Trivia: Respected for his work on television, screen, and especially the stage, where he is a popular musical comedy star on both sides of the Atlantic, actor Robert Lindsay ranks among Great Britain's most versatile actors. Fans of the popular 1970s British comedy series Citizen Smith will remember him for playing the title role of Wolfy Smith. He has also appeared on such television shows as Jake's Progress, Nightingales, and Give Us a Break and performed in numerous televised Shakespearean plays. On stage, he has starred in everything from Cyrano de Bergerac to The Cherry Orchard to Becket. Lindsay launched his film career in the rock musical That'll Be the Day (1973), starring David Essex. He made his American film debut in Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989). Over his long career, Lindsay has earned numerous awards, including a Tony for starring in Me and My Girl and a British Academy Award for GBH.

Trivia: John, born Reginald Dwight, is a rock star who appeared in the film Tommy (1975).

Trivia: Though occasional appearances in American feature films (Muppet Treasure Island, Shrek 2) and sitcoms (Roseanne) highlight her resumé, the hyperkinetic and overmodulated British comedian Jennifer Saunders is indelibly associated with two English series programs: the sketch comedy/variety show French & Saunders and the wild sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, which skewers mercilessly the decadent pretension of British haute couture.Born July 6, 1958, in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England, to a father stationed in the RAF, Saunders, like many children of military families, acquired and honed a sharp sense of humor at a tender age, perhaps as a way to cope psychologically with being constantly shuttled from town to town. In the late '70s, Saunders enrolled as a student in London's Central School of Speech and Drama, where she met and befriended lifelong collaborator Dawn French while studying to become a drama teacher. French suggested that they respond to an advertisement placed in Stage magazine for aspiring comedians, and the success of that audition yielded a regular on-stage sketch-comedy gig at The Comic Strip Club -- alongside Peter Richardson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, and many other established talents. As this list suggests, the preponderance of comedians at that time were male, which set French and Saunders apart from the pack and placed them in Britain's then-burgeoning "alternative comedy" niche. When the Comic Strip team graduated their skits to the eponymously titled BBC program The Comic Strip Presents... in 1982, French and Saunders moved with them; the original run of that program lasted until 1988, with four- and three-year revivals in 1990 and 1998, respectively.Over the next several years, Saunders co-starred in a number of BBC television series comedies, including Happy Families (1985), Girls on Top (which placed her alongside the legendary Tracey Ullman and Ruby Wax), and -- in occasional cameos -- The Young Ones (1982). Then, in 1987, the BBC granted Saunders and French their own sketch comedy program, aptly titled French & Saunders. That program debuted in 1987 and not only broke untold ground for up-and-coming British comediennes but became a massive hit and ran indefinitely. The pair scripted episodes and starred in them.A sketch in the third season of French & Saunders -- done by Saunders during French's brief sabbatical from the program -- inspired Saunders to create a character for a new series: that of the pill-popping, booze-swilling, outrageously vulgar '60s has-been-turned-PR mogul Edina Monsoon -- played by Saunders herself. Entitled Absolutely Fabulous (and done sans French), the program paired Monsoon with best friend Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), the inhabitant of a liquor store and a magazine editor. Episodes found Edina not only contending with the vicissitudes of a debauched lifestyle, but grappling her way through tumultuous relationships with her teenage daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha), and naïve mom, known only as Mother and Gran (June Whitfield). The program scored as a massive hit not only in Britain, but on American cable stations. Yet its run was surprisingly short given this popularity; it aired from 1992 to 1993, then resurfaced briefly in 1996, and came around for a third go between 2001 and 2003.As mentioned, Saunders provided one of the voices in 2004's CG-animated Shrek 2 (that of the Fairy Godmother); she also voiced Miss Spink in directors Henry Selick and Michael Cachuela's stop-motion animated fantasy Coraline (2009).Saunders is married to Adrian Edmondson, one of her former on-stage collaborators from the Comic Strip troupe. They have three daughters.

Trivia: The daughter of a high-born British military major, actress Joanna Lumley was a model before entering films with 1968's Some Girls Do. In 1976, she took on the Diana Rigg-like female lead on the British TV action series The New Avengers, costarring Patrick MacNee of the old Avengers. Joanna also costarred in two of Blake Edwards' Pink Panther movies of the '80s. Thoroughly jettisoning her previous cool-glamour image, Joanna Lumley costarred with Jennifer Saunders in the 1993 British TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous as a pair of boozing, bawdy functionaries in the '90s fashion world (the series was picked up by the American cable network Comedy Central in 1994). So popular was Ms. Lumley's characterization of potty-mouthed, cheap-thrill-seeking Patsy that, shortly after the premiere of Absolutely Fabulous, she was being imitated in TV commercials by comic actor John Cleese!On the big screen she appeared in Cold Comfort Farm, James and the Giant Peach, and The Cat's Meow before returning to her signature role as Patsy Stone for another run of Absolutely Fabulous in 2001. After that she could be seen in Eurotrip, and provided voiceover work in both Doogal and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. She starred in the series Clatterford, and had a prominent part in the 2011 project Late Bloomers.

Trivia: Best-known to American TV audiences as Saffy, the frighteningly sensible daughter of Edina Monsoon on Absolutely Fabulous, Julia Sawalha has earned a reputation as one of Britain's more beloved comedic actresses.The daughter of respected Jordanian actor Nadim Sawalha (who immigrated to England in the 1960s) and an English mother, Sawalha was born in London on September 9, 1968. Raised in the company of two sisters, she became interested in acting at a young age, and landed her first break when she was chosen to star on the long-running TV series Press Gang. A show about a group of teens who run a youth newspaper, it was produced by Bob Spiers, who would later direct Sawalha in Absolutely Fabulous. Premiering in 1992, Absolutely Fabulous would become one of the most popular TV shows in British history, winning scores of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. For her part, Sawalha earned both respect and recognition for her portrayal of the hilariously uptight Saffy, and her work led to roles in a number of TV miniseries, including the BBC's acclaimed 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Although Sawalha made her film debut in 1990, she had her first major big-screen role in Kenneth Branagh's In the Bleak Midwinter (1995), a comedy about a group of actors putting on a production of Hamlet. Cast as the actress who plays Ophelia, the film allowed her to perform alongside Branagh, Richard Briers, Joan Collins, and Jennifer Saunders. The actress finally got a crack at the lead in a major film in 2000, lending her voice to the character of Ginger, the feathered heroine of Peter Lord and Nick Park's Chicken Run. A hugely successful all-poultry retelling of The Great Escape, the film also featured the vocal talents of Mel Gibson, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, and Imelda Staunton. In addition to her work in Chicken Run, Sawalha kept busy that year with a number of other film and TV projects, including The Final Curtain, a comedy about a rivalry between two British game show personalities.

Trivia: Perhaps best-known to international audiences for her role as Bubble, Edina Monsoon's gloriously vapid assistant on Absolutely Fabulous, Jane Horrocks is a well-established stage and screen actress in her native Britain.Born in Lancashire, England, to working-class parents on January 18, 1964, Horrocks began performing in a non-professional capacity (or "showing off" as she has said) at an early age, wowing her informal audiences with her gift for mimicry. Although an acting career was seen as unrealistic in her Northern English town, Horrocks nevertheless ended up winning a place at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where her classmates included Ralph Fiennes, Imogen Stubbs, and Iain Glen. During her studies at RADA, Horrocks was advised to lose her distinctive Lancashire accent. Fortunately, she rejected this "advice;" her decision to nurture her way of speaking would later result in her casting in a number of plum character roles.Following graduation, Horrocks joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite the RSC's prestige, the actress felt unchallenged and underused in her work with the company. Thankfully, she found some form of relief in her collaboration with playwright Jim Cartwright while performing in a production of one of his plays; Cartwright was so impressed with Horrocks' uncanny impersonations of such singers as Edith Piaf and Judy Garland that he promised to write a play expressly to showcase her talents. A few years later, he made good on his promise with The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, a play about a painfully shy girl (Horrocks) possessing a remarkable ability to mimic some of history's most famous singers. Horrocks earned lavish praise for her performance; in 1998, the play was made into a well-received film, Little Voice, in which Horrocks co-starred with Ewan McGregor, Brenda Blethyn, and Michael Caine. Horrocks also began appearing on both the big and small screens during the late '80s, doing supporting work in a number of films and television series. She had her screen breakthrough in Mike Leigh's acclaimed family comedy Life Is Sweet (1991), earning awards from the Los Angeles film critics and the National Society of Film Critics for her portrayal of an anorexic girl who at one point asks her boyfriend (David Thewlis) to lick chocolate off her breasts.Bouncing back and forth between comedy and drama and film and television during the rest of the decade, Horrocks continued to establish herself as one of her country's most versatile performers. The 1998 release of Little Voice brought with it lavish acclaim for the actress, who earned a number of international award nominations and honors for her singular performance in the film.

Trivia: Trained at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, June Whitfield landed her first professional roles on the London stage and became one of Great Britain's most respected comedy actresses. After establishing herself in theater, Whitfield gained further acclaim for appearing opposite Jimmy Edwards and Dick Bently in the classic radio series Take It From Here. She has become one of BBC Radio's most enduring and beloved radio performers; she can be heard reading The News Huddlines, something she has been doing since the 1950s. Despite her radio work, Whitfield is best known on television, where she appeared opposite her longtime professional partner Terry Scott in the popular sitcom Happily Ever After, which ran for a decade and was later renamed Terry and June. She also worked with comedians like Ronnie Barker and Dick Emery. Whitfield began her sporadic film career in Carry On Nurse (1959); she would continue appearing in the venerable Carry On series for many years. Her other film credits include The Spy With a Cold Nose (1966) and Jude (1996). For her many years in the entertainment industry, June Whitfield received the British Comedy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1994.