HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MAXINE PEAKE, 43. The Mancunian actress (right) got her big break as Twinkle in Victoria Wood’s sitcom Dinnerladies. Wood, who felt her own career had been held back due to her looks, advised peake to lose weight, saying: ‘You’re fat, you’re blonde and you’re northern. You’ll get typecast.’ She became so slim that she had to wear a fat-suit for series two.

DAVID MITCHELL, 43. The Bafta-winning comedy actor, star of peep Show and team captain of Would I Lie to You?, is married to fellow TV host Victoria Coren Mitchell. David Baddiel introduced them at a party, but Mitchell had to wait three years before their first date. He now says: ‘I date the current phase of my life from that party.’