After Dinner Speakers: Robbie Coltrane, Flying Pickets, Eve Pollard

He changed his name from Anthony McMillan to Robbie Coltrane, after jazzman John Coltrane. The hugely versatile Coltrane has bounced from feeble comedy roles in Nuns on the Run (1990) and The Pope Must Die (1991) to blockbuster parts as a Bond villain in Goldeneye (1995) and The World is Not Enough (1999). But he has never quite matched the high profile success of his role as TV's forensic psychologist Cracker for which he won a BAFTA as best TV actor three years running. The rotund Coltrane first found fame as a comedian, cropping up on TV in the Comic Strip and Blackadder cameos, but after Cracker he was in demand for serious film roles and starred with Paul Newman in Message in a Bottle (1999).