How about a Choisya ternata, an evergreen azalea, a camellia, Ceratostigma (willmottianum if you want a big shrub, or plumbaginoides if you want a smaller one) and Nandina domestica?
That gives 3 evergreens, and two deciduous with good autumn colour.
You make the final choice of flower colours for the camellia and azalea, and choose if you want gold or green leaves for the Choisya.

I like skimmia, daphne, some of the hebes, camellia. there are lots of others too.

Umm, Beattie, Ceratostigmas should be die-back shrubs or herbaceous perennials in the UK--they even suffer frost damage here in the subtropical desert.

Ok, I'm new to them - hence my enthusiasm. I've been looking at my three for signs of new growth, not seen yet, but they're thriving in gardens near here.

I'll swop the Ceratistigma on my list for a variegated Hebe then! :-)

Thank you so much for your replies everyone. we are off to the Garden Centre so we will take on board your replies and go from there. I will let you know how we get on.

Trenchy

I wouldn't go with variegated Hebes, Trenchy (sorry Beattie) because where you live, they're unlikely to survive a winter.
You don't say how big you want these shrubs to be, but here's some more suggestions: Photinia Red Robin (there's also a dwarf version of this available now), Elaeagnus varieties, Pieris, either Forest Flame or P. japonica (acid soil, good tub subject), Euonymus pictata, or any of the Euonymus fortunei cultivars, Viburnum davidii.