I just wanted to drop a small note in praise of Lloyds TSB, for others who may need to open their first UK bank account. Having read the forums here, I figured the whole process would be a bit of a nightmare - I'd have to wait until I had a flat, wait until I had a utility bill, etc. (most of which require that you -already- have a bank account) and, even then, risk possible rejection, because I 'have no credit'. This ended up not being the case at all, at least at Lloyds. My wife and I walked in with nothing but our passports and letters of employment and, about 30 minutes later, walked out with a joint current account.
We were given the choice of their 'basic current account with vantage' and their 'silver current account with vantage'. The first was free and the latter was £7.95 (we chose the latter, but there was a deal on it and we've yet to determine whether the package is a value or not). Both accounts have overdraft protection, which seems to be pretty key here (the HSBC passport account does not offer this), as well as all of the other typical checking account features.
I can't really comment on how competitive their account features are (if you already have credit and a wider range of choices), whether they have horrible customer service over the phone, etc., but it was just really, really easy to open a new account and it doesn't appear to be crippled like some of the other 'easy' accounts out there. For that reason alone, I'd definitely recommend them to anyone coming over here and starting new.
(note: your experience may differ if you're coming over here without a job lined up)
