Gillian Anderson, Patron

The delectable Gillian Anderson - seen here as Miss Havisham with Oscar Kennedy as Young Pip in the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations (2011) - has been made Patron of the Charles Dickens Statue Fund (CLICK). She was surprised to discover that there isn't one statue of Charles Dickens in the whole of the UK. In his will Dickens requested that no statue or monument of him should be built. The Dickens Fellowship decided to ignore this request and commissioned sculptor Martin Jennings to create a statue to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Dickens' birth, but ran out of funds to complete the project last year. A benefactor has since underwritten the last £25,000 needed. The statue is due to be unveiled this year in Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, the city where Dickens was born at 1 Mile End Terrace.