Paul Nicholas (born 3 December 1945) is an English actor and singer. He started out with a pop career, but soon changed to musical theatre. Later, in the 1970s, he began a screen career. He returned to the pop charts, starring in the 1983 BBC TV sitcom Just Good Friends, for which he is best known. After the show ended, he returned to musical theatre and various other entertainment roles.

Nicholas was born as Paul Oscar Beuselinck in Peterborough, England. His grandfather — who originated from Belgium — had been a chef in the merchant navy during World War II, before becoming Head Chef on The Union-Castle Line ships between England and South Africa. His maternal grandfather was a London docker.

Nicholas' father Oscar Beuselinck, a former MI6 agent, became a highly esteemed entertainment solicitor, whose clients included: MGM, Jack Hylton, John Osborne, The Rolling Stones, Tony Richardson, Richard Harris, Sean Connery, Yes, Robert Stigwood, and The Who.

The family spent holidays at his maternal grandparents' home on the Isle of Sheppey, until Nicholas was 10. After his parents divorced when he was 12, his father's family home was at Letchmore Heath, Watford opposite the Bhaktivedanta Manor. Nicholas' paternal grandparents, Winnie and Oscar, lived in a small cottage on the grounds.

Jan Francis (born 5 August 1947) is an English actress, best known for playing Penny Warrender in the 1980s romantic comedy Just Good Friends.

Francis was born at the former Charing Cross Hospital near Trafalgar Square, London. She is the eldest child of Frank Francis (a clerical officer with the Agricultural Society) and the former Marjorie Watling, an employment agent, who were married in 1944. She was raised in Streatham and was educated at the Lady Edridge Grammar School.

After training as a dancer at the Royal Ballet Senior School from which she graduated in 1965, Francis performed with the Royal Ballet Touring Company in Britain, in the rest of Europe and the United States. She left the Royal Ballet in September 1969 to pursue an acting career.

She made the transfer to becoming an actress through choreography, and performed with the Cheltenham Repertory Company between 1969 and 1970. She first appeared on television in 1971, before landing BBC Television drama roles roles including Kschessinska in Fall of Eagles and Lisa Colbert in Secret Army (1977–78).

Celeste Holm (born April 29, 1917) is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950). In 2011, despite health ailments, she completed filming the comedy feature film, College Debts, directed by Dexter Warr and Joshua Zilm.

Born and raised in New York City, Holm grew up as an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author; her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian businessman whose company provided marine adjustment services for Lloyd's of London. Because of her parents' occupations, she traveled often during her youth and attended various schools in Holland, France and the United States. She graduated from University High School for Girls in Chicago, where she performed in many school stage productions. She then studied drama at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s.