Lucy Baxter

Freakishly gifted at making rich people even richer, Essex girl Lucy has no formal education but possesses a phenomenal talent with figures and a natural instinct for wise investments. But, despite her knack for financial wizardry, Lucy has a crippling lack of self-belief and is convinced she's not good enough to be the boss.

Confident in every other aspect of her life, as soon as a manager walks into the office all Lucy's business brilliance gets buried beneath a facade of 'Miss Friendly Bubbly Efficient PA of the Year'.

But her friends know she's got what it takes to move up the career ladder, trouble is so does her incompetent (and often drunk) boss Iain and he doesn't want to lose her.

So while Lucy spends her days making millions for Iain's clients, he spends his days taking credit for all of her hard work.

Michelle 'Midge' Lerner

Michelle is the PA to Simon Turner. On the whole, Midge thinks everyone's brilliant. She's a bouncy, emotionally intelligent space cadet who dropped out of hairdressing college and is now desperate to be famous, at any price.

So she can't believe her luck when she finds out she's made it into the final 12 of a TV reality talent show: Wizard Of Oz: Dare To Dream. At last it looks like fame is beckoning for the Scouser wannabe and, on top of that, she has finally pulled loverboy Robbie - the office totty.

Unfortunately, her excitement at having the chance to follow the yellow brick road is short-lived after the TV company find out about her secret past. And, as soon as he hears Midge isn't going to be famous, Robbie dumps her as well.

Thankfully she's got the full support of her boss Simon - only what Midge doesn't realise is that her married boss is in love with his PA and he orchestrated her being kicked off the TV show so she wouldn't leave the company, or more importantly, leave him.

Doris 'Sid' Siddiqi

A shell-shocked Sid can't believe she's working as a PA in an office where, gallingly, she knows she's the most intelligent person by a mile. She should be running her own company, not making tea for someone else and, gasp, photocopying.

A repressed intellectual snob, gothic Sid is damaged goods and her own worst enemy. A super achiever throughout school and university, she's an uptight genius who doesn't know how to communicate with people. For Sid, simple things like chatting about the weather are far harder than solving The Times crossword.

Despite Sid's top-notch education, she can't see that her arrogance and total lack of social skills deter people and have prevented her succeeding her whole life. But, inside, there's a romantic, darkly funny, sexy, virgin struggling to get out and desperate to connect.

Nicole Palmerston-Amory

Born into an extremely wealthy family, Nicole's world fell apart when her father not only abandoned her mother but left the family penniless. The loss of her father nailed her view of the world - that over and above everything else she'd never be poor again.

Nicole is the embodiment of cynical pessimism. A confident and controlling character who never gets emotionally involved with blokes, instead Nicole uses poor men for thrills and rich men for their wallets.

Recently, Nicole had mind-blowing random sex with a mysterious guy but has absolutely no interest in seeing him again. But unbeknown to them both, there's a hidden connection there that could have serious repercussions if they were ever revealed.

Although it seems Nicole has made her decision that she will be fiercely independent and never require a man to make her happy, could it be that this is one ice maiden just waiting to be melted?

Grace Darling

Grace's entire raison d'etre is to quite simply be the best. Her route to Hartmann Payne is possibly the most surprising of all the girls, but her being there means more to Grace than any of them. For her, it truly is home.

It seems Grace has no greater ambition than to make her boss Rock Van Gelder's life and work as painless and pleasant as possible.

Grace takes great pleasure in taking care of all the girls and privately sees herself as a mother figure in their lives. She is happy and content in her position at investment bank Hartmann Payne. That is, until the impossible happens and Grace is left with no other option than to disappear...

Iain Ebelthite

A selfish, lazy, posh pig of a man who owes his considerable success not down to the contacts he brings to the Hartmann Payne table but the money Lucy makes for him and his clients.

A true bon vivant, Iain is defined mainly by his absences. He spends a considerable amount of time away drinking his way around Monte Carlo, Paris, Cannes, Aspen... wherever, as long as there's a minibar and it's as far away from the office as possible.

Quite simply, Iain can't function without Lucy. She's his lifeline. But theirs is an unequal partnership and Lucy is always the loser.

Rock Van Gelder

Texan-born Rock is Senior Vice President at Hartmann Payne investment bank, working in the private wealth management department.

He is something of a Fifties matinee idol and has very retro ideas on sexual politics in the workplace. He likes his women to be more Doris Day than Kerry Katona and very much sees his world as populated with the kind of perfection his PA Grace carefully creates for him.

Rock has a wide range of interests but his main passion is astronomy, which we later discover is shared with his new PA, Sid.

Jane Lesser

Jane is the youngest Hartmann Payne Vice President and that, coupled with the fact that she's a woman, makes her a serious high-flyer.

Not the most approachable or warm character, Jane acts with utter undisguised superiority towards the PAs. She knows exactly how to wind the girls up and knows far more about what's going on in their personal lives than she lets on.

Her relationship with Grace begins with antagonism - Jane's feminist ideals means she's easily wound up by Grace's view on sexual politics in the office. But a mutual respect develops when Grace is seconded to help Jane with an important client.

Simon Turner

He may be married to Evie, the daughter of head honcho Leo Hartmann, but that still doesn't make Simon what you'd call a devoted husband.

Yes, he enjoys the kudos and status that marrying the boss's daughter brings, but monogamous and loving are not words often used when describing this notoriously ruthless and cold-hearted vice-president.

But, as well as having a reputation as an emotion-free serial adulterer, Simon is also in love with Midge, his PA. Despite his numerous affairs and indiscretions he'd never make a move on her. He genuinely loves Midge and couldn't bear to corrupt her in any way.

Rachel Klein

Born to wealth, privilege and education, Rachel is a searing intellect, possesses an extraordinary business ability and has an extremely unselfconscious and eccentric attitude to life. Combining that with a look and a demeanour that can only be described as "ageing toff meets Amy Winehouse", she's a no-nonsense force to be reckoned with at Hartmann Payne.

Rachel has never had a dark day in her entire life. She takes life upfront and full on and, from her very first scene, it quickly becomes clear that this grandiose businesswoman is an one-off.

Despite her playfulness, Rachel is in a long-standing, loving, monogamous lesbian relationship and is also in the fortunate position to be working because she loves it and she's good at it. She sure doesn't need the money.