New year honours: Stars of stage, screens - big and small - and music are honoured

Published on Thursday 30 December 2010 15:08

Poirot actor David Suchet has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours list.

The 64-year-old has portrayed Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot since 1989, most recently in Murder On The Orient Express on Christmas Day.

Suchet - who has starred in 65 Poirot outings with a final series to be screened next year - has been honoured for his services to drama.

The Wellington School-educated star plumped for an acting career in his teens and joined the National Youth Theatre before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. A varied career has seen him play characters from Cardinal Wolsey to disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell,

Comedy writer John Lloyd, the man behind some of the most successful comedy shows of the last 30 years including Not the Nine O'Clock and Blackadder, has been made a CBE.

Burt Kwouk, right, known to millions for his roles in the Pink Panther films during more than half a century on screen, is honoured with an OBE.

The 80-year-old actor, whose extensive credits include three James Bond films, has also become a familiar face in Last Of The Summer Wine.

A knighthood has also gone to Roger Carr who has been at the sharp end of public opinion after presiding over a price hike at Centrica-owned British Gas and the hotly-disputed takeover of Cadbury by US food giant Kraft.

He is also chairman of Centrica which has come under fire after its British Gas subsidiary put up prices by 7 per cent this month despite the parent company being forecast to double its 2010 profits.

Actress Sheila Hancock, 77, who has reinvented herself in recent years as a best-selling author, musical star and TV talent show judge gets a CBE.

Professor Keith Porter, the consultant responsible, for co-ordinating care of British troops injured in Afghanistan, is knighted.

The consultant at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham said he was "grateful and very proud".

Queen of the protest T-shirt Katharine Hamnett was awarded a CBE for services to the fashion industry.

A staple of the 1980s wardrobe, the designer's stark slogans plastered across casual clothing caught the imagination of a generation disillusioned with Margaret Thatcher's Britain.

Record producer and musician Trevor Horn who masterminded the chart-topping single Relax and rebooted Robbie Williams's career, said he was "amazed" by his CBE.

Horn, a prolific songwriter, is also noted for his own number one hit Video Killed The Radio Star, the first video on MTV.

A police officer who disarmed a gunman who tried to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974 said he has "loved every second" of his career.PC Ivor MacGregor, 62, said the remarkable incident was one of the highlights of his 43 years with the Metropolitan Police.

He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal (QPM) after disarming gunman Ian Ball.

Director Steve McQueen has been awarded a CBE for services to the visual arts after moving from the contemporary art scene to the film industry.

His 2008 Bafta-nominated film Hunger, detailing the story of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in the 1980s, was a critical hit.

Actress Harriet Walter has been made a dame for services to drama. Her career on stage and screen has included roles in Little Dorrit.

Richard Thompson one of the world's finest folk-rock guitarists, has been awarded an OBE.