Here's How Studios Pick Whose Name Comes First In Film And TV Credits, And It's Extremely Showbiz

On a recent episode of Richard Osman and Marina Hyde’s podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, one listener asked a question that has surely crossed all of our minds when watching TV: “On many opening title sequences for TV showscertain actors are proceeded with ‘and’ or ‘with’, what is the significance of this?”

This is something that’s always perplexed me. If they’re not playing the lead role, why are they still given such significance?

Marina Hyde explained: “Now what it really means [when you have] ‘and’ or ‘with’ is you’ve got a major actor in, not necessarily a minor role, but not the lead role.

“Some people used to say it was villains and mentors. So you know, and Alec Guinness is Obi-Wan Kenobi or whatever it is. ”

However, there is a little more movie magic (or admin) behind the scenes of how credits appear.

So, there is a little bit of politics behind it

While the finished project of a TV or film is often very polished and concise, all of the work leading up to that point rarely is, and there are contracts GALORE.

Hyde explained: “There’s three times where your agent will really go out to bat for you: maybe getting you the role. Deciding how much money you get for the role and then in how you are credited for that role. And that’s very important.”

Hyde went on to say that as actors become more important, these things take even bigger priority, saying: “You know, it’s called cards. When you see a name on a screen, you might be on a shared card.

“When you are in a smaller role, you might see three actors’ names or three writers’ names or whatever it is. Pre-Title is, as we all know, is obviously the big one in movies.”

Richard Osman explained that in many shows, there is something called favoured nations, which means that the way you are treated is the way everybody will be treated.

“There is not anybody on the show who will be treated better than you in terms of money or credit.”

However, he said, if you ever watch a TV show where the acting credits are not in alphabetical order, “It has taken a very, very long time to get to the order of those credits.”

Who knew there was so much behind it?!