Ben Kingsley as Dmitri Shostakovich

Sherry Baines as Nina Shostakovich

Magdalen Asquith as Galya Shostakovich

Mark Asquith as Maxim Shostakovich

Terence Rigby as Joseph Stalin

Ronald Pickup as Marshall Tukhachevsky

John Shrapnel as Andre Zhdanov

Robert Reynolds as Brutus

Vernon Dobtcheff as Gargolovsky

Brook Williams as H.G. Wells

Peter Woodthorpe as Alexander Glazunov

William Squire as Khatchaturyan

Dorota Kwiatkowska as Anna Akhmatova

Liza Goddard as English Humanist

Murray Melvin as Film Editor

Robert Urquhart as Journalist

Chris Barrie as Carnival Thin Man

Frank Carson as Carnival Fat Man

Ed Bishop as American Commentator

Collin Hurst as Stalin's Secretary

Joyce Grundy as Stalin's Mother

Mark Thrippleton as Young Stalin

Robert Stephens as Vsevolod Meyerhold

Murray Melvin as The Film Editor

Jane Cox as The Widow

Julian Stanley as Andre Gide

David Sharpe as Mandelstam

Rowen Parr as Galya (aged 39)

Bronco McLoughlin as Cossack

Christopher Bramwell as Vanya

Marita Philips as Madam Lupinskaya

Mitzi Mueller as The Nun

Tracey Spence as Tsvetayeva

Andrew Brittain as Malko

Curly Carter as Cross Eyed Man

Rosemary Chamney as Concierge

Chris D'Bray as Dorian Gray

Val Elliott as French Schoolmarm

Peter Faulkner as Mayakovsky