Trivia: Left university to perform with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Was narrator of BBC series Airport between 1996 and 2005. Appointed an OBE in 2010. Awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Plymouth in 2012. Patron of The Mare and Foal Sanctuary.

Trivia: Joined the Stockton Youth Theatre as a 14-year-old. Performed in the award-winning Dead Fish at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Reprised his role in the touring production of Dead Fish throughout 1994 and 1995. Played the role of DS Gavin Troy in Midsomer Murders between 1998 and 2003. Ran for Leukaemia Research in the 2003 Great north Run.

Trivia: Starred in the 1975 Birmingham Rep production of Equus. Played Sasha in a 1978 production of Ivanov at the Old Vic. Portrayed the role of Joyce Barnaby in Midsomer Murders between 1997 and 2011. Performed in a world tour of Hamlet throughout 1978, alongside Sir Derek Jacobi. Is a Drama tutor at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Trivia: Orlando Bloom began reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a teenager before abandoning the books in favor of sports and girls. He did not complete the three volumes until his early twenties: first in print, and then on camera as one of a handful of actors carefully selected for New Line Cinema's highly anticipated, $270 million, three-film screen adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The international success of the trilogy's first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), made Bloom a sought-after young actor. The talented Brit works the talk show circuit, mugs in magazines, and appears at every important award show -- always with a playful demeanor and an uncorrupted smile that suggest he could still be just as easily fulfilled by rugby and romance. Bloom was raised in Canterbury, Kent, with his sister, Samantha. Their mother taught them to enjoy the arts and encouraged them to participate in the local Kent Festival. Bloom began by reciting poetry and prose, displaying an advanced sensitivity to tone and modulation. Yet, it wasn't this precociousness or his frequent trips to the theater that influenced Bloom to become a professional actor. He was in awe of larger-than-life characters -- from Superman to the members of the A-Team -- and knew the only way to become one was to play one on the screen. At 16, Bloom relocated to London and performed with the National Youth Theatre for two seasons before winning a scholarship to train with the British American Drama Academy. At the conclusion of his term with the group, he played the lead in A Walk in the Vienna Woods, and secured an agent. This led to small roles on British television and an appearance in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997). Wishing to further his education, Bloom then enrolled at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama (the alma mater of Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes, and Ben Chaplin, among others). There, he acted in several plays, including Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Chekov's Three Sisters, and Sophocles' Antigone. While still in school, Bloom was trying to make it onto a friend's rooftop terrace when he fell three stories and broke his back. The accident almost paralyzed the actor, but surgery let him walk out of the hospital on crutches. Soon afterward, all his peers auditioned for coveted roles in the upcoming The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The extensive and selective casting process took place in every English-speaking country. Bloom good-naturedly tried out for the role of Faramir, a character introduced in the second film, The Two Towers (2002). After meeting with the project's director, Peter Jackson, Bloom was not cast as Faramir. Instead, Jackson asked that he read for the part of Legolas Greenleaf, a much more prominent figure who is featured in all three films. The director offered Bloom the role a few weeks later, only two days before the burgeoning star graduated from drama school. Legolas, Tolkien's warrior elf, has super-human strength, swift reflexes, and heightened sensory awareness. To play him, Bloom trained in archery, swordplay, and horseback riding for two months prior to shooting. He developed a graceful style of combat based on the characters in Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and worked to manage his posture, poise, and composure. As Legolas, Bloom is immortal, and at 2,931 years old, is a tall, athletic, and skilled fighter of evil -- he truly is larger than life. After finishing The Lord of the Rings -- all three films, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, were shot simultaneously over 18 months in New Zealand -- Bloom headed to Morocco for a role in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The film chronicles the horrific Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, in which a "simple" mission left 18 U.S. soldiers dead and 73 wounded. Debuting his American accent, Bloom plays a neophyte ranger who breaks his back after falling 70 feet from a helicopter. This combat film opened only a few weeks after The Fellowship of the Ring and received equal acclaim. Following these blockbusters, Bloom performed in several quirky films with limited releases such as Lullaby of Clubland (2001). But it wouldn't be long before Bloom was blowing up the box-office once again with the 2003 crowd-pleaser The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Bloom showed up opposite Brad Pitt and Black Hawk Dawn costar Eric Bana in the 2004 historical epic Troy, his intense star-power was unquestionable.Bloom faced a down year in 2005, failing to match the box office success of Troy with Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. That same year he stepped into the role once occupied by Ashton Kutcher in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, but the film never recovered from the bad press it received after its initial film festival screening, failed to find an audience in theaters, and was unpopular with critics. Bloom rebounded one year later by returning with the other principles in back-to-back filmed sequels for Pirates of the Caribbean, the first of which, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, shattered box office records for opening day and opening weekend, and became the first film to take in one hundred million dollars in just two days. It will hardly strike one as prescient, then, that industry insiders and the trades were advance prepping Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End as one of the most lucrative releases of 2007, possibly of any year. The actor would appear in more down tempo projects in the coming years, like 2010's Main Street, and 2011's The Good Doctor, before hopping on board another swashbuckler, playing the Duke of Buckhingham in The Three Musketeers. Though the film wasn't a huge success in the States, Bloom would have another franchise ticket to cash in the following year, reprising the role of elf Legolas in the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit.

Trivia: Supporting actor, onscren from the '80s.

Trivia: At the age of nine, presented radio broadcasts for Children's Hour. Worked as a stage hand at the Birmingham Rep at the age of 16. Moved to London to become an actor immediately upon getting his O-Levels. Worked as a fight director and stunt man throughout the 1960s, under the name 'Jack Barry'. Portrayed Dr George Bullard in Midsomer Murders from 1998 to 2011.

Trivia: Made her television debut in the 1992 historical series Covington Cross.Landed her first leading television role in 1992, playing Tammy Rokeby in sitcom So Haunt Me. In 1996, appeared in drama series Soldier Soldier as Deborah Briggs. Is perhaps best known for playing Cully Barnaby in crime-mystery procedural Midsomer Murders between 1997 and 2011. Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Making Mischief Season in 2016.

Trivia: Gifted with gravitas, Timothy West is a master at playing authority figures. Over his long and distinguished career, he has portrayed Winston Churchill in three productions (Hiroshima, 1995; The Last Bastion, 1984; and Churchill and the Generals, 1979), King Francis in Ever After (1998), Emperor Vespasian in Masada (1981), Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII (1979), King Edward VII in Edward the King (1975), and Bolingbroke -- the future King Henry IV -- in The Tragedy of King Richard II (1970). He has also portrayed sundry sirs, lords, judges, overseers, superintendents, doctors, professors, and high-ranking military officers. Remove him to the fantasy world of animated features, and it's the same. In two cartoon series, he was the voice of King Otto (The Big Knights, 1999) and King Hrothgar (Beowulf, 1998). Often, he plays the head of a family rather than the head of an army or a country. For example, he portrayed Charles Dickens' father, John, in the 2002 TV miniseries Dickens; Gloucester, father of Edgar and Edmund, in a 1997 TV production of Shakespeare's King Lear; and James Tyrone, the head of a dysfunctional family, in the 1991 British National Theatre adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night. West also portrayed still another king -- Harry King -- in a 1987 TV production, Harry's Kingdom.West was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, on October 20, 1934. Whether his veins ran with royal blood -- the kind that would later enable him to play those kings and emperors -- is doubtful. But there is no question that his veins ran with acting blood: Both of his parents were theater professionals. It was only natural, therefore, that he would marry an actress, Prunella Scales, and that he would father children, Samuel and Joseph, who grew up to act in films of their own. On occasion, Scales and West perform together, as in the O'Neill play and in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party at London's Piccadilly Theatre in 1999. West has also acted with his sons. In the aforementioned Edward the King, they played his onscreen sons. West began his professional film, stage, and TV career in the 1960s. In the early '70s, his appearance in two important motion pictures -- Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) and The Day of the Jackal (1973) -- helped win him roles in other major productions, including adaptations of such literary classics as Joseph Andrews, Hard Times, Crime and Punishment, and Oliver Twist.

Trivia: Studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol and graduated in the 1960s. Has regular performances with Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company. Her first big role was on the British series entitled Shine on Harvey Moon (1982-1985). Went on tour in 2008 in the comedy Noise's Off which was produced by the Ambassador Theatre Group. Was told at the start of her career that she wouldn't probably make it because she wasn't beautiful enough.

Trivia: British supporting actor Nickolas Grace first appeared onscreen in the '80s.

Trivia: From her first stage appearance in Brighton in 1949, to her screen appearance in 1999's The Ninth Gate, British screen actress Barbara Jefford has often been seen in cool, "still waters run deep" roles (though she lists as her favorite characters the far from sedate Cleopatra and Saint Joan). British playgoers have long been familiar with the gifted Jefford via her work in such classics as Tiger at the Gates, Mourning Becomes Electra, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and her lengthy associations with the Old Vic and National Theater. American art-house aficionados first became aware of Jefford when she starred as the erotically lyrical Molly Bloom in the 1967 film version of James Joyce's Ulysses (1967). Barbara Jefford was honored with the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and the Jubilee Festival medal in 1977.

Trivia: A graduate of England's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, actor Tobias Menzies started his onscreen career with guest roles on a number of BBC programs before landing the part of the infamous assassin Brutus on the BBC/HBO co-production Rome. In 2006, between seasons of Rome, Menzies could be seen in a supporting role in the hit James Bond film Casino Royale. And following the second and final season of Rome, he was cast in a made-for-television adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion.