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Actors, musicians, politicians and Tunnock's Teacake inventor honoured by Queen

Boyd Tunnock and stage actor Simon Russell Beale knighted as more than 1,000 people honoured across the UK

Adam Forrest
Saturday 08 June 2019 05:27 EDT
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Who is on the Queen's Birthday Honours list?

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Actors, musicians, politicians have all been included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list - and the creator Tunnock’s Teacake has received a knighthood.

Olivia Coleman, who won the best actress Oscar for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite this year, has been made a CBE, while British-Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. has been made an MBE.

Elvis Costello, 64, and former frontman of The Undertones Feargal Sharkey, 60, are both made OBEs, accepting establishment endorsements far from their punk roots.

Stage actor Simon Russell Beale has been knighted along with 86-year-old Boyd Tunnock, who created the popular snack in 1956.

He said he was “deeply honoured” to receive the accolade, adding: “When you get to my age, very few things surprise you but this certainly did and I am deeply honoured and grateful to Her Majesty the Queen.”

Mr Beale, 58, one of the most acclaimed stars of British theatre, is knighted for services to drama after a career spanning four decades.

He said: “It is a very great honour and I think my mother, were she alive, would be very proud.”

Journalist and broadcaster Dan Snow, 40, becomes an MBE, while adventurer and television star Bear Grylls, 44, is made an OBE. The chief scout, who is recognised for services to young people, the media and charity, said: “This really is a huge honour and it’s something, if I’m honest, that I never expected to happen.”

Griff Rhys Jones, who became a household name in the 1980s with Not The Nine O’Clock News, receives an OBE for services to the National Civic Society Movement, charity and entertainment.

Actress Cush Jumbo, 33, who is best known for starring in the US legal drama series The Good Wife, is made an OBE, while the honours list also recognises those involved with the wave of worldwide success for the British TV industry.

Blue Planet and Planet Earth producer Alistair Fothergill and Andrew Harries, chief executive and co-founder of Left Bank Pictures – the production firm behind The Crown – both receive OBEs. Richard Williams, boss of Northern Ireland Screen, which is best known for its involvement in the making of Game Of Thrones, is also made an OBE.

Among the political figures to receive honours, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb and Labour MP George Howarth were awarded knighthoods, while Jacqueline Foster, deputy leader of the Conservative MEPs, is awarded a damehood, having not stood in the recent European elections.

Tim Warren, the former Conservative leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council who lost his seat in a Liberal Democrat landslide in May, is awarded a CBE.

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, the chief executive of the CBI, has been awarded a damehood for services to business.

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Along with the famous names, the list also celebrates the efforts of those working to improve people’s lives. Nimco Ali and Dr Leyla Hussein, who have both dedicated their time to campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) after being subjected to the practice as children, are made OBEs.

Sonia Watson, the chief executive of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, is made an OBE for her work helping disadvantaged people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to pursue a career in architecture – the chosen career of the murdered teenager.

Some 15 foster carers who have looked after more than 1,000 children between them are made MBEs, while seven Holocaust survivors receive British Empire Medals (BEMs).

Of the 1,073 people honoured across the UK in this year’s list, 47 per cent are women – slightly down on some previous lists – while 10.4 per cent come from a BAME background. It represents the highest ever proportion, by a small margin, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, although the figure was 12 per cent in this year’s New Year Honours list.

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