Helen McCrory

Helen McCrory gives Polly Gray an authority that Tommy cannot acquire simply by making more money. In Peaky Blinders, she brings the family's history into the room with her. An impatient look can puncture a carefully prepared speech, and the performance makes Polly's practical intelligence as persuasive as her anger.

Her television work also includes the lawyer Emma Banville in Fearless, Sonia Woodley QC in Quiz, and Madame Kali in Penny Dreadful. Those parts draw on different aspects of her command of a scene: the persistence of an investigator, the precision of an advocate and something considerably less reassuring.

Film audiences know her as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films and from Skyfall. Polly is a particularly strong demonstration of what McCrory brings to an ensemble. She doesn't merely support the leading character's story; she makes the family feel as though it had a life before he took charge.