Young One graduates with honour

Celebrated author, playwright and actor Nigel Planer has been awarded an honorary degree by Edinburgh Napier University.

Planer, who played long-suffering hippy student Neil Pye in cult BBC show The Young Ones, was handed an honorary doctorate of arts at the ceremony in the Usher Hall in the capital yesterday.

Karen Carlton, Scotland's Public Appointments Commissioner, was presented with an honorary doctorate of the university. Roger Hood, emeritus professor of criminology and fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, was given an honorary doctorate of law. Creative Scotland chairman Sandy Crombie got an honorary doctorate of business administration.

University principal Dame Joan Stringer said: "Their achievements, together with their qualities, are an inspiration to our students."