little Britain series, and has penned episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Doctor Who (in which he's also appeared). He portrayed Malcolm MacLaren in the 2010 drama Worried About the Boy and co-created Sherlock with Steven Moffat.

Quote: 'I've done lots of acting and been very pleased with the response to what I've done. I'd like to do a lot more.'

Trivia: Gatiss has also written several novels and appeared regularly on the stage.

Charles Dance (Actor) .. Michael Harbinson

Born: October 10, 1946 in Redditch, Worcestershire

Best Known For: The Jewel in the Crown.

Early-life: Born Walter Charles Dance on October 10, 1946, in Redditch, Worcestershire. His engineer father died when Dance was four, after which he and his mother moved to Devon. She struggled to make ends meet, working in a café to support them both. After leaving school he enrolled at art college, but claims his heart wasn't in it. He took odd jobs to earn some cash, and spent his spare time doing amateur dramatics, prompting him to take acting lessons.

Career: Dance spent five years with the Royal Shakespeare Company and made his TV debut in miniseries Edward the King in 1975, following it up with appearances in Tales of the Unexpected and Fatal Spring. His first film was 1981 Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, but his big break came in 1984 when he was cast in The Jewel in the Crown. He went on to star in White Mischief, Alien3, The Last Action Hero, Gosford Park, Ali G InDaHouse and First Born. Dance also produced, directed, and wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed film Ladies in Lavender. He was awarded an OBE in 2006. More recent projects include Your Highness, Strike Back, Secret State, Game of Thrones, and Dracula Untold.

Quote: 'If someone calls you suave and debonair you only get offered parts in a suit and a collar and tie. It just so happens I wear them reasonably well.'

Trivia: Dance had no idea his Dracula Untold character was a resurrected Caligula until after the film was made.

Lindsay Duncan (Actor) .. Rose Harbinson

Born: November 07, 1950 in Edinburgh

Best Known For: Her many acclaimed stage roles.

Early-life: Born November 7, 1950, in Edinburgh, but spent part of her childhood in Leeds and Birmingham. Neither of her parents had a showbusiness background, and her mother originally wanted her to become a doctor. However, they supported her decision to tread the boards after the acting bug bit while appearing in school productions. She regrets the fact her father - who died in a car accident when she was a teenager - didn't live to see her success.

Career: After spells at Bristol University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, she landed professional roles in a variety of theatrical productions. Her first TV appearance came in 1975's Further Up Pompeii! Parts at the Royal Exchange in the likes of The Rivals and What the Butler Saw gained her huge acclaim. Arguably her biggest stage successes have both come opposite Alan Rickman, in productions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Private Lives. Duncan has popped up in TV and film projects such as Reilly: The Ace of Spies, Kit Curran, Prick Up Your Ears, Traffik, GBH, Jake's Progress, Oliver Twist, An Ideal Husband, Doctor Who, Poirot, Alice in Wonderland and Rome.

Quote: 'All good rehearsals involve quite a lot of laughing, that's the way to get through it.'

Trivia: She took a role in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to please their son, Cal, who is a huge fan of the franchise.

Tom Vaughan (Director)

9:00 pm - 10:30 pm, Saturday, July 4 on BBC Four (9)

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