Nathaniel Parker (born 18 May 1962) is an English actor best known for playing Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

Parker was born in London, the son of the businessman (and one-time British Rail chairman) Sir Peter Parker and Jillian, Lady Parker, a GP and expert gardener who wrote "The Purest of Pleasures:Creation of a Romantic Garden". He was educated at Fox Primary School, Colet Court and Leighton Park School in Reading. Parker's brother is the film director Oliver Parker. He also has another brother, Alan Parker, who is chairman of Brunswick Group Ltd. Parker is married to actress Anna Patrick. The couple live in London with their daughters Raphaella (born 1998) and Angelica (born 1996).

Parker joined the National Youth Theatre, and after training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He portrayed Bassanio in Peter Hall's 1989 production of The Merchant of Venice in both London and on Broadway, co-starring with Dustin Hoffman. In 1997, Nathaniel portrayed David as an adult in a made-for-TV film of the life of the biblical David. In 2000, he played Bob in Rupert Goold's West End revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. "With his unforced, tough demeanour and conviction Parker substantially carries the evening," wrote John Thaxter in The Stage (6 July 2000).

Alan Fred Titchmarsh,MBE DL (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on gardening programmes. More recently he has developed a diverse writing and broadcasting career.

Titchmarsh was born in Ilkley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of Bessie (née Hardisty), a textile mill worker, and Alan Fred Titchmarsh, Sr., a plumber. After leaving school aged 15, Titchmarsh went to work as an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council in 1964, before leaving, in 1968 aged 18, for Shipley Art and Technology Institute (now Shipley College) to study for a City and Guilds in horticulture. Titchmarsh was a close family friend of Tom Kerridge, who went on to become his gardening advisor on shows such as Ground Force.

Titchmarsh went on to study at Hertfordshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture for the National Certificate in Horticulture, before finally moving to the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to study for a Diploma in Horticulture. After graduating, he stayed on at Kew, being employed as a supervisor and latterly a staff trainer, leaving to pursue a career in gardening journalism in 1974.^{[citation needed]}

Sarah Alexander (née Smith; born 3 January 1971) is an English actress, known for her roles in British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing.

Alexander was born in Hammersmith, London, England. Her father, Frank Smith, was a television producer and director who worked on factual programmes such as Panorama. She attended the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith. At 19, she left home after her A-levels and travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the hope of getting her start in acting. Her parents were opposed and wanted her to continue onto university. Alexander turned down a place at Manchester University to take up her first professional acting job.

In 1993, she played Muriel in an episode of the BBC comedy-drama Lovejoy. In 1994, she played Nicky, Damien's risk-addicted weather reporter girlfriend in Drop the Dead Donkey. In 1996, she played Beatrice in the British premiere of Octavio Paz's only play, Rappaccini's Daughter, at the Gate Theatre Studio. She has appeared in several other theatre productions, including The Vagina Monologues, Hand In Hand, The Secretary Bird, Northanger Abbey and as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. In the mid-1990s she met Ben Miller when they filmed an advertisement for disposable cameras together, and through him Alexander Armstrong. Miller and Armstrong became friends and collaborators, and Sarah went on to appear on their Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller (1997–2001), usually in the regular 'Nude Practice' segment.

Brendan Coyle (born David Coyle; 2 December 1963) is a British actor. He has garnered a wider audience on television, most recently as "Bates", the valet, in Downton Abbey.

Coyle was born in Corby, Northamptonshire, to an Irish father and Scottish mother who emigrated to Corby. He reportedly holds dual British/Irish citizenship.^{[citation needed]} He is a great nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby.

He studied drama in Dublin in 1981, and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in England in 1983.

Brendan Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama, True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC.

Since 2008, he has played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, a lame valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle for which he was nominated for a BAFTA and IFTA. In 2012 Coyle played the character of Terry Starling in Sky comedy series Starlings.

Sharon Small (born 1 January 1967) is a Scottish actress acclaimed for her dramatic work in film, radio, theatre and television. Her best-known TV role is that of Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers in the BBC television adaptation of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries by Elizabeth George.

Small was born in the Drumchapel district of Glasgow in 1967, the eldest of five children. She attended Kinghorn Primary School where she was the Kinghorn Gala Queen in her final year. She then attended Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy, though she did not take part in any of the school musicals because she was too shy.^{[citation needed]} Small went on to complete a drama course at what is now Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy, whose graduates include actors Ewan McGregor and Dougray Scott. After moving to London, Small studied drama at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, where she graduated in 1989.^{[citation needed]}

Small has appeared in 35 plays to date,^{[citation needed]} her credits include;