The man who put the "by heck" into Shakespeare, and the performer who for one glorious night at least brought poetry to the masses, are among six "unsung heroes" shortlisted for the country's richest arts prize.
Barrie Rutter, the flamboyant actor-manager of Northern Broadsides, who dared to give the bard a bit of Yorkshire gristle, and regularly gives the classics the same muscular northern treatment, is probably the best known of the six in the running for the £200,000 Creative Britons awards, which reward "unique individuals" for their contribution to the nation's cultural life.
Rutter put on Blake Morrison's last play in Skipton cattle market, championed the former wrestler, Brian Glover, as a classical actor, and was rewarded with Ted Hughes's dying gift of his last work Alcestis, an autobiographical reworking of Euripides.
He was nominated by another no-nonsense northerner, John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, who said his "factory floor Shakespeare is as far from elitism as could be, though it has never dumbed it down".
Michael Horovitz, the poet behind the Poetry Olympics and the Royal Albert Hall gigs which combined jazz and verse, is another cult figure who the judges praised for his "notoriously selfless" commitment to the work of others, "giving new voice to women, black and gay poets".
Siobhan Davies, known to her friends as Sue, has long been regarded as the mother of modern British dance. Her work for her own company, the Rambert and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre has been internationally acclaimed.
Susan Loppert's work on art therapy, however, is much less celebrated. Since 1993 she has filled the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London with 1,000 paintings, sculptures and mobiles and introduced weekly programmes of music, theatre and puppetry that have become, according to the judges, "a model for all hospitals, here and abroad".
Outside classical music circles, Peter Cropper, founder of the Sheffield International Music Festival, is not well known. Like all the other nominees, he is a great populariser, insisting on down-to-earth introduction to pieces, and having world-class musicians perform in the round and mingling with audiences.
Sabrina Guinness, a scion of the brewing family, challenged Anneka Rice to build a studio in west London in four days for her YCTV company which trains disadvantaged young people, and those at risk of committing crime, to work in television. Programmes made by the young people have been shown on the BBC, Sky and Carlton.
Colin Tweedy, of Arts & Business, who persuaded Prudential to sponsor the awards, said they pointed up how the arts are a powerful motor for change.
Each of the six nominees gets £20,000 for their own causes. The winner, to be announced on June 28, will receive £100,000 in total.
