Dame Margaret Natalie Smith is an English actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by Oliver Goldsmith, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in the English-speaking world. It is one of the few plays from the 18th century to have retained its appeal and is still regularly performed. The play has been adapted into a film several times, including in 1914 and 1923. Initially the play was titled Mistakes of a Night and the events within the play take place in one long night. In 1778, John O'Keeffe wrote a loose sequel, Tony Lumpkin in Town.
Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips, known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and is also particularly known for her performance as Livia in the 1976 BBC television series I, Claudius.
Abigail's Party is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. The play developed in lengthy improvisations during which Mike Leigh explored the characters with the actors, but did not always reveal the incidents that would occur during the play. The production opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre, and returned after its initial run in the summer of 1977, for 104 performances in all. A recording was arranged at the BBC as a Play for Today, produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted in November 1977.
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish-born Canadian actor, writer, producer and improvisational comedian, best known for his appearances on the British and US versions of the improvisational TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Samantha Jane Bond is an English actress. She played Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era, and appeared in Downton Abbey as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. On television, she played "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom Outnumbered and the villain Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures. She also originated the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the Rumpole of the Bailey series. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
42nd Street is a 1980 stage musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production won the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Choreography and it became a long-running hit. The show was also produced in London in 1984 and its 2001 Broadway revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival.
Jennifer Anne Ehle is an American actress. She gained recognition and acclaim for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice (1995), for which she received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Known for her roles on Broadway and the West End she won two Tony Awards as well as a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award.
David Troughton is an English actor. He is known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage and for his many roles on British television, including Dr Bob Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice and Ricky Hanson in New Tricks.
Martin Shaw is an English stage, television, and film actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV crime-action television drama series The Professionals (1977–1983). Further notable television parts include the title roles in The Chief (1993–1995), Judge John Deed (2001–2007) and Inspector George Gently (2007–2017). He has also acted on stage and in film, and has narrated numerous audiobooks and presented various television series.
Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig is a British actress and narrator. She is known for both dramatic and comedic roles. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, Dr Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing, Beverly Lincoln in British-American sitcom Episodes and Jackie Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Other roles include Alice Chenery in BBC One's comedy-drama series Love Soup, Debbie Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers, Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC version of Jane Austen's Emma, and Beth Hardiment in the 2010 film version of Tamara Drewe. In 2020, Greig starred as Anne Trenchard in Julian Fellowes' ITV series Belgravia.
The Secret Garden is a musical based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The musical's script and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, with music by Lucy Simon. It premiered on Broadway in 1991 and ran for 709 performances.
David John Threlfall is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Janice Connolly is an English actress, comedian and artistic director. She runs the Birmingham-based group Women and Theatre and performs stand-up comedy as her character Mrs Barbara Nice. Connolly has also appeared in Coronation Street, That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere, Thin Ice and Dead Man Weds. In 2017, Connolly was awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours list for services to community arts in the West Midlands. In 2022, she began appearing in the BBC soap opera Doctors as Rosie Colton.
Ruth Wilson is an English actress. She has played the eponymous protagonist in Jane Eyre (2006), Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama Luther, Alison Lockhart in the Showtime drama The Affair (2014–2018), and the eponymous character in Mrs Wilson (2018). From 2019 to 2022, she portrayed Marisa Coulter in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials, and for this role she won the 2020 BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress. Her film credits include The Lone Ranger (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), and Dark River (2017).
Colin Morgan is an Irish actor. He is known for playing the title character in the BBC fantasy series Merlin (2008–2012), Leo Elster in Humans (2015–2018), and Billy Clanton in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021).
Abigail Louise Morgan is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as Sex Traffic and The Hour, and the films Brick Lane, The Iron Lady, Shame and Suffragette.
Les cent vierges is an opérette in three acts, with music by Charles Lecocq and a libretto by Clairville, Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. It was first produced at the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes, Brussels, on 16 March 1872. The plot concerns the British government's efforts to ship brides out to a distant colony for the all-male colonists. Two French women are accidentally on board the ship taking the brides out, and are pursued to the island by their husbands. The four French intruders are threatened by the colonial governor, but after plotting and farcical goings-on, all ends satisfactorily.
Kalyani Sen, was Second Officer of the Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS), a section of the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India) WAC(I). In 1945, she became the first Indian service woman to visit the UK.
