Get crackin'
Playing the beloved but tragically lost soul Egg in This Life was Andrew Lincoln's first foray into any sort of limelight. Despite Egg being a bit of a (well, a total) screw up, women love him (though men certainly don't want to be like him). The meaty role forced Lincoln, a relative newbie to acting, to take an emotionally scarred journey with his character. But he cracked it, creating national sympathy (and lust and love) for a largely unsympathetic character.

Authority figures
After This Life, Lincoln's face popped up in all manner of productions, such as The Woman in White and Human Traffic. But he didn't recreate his This Life success until Teachers came along. For two series he played Simon Casey, a boyish, immature lager-lover who teaches English when he can be bothered. Most times, though, he's hanging out in the loo smoking fags and hatching hare-brained schemes to avoid work. The students don't look up to him, he takes no pride in his work and can't keep a steady girlfriend. Yet somehow, like Egg, you can't help loving him.

New direction
Once Lincoln left Teachers, along with costars Raquel Cassidy and Nina Sosanya (Susan and Jenny), the programme faltered while the new teachers struggled to fill the gap. Lincoln obviously missed the show though, since he came back to guest star in a few episode. He then moved behind the camera to direct the final two episodes of series three in which Teachers finally returned to its early brilliance.

Brilliant actually
Post-Teachers roles are far from scarce for Andrew. He starred as a murderer who couldn't remember the crime in State of Mind (with Niamh Cusack), had a role in the much lauded Canterbury Tales and has hit the big time on the big screen in Love Actually (alongside Brit screen faves such as Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Colin Firth). As Grant and Firth can attest, once you've been in one Richard Curtis production (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary) you're a shoe-in for any that follow.