William "Bill" Grundy (18 May 1923 – 9 February 1993) was an English television presenter and former host of Today, a regional news programme broadcast on Thames Television. He became nationally notorious because of a foul-mouthed interview with the Sex Pistols on his show in 1976.

The son of a factory owner, William Grundy was born in Manchester in 1923 and educated at Manchester University, where he read geology. Grundy began his career as a geologist and as a part-time journalist. When Granada Television began broadcasting in 1956, Grundy auditioned for the post of newsreader, which at first he held in tandem with his geological work. He was the first television presenter to present The Beatles on Granada Television on 17 October 1962. He appeared on several TV shows, including People and Places and Man About the House, but his greatest claim to fame was as host of the Today show.

Grundy became notorious in a matter of two minutes owing to an incident that occurred when the punk band Sex Pistols and their entourage appeared at short notice on the Today show of 1 December 1976. They were a last minute stand-in for Queen, who were forced to cancel. The Today show was broadcast live and uncensored during daytime hours at a time when obscenities were forbidden.

John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January 1956), also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd, which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again from 2009. Throughout his career, Lydon has made controversial or dismissive comments about the royal family and other subjects. There has been a recent revival of a 1980s movement to have Lydon knighted for his achievements with the Sex Pistols. Q Magazine remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."

Lydon's personally crafted image and fashion style led to him being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols by their manager, Malcolm McLaren. With the Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun", the content of which precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain. The band caused nationwide uproar in much of the media, who objected to the content of Lydon’s lyrics, and their antics, which included swearing on live television, in which Steve Jones called Bill Grundy a "fucking rotter". Due to the band's appearance in the media, Lydon was largely seen as the figurehead of the punk movement in the public image although this idea was not widely supported amongst the punk movement itself. Despite the negative reaction that they provoked, they are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.

Kevin Eldon (born 3 October 1960) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in critically acclaimed British comedy television shows of the 1990s, notably Fist of Fun, I'm Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam. He also appeared as Sgt. Tony Fisher in Hot Fuzz.

Eldon was born in Chatham, Kent, England. He started on the stand-up circuit in the early '90s performing an act in character as the political poet Paul Hamilton, but has also done stand-up as himself on occasions. On the circuit, Eldon formed a friendship with the stand-up comedian Stewart Lee, which would later lead to an invitation to work with Lee on the radio series Lee & Herring's Fist of Fun with Lee's comedy partner Richard Herring. Lee and Herring would usually refer to him as "the actor Kevin Eldon", in reference to his claim to be an actor, rather than a comedian.

Eldon's work sat well with that of Lee & Herring, and he continued to work with them on all their projects, including The Lee & Herring Radio Show, Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy, providing a multitude of characters, most notably: the jelly-obsessed False Rod Hull; and Simon Quinlank, the self-proclaimed "king of hobbies", who would always be accompanied by a flask of "weak lemon drink". He also played a version of himself, as the actor Kevin Eldon. In addition to his Lee & Herring collaborations, he has worked closely with Simon Munnery and Julia Davis.