Casting an ensemble of mainly unknown Britons to tell the story of an elite American parachute regiment during the Second World War certainly raised an eyebrow or two when Band Of Brothers began 25 years ago.
asserted
Band → cast → Brothers
Many of the actors had been chosen to take advantage of UK tax breaks - but they not only mastered the US accents, but used the show as a launchpad for stellar careers.
asserted
they → choose → careers
The ten-part HBO series, still available on Sky and Amazon Prime, first aired in the UK on October 5, 2001.
asserted
series → air → October
Chronicling the wartime experiences of so-called Easy Company, the real-life 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, it won acclaim and countless awards.
asserted
it → chronicle → acclaim
Filmed mainly at Hatfield Aerodrome, the £90million production - at the time the most expensive TV series ever - was the creation of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, adopting the gritty realism that had made their film Saving Private Ryan a hit three years earlier.
asserted
film → film → realism
While the cast included US stars like David Schwimmer - already famous from Friends - it was the British and Irish contingent who shone, as our guide shows...
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guide → include → Friends
Stephen Graham played Sergeant Myron 'Mike' Ranney who is demoted for standing up to sadistic commanding officer Captain Herbert Sobel, played by Friends actor David Schwimmer.
asserted
who → play → Schwimmer
He had starred the previous year in Guy Ritchie's gangster flick Snatch, and his career was soon to take off with a role as a violent racist skinhead in the cult film This Is England.
asserted
This → star → film
Now 53, he has gone on to star in TV's Line of Duty, Peaky Blinders and Time - while notably co-writing and starring in Adolescence, which told of a 14-year-old arrested for murder and sparked a national debate about toxic masculinity online.
asserted
which → go → masculinity
The director of that acclaimed drama? Philip Barantini - who played Private Wayne 'Skinny' Sisk in Band Of Brothers.
asserted
who → play → Brothers
Band of Brothers is a highly acclaimed 10-part American war drama miniseries released in 200
Simon Pegg
asserted
Band → release → 200
Yet to make his breakthrough in the zombie comedy Shaun Of The Dead, Simon Pegg had a blink-and-you-miss-it role as 1st Sergeant Bill Evans, Sobel's right-hand man - quite a change of direction for a proudly geeky comedian best known at the time for Channel 4's slacker sitcom Spaced.
asserted
you → make → sitcom
His subsequent films included Run Fatboy Run, directed by Schwimmer.
asserted
films → include → Schwimmer
However, Pegg said he didn't have much to do with the Friends star on the Band Of Brothers set, as Schwimmer was both too famous and intent on staying in character as an anti-social sort 'who kept himself separate from the rest of us grunts'.
asserted
who → say → grunts
He's Hollywood's go-to hardman now, but Band Of Brothers was Tom Hardy's first screen role... if you don't count him winning the Find Me A Supermodel contest
on Channel 4's Big Breakfast three years earlier.
asserted
him → count → Breakfast
His first scene was a memorable one as his character, Private John A Janovec, was caught by his captain in flagrante with a German woman.
asserted
character → catch → woman
Despite his relatively small role - he called it 'two episodes and 12 lines', he has spoken of how he worked hard to do justice to a real person.
asserted
he → call → person
Also in 2001 he made his movie debut in Black Hawk Down, starting a CV that, at 49, now includes Mad Max, The Dark Knight Rises, Venom, The Revenant and MobLand.
asserted
Knight → make → Max
Tom Hardy as Private John A. Janovec in Band Of Brothers
Jimmy Fallon
Long before becoming a chat show host, US comic Jimmy Fallon had a cameo role as 2nd Lieutenant George C.
Rice, who drives a Jeep carrying supplies and ammunition to Easy Company.
asserted
who → become → Company
Fallon later admitted he did not know how to drive a manual car at the time, so crew members had to push while he pretended to steer.
asserted
he → admit → time
Then, as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, he became a talk show host in 2009, interviewing the likes of Taylor Swift, above.
asserted
he → become → Swift
No one was more surprised than Damian Lewis when he got cast in the lead role of Major Dick Winters.
asserted
he → cast → Winters
At the time, he was 'just another pale Englishman doing lots of auditions' - with the Band of Brothers casting agents apparently seeing 'every actor in London under 30 who still has both his legs'.
asserted
who → do → legs
Yet Lewis proved impressive enough to be flown to LA, where he auditioned for Hanks, which went so well he hit the town to celebrate... only to be called to a meeting with Spielberg the next morning after 'three hours' sleep, three cold showers and five coffees'.
asserted
he → prove → sleep
So began a stellar career that has encompassed Homeland, Billions and playing Henry VIII in Wolf Hall.
asserted
that → begin → Hall
But personally he experienced tragedy when his wife, Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory, died from cancer in 2021, aged 52.
asserted
wife → experience → 2021
Damian Lewis starred as Major Richard 'Dick' Winters in the acclaimed HBO miniseries
Damian Lewis was cast by Steven Spielberg after being noticed for his stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Andrew Scott
asserted
Lewis → star → Company
For many, he will forever be Fleabag's 'Hot Priest', even though he may next year become the first person to be nominated twice for Best Actor at the Oscars in a century.
uncertain
he → become → century
In Band of Brothers, Andrew Scott played Private John 'Cowboy' Hall for one episode, but later said he 'didn't love playing a soldier' because of his dislike of weapons.
asserted
he → play → weapons
Nonetheless, the Irish actor went on to star in Sam Mendes's epic 1917, while returning to the D-Day landings at the centre of Band Of Brothers for this year's film Pressure, playing a meteorologist whose work is crucial to the success of Operation Overlord.
asserted
work → go → Overlord
It is one of the two films for which the 50-year-old has been tipped for an Oscar, with a rule change allowing him to compete against himself.
asserted
him → tip → himself
The other is the forthcoming Elsinore, about Shakespearean actor Ian Charleson, who died of Aids.
asserted
who → die → Aids
Andrew Scott as Private First Class John D Hall in Band of Brothers
Scott features in the BBC show, Fleabag, as the Hot Priest.
asserted
Scott → feature → Priest
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is pictured on the left
James McAvoy
asserted
Bridge → picture → left
Producers today would kill to have James McAvoy in their cast - but on Band Of Brothers, his character Private James W Miller died in his first episode.
asserted
character → kill → episode
Now a star of the X-Men franchise, the 47-year-old this month said Band of Brothers was not a happy shoot, as a co-star he declined to name 'decided to bully me, on my first day as a professional actor out of acting school.
asserted
he → say → school
So he got his buddies to just stand and point at me and laugh at me for three minutes.
asserted
buddies → get → minutes
If living well is the best revenge, McAvoy can claim victory with hits such as Atonement, Split and His Dark Materials under his belt.
uncertain
McAvoy → live → belt
But he did miss out on one blockbuster role.
asserted
he → miss → role
Fresh from Band Of Brothers, he auditioned for Pirates Of The Caribbean but lost to Orlando Bloom.
asserted
he → audition → Bloom
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
