Alastair John Lyndhurst Bruce, 5th Baron Aberdare (born 2 May 1947) is the son of Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare and Maud Helen Sarah Dashwood, daughter of Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet. The 5th Baron succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 2005.

In July 2009 he was elected to sit in the House of Lords, following the death of crossbench hereditary peer Viscount Bledisloe in May 2009. A by-election took place under the terms of the House of Lords Act 1999, which provided for 92 hereditary peers to keep their seats in the reformed House, with vacancies in their number filled from amongst those hereditary peers deprived of their seats. The result was announced in the Chamber of the Lords on 15 July 2009, following the voting by 27 of the 29 Crossbench peers eligible to take part. He made his maiden speech on 26 November 2009.

Lord Aberdare was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

IBM, 1969–1991; Partner, Bruce Naughton Wade, 1991–1999; Director, ProbusBNW since 1999 Trustee, National Botanic Garden of Wales, 1994-2006. Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University since July 2008

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.

After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (Italian pronunciation: [doˈmeːniko ɡaeˈtaːno maˈɾia doniˈdzetti]; 29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore (1832), Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), and Don Pasquale (1843), all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment (both from 1840). Along with Vincenzo Bellini and Gioachino Rossini, he was a leading composer of bel canto opera.

The youngest of three sons, Donizetti was born in 1797 in Bergamo's Borgo Canale quarter located just outside the city walls. His family was very poor with no tradition of music, his father being the caretaker of the town pawnshop. Nevertheless, Donizetti received some musical instruction from Simon Mayr, a German composer of internationally successful operas who had become maestro di cappella at Bergamo's principal church in 1802.

Alastair McDonald (born 1941) is a Scottish banjo-playing folk/jazz musician, probably most famous for his recordings of Jim MacLean's folk songs, such as The Barras and The massacre of Glencoe, but also for some humorous songs, such as the jazz comedy song Sam the skull, about a Glasgow cat.

McDonald has mainly recorded songs written by other songwriters, for example Robert Burns and Jim MacLean, but has also written songs himself (Culloden's Harvest, The Village Green at Gretna), and reworked traditional songs (The Bell Rock Light, Mingulay Boat Song). Though quite well known - he has toured US (every state except Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Israel, Denmark, Thailand and several more countries - not much is spoken of him in media.

He lives in Netherlee, East Renfrewshire.

Paul Austin Kelly (born 1960) is an American opera tenor and former rock musician who also writes, records and performs music for children.

He was born in Kingston, New York.

When Kelly began his music career he was more likely to be found holding an electric guitar than an opera score and fronted bands with names such as Legend, Black Dog and Guilded Spice. He attended Rondout Valley High School in New York and the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut. Kelly sang an eclectic mix of rock, pop music, folk and jazz although it wasn’t until he went to college that the operatic potential of his voice was discovered. His light lyric tenor has been in worldwide demand ever since.

Mr Kelly has sung with many of the world's most prestigious opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera (Almaviva in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Lindoro in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri), the Royal Opera at Covent Garden (Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and the historic La Scala in Milan, Italy (Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Narciso in Rossini's Il Turco in Italia, Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment)