Tom Hardy, Keira Knightly and Emma Thompson are among the A-list stars who have been included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year.
Other household names on the list include the rapper Ms Dynamite, perfumer Jo Malone and Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish.
Classicist Mary Beard, who is well-known for her regular appearances on classics and discussion panel programmes on the BBC, will be made a dame, and author Kazuo Ishiguro, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, will be knighted.
Mr Hardy, who made his name on the big screen with a series of hard man roles, will receive a CBE for services to drama.
The 40-year-old actor is best known for Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road, Bronson and The Revenant.
But the privately-educated star also proved a hit with mothers last year after appearing on pre-school channel CBeebies to read a bedtime story.
Tom Hardy will receive a CBE for services to drama. The 40-year-old actor is best known for Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road, Bronson and The Revenant
Mr Hardy, 40, is married to Charlotte Riley, who he met on the set of a Wuthering Heights adaptation. They star in Peaky Blinders (pictured) together
Mr Hardy has previously spoken about how he went off the rails and suffered from alcohol addiction in his youth, checking himself into rehab in 2003 and staying clean ever since.
‘I went in thinking I’d do it for a little bit until I can go out and drink and people forgive me. But I did my 28 days, and after listening to people who had been through similar circumstances I realised I did have a problem,’ he previously told the Daily Mirror.
Mr Hardy, an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust, said: ‘I love what I do, but it’s driven by a fear of not being able to do it.’
Mr Hardy is married to Charlotte Riley, who he met on the set of a Wuthering Heights adaptation, and the couple have a child together. The actor also has a son from a previous relationship.
Emma Thompson has also earned a damehood for her services to drama. She is best known for Sense and Sensibility, Howards End, The Remains Of The Day, Love Actually, Harry Potter, and the Nanny McPhee films, which she also wrote
Mrs Thompson, pictured left with her Bafta in 1993 and right in 2017, had her professional breakthrough in 1987 when she starred in Fortunes Of War and Tutti Frutti. She still lives on the road where she grew up in London with her husband Greg Wise, whom she met while filming Sense And Sensibility
Emma Thompson, who is one of Britain’s most acclaimed actresses, has also earned a damehood for her services to drama, continuing a long list of achievements that includes Oscars, Baftas, Golden Globes and Emmys.
She is best known for Sense and Sensibility, Howards End, The Remains Of The Day, Love Actually, Harry Potter, and the Nanny McPhee films, which she also wrote.
Her professional breakthrough came in 1987 when she starred in Fortunes Of War and Tutti Frutti, the former opposite Kenneth Branagh, who would go on to become her first husband.
One of her biggest commercial successes came in 2003 in Love Actually, in which she suspects her husband of infidelity. She has said this is the role she gets commended for more than any other.
Famously fun-loving, she earned even more fans when she walked on to the stage of the Golden Globes in 2014 carrying her high heels and a martini.
She still lives on the road where she grew up in London with her husband Greg Wise, whom she met while filming Sense And Sensibility.
The couple have a daughter Gaia, 18, and a son, Tindyebwa Agaba, a Rwandan orphan they informally adopted in 2003 when he was 14.
Keira Knightley is set to receive an OBE for her services to drama and charity after partnering with charities including WaterAid and Oxfam
Keira Knightley starred alongside Emma Thompson (pictured together in 2014) in Love Actually
Keira Knightley is set to receive an OBE for her services to drama and charity after partnering with charities including WaterAid and Oxfam.
The 33-year-old actress scored her breakthrough role as a football-loving teenager in Bend It Like Beckham 15 years ago.
Often considered a quintessential English rose character, Mrs Knightley has portrayed women from across several centuries in a number of period dramas, including Pride & Prejudice, The Edge Of Love and The Duchess.
She shot to global fame as Elizabeth Swann in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl alongside Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom at the age of 17 and reprised the role in three other films.
Mrs Knightley was first nominated for an Oscar in 2006, as best actress for Pride & Prejudice, and again for best supporting actress for The Imitation Game in 2015.
She shot to global fame as Elizabeth Swann in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl alongside Orlando Bloom (pictured)
She has also been nominated for two Baftas, for Atonement and The Imitation Game.
Mrs Knightley’s charity efforts have been under the spotlight over the years, and she has been the face of an Amnesty International human rights campaign.
She has also partnered with Oxfam, Women’s Aid, WaterAid, Comic Relief and Unicef.
Rapper Ms Dynamite will be recognised with an MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The Mercury Prize-winning artist, born Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley, burst onto the scene with earworm hit Dy-na-mi-tee, which featured on her 2002 debut album A Little Deeper.
Her album won critical acclaim in the UK and US, and saw her win Brit Awards for Best British Urban Act and Best British Female Solo Artist in 2003.
After taking a break to have her son Shavaar, the musician returned in 2005 with her second, politically-informed album Judgement Days featuring a plea to Tony Blair on the track Mr Prime Minister.
She retreated from the spotlight in 2006 after being arrested outside a London nightclub and sentenced to community service.
Rapper Ms Dynamite will be recognised with an MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
The 37-year-old later took on guest-hosting at BBC Radio 1Xtra and appeared on ITV’s Hell’s Kitchen and Sky One’s The Race.
After winding down her music career, she has featured on television and in recent years appeared on Katy B’s Lights On track, as well as Magnetic Man’s Fire.
In 2016, she was honoured with a Paving the Way MOBO award for her contribution to music as a female MC.
Entrepreneur Jo Malone will receive a CBE for services to the British economy and the GREAT Britain campaign.
Ms Malone has revealed that she cried when she received the news of her latest honour – and urged business people never to quit on a bad day at the office, having lost a pitch just before the news broke.
The 54-year-old, who grew up on a council estate and left school aged 15 without qualifications, said she was proud to be among the ‘amazing’ recipients in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Ms Malone, who had already been made an MBE, this year receives a CBE for services to the British economy and the GREAT Britain campaign.
Entrepreneur Jo Malone will receive a CBE for services to the British economy and the GREAT Britain campaign
Despite huge success with her eponymous fragrance brand, which she sold to Estee Lauder, she admitted starting up her latest business Jo Loves was ‘tough’.
‘I wanted to quit, I have to say, nearly every day for a year,’ she said.
Ms Malone, who successfully battled cancer, advised others struggling in business not to give up.
She said: ‘Never, ever quit on a bad day.
‘There’s always moments in all our lives, especially in businesses, where you plan for something and it doesn’t quite work out your way and you have to rethink and re-strategise.
‘And sometimes that can be emotionally very draining but you never, ever quit on a bad day because often the landscape can change as mine did, as I opened that letter and suddenly realised that the world was much bigger, and you would make a very different call when the landscape is slightly different.’
Ms Malone said she ‘sat with the dog and had a cry’ after getting the news, and added that being honoured in the 100th anniversary year of suffrage is especially significant (left to right: Jermain Defoe, John Davies, Jo Malone, Kathleen Moore, Thomas Ilube and Akeela Ahmed)
Ms Malone said she ‘sat with the dog and had a cry’ after getting the news.
Being honoured in the 100th anniversary year of suffrage is especially significant, she added.
‘I’d love to think that all those women through history, that very first year from the suffragettes and fighting for the vote, would be really proud to see so many women on the honours list today.’
Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish will also be knighted following his steadfast support for the Hillsborough families in their lengthy quest for justice.
Sir Kenny, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, said he was ‘hugely proud to have accepted the accolade’ for services to football, charity and the City of Liverpool.
The 67-year-old Glaswegian and his wife Marina have also helped raise millions of pounds for cancer treatment through the Marina Dalglish Appeal after she successfully battled breast cancer.
Liverpool football great Kenny Dalglish, pictured in 1981, will also be knighted following his steadfast support for the Hillsborough families in their lengthy quest for justice
Sir Kenny, who managed Liverpool at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, said he was ‘hugely proud to have accepted the accolade’
Joking that he thought the letter informing him of the knighthood had been from the taxman, he added of the achievement: ‘We only set out to do the best we possibly could, even through all the other stuff – the charity or Hillsborough, it was to help people because somebody helped us.’
Author Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded a knighthood for his services to literature less than a year after winning the Nobel Prize.
Mr Ishiguro said he is ‘proud of Britain, its open, democratic traditions and literary culture’ after his inclusion in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
The Japanese-born writer is well known for his 2005 book Never Let Me Go, which was turned into a film adaptation starring Mrs Knightley.
He also wrote The Remains Of The Day, for which he won the Man Booker Prize,
Author Kazuo Ishiguro was awarded a knighthood for his services to literature less than a year after winning the Nobel Prize. The Japanese-born writer is well known for his 2005 book Never Let Me Go, which was turned into a film adaptation starring Mrs Knightley
The 63-year-old said: ‘I’m deeply touched to receive this honour from the nation that welcomed me as a small foreign boy, that educated me and nurtured me.
‘At this uncertain moment around our globe, I remain proud of Britain, its open, democratic traditions – and its wonderful literary culture in which I’ve been allowed to participate.’
Ishiguro graduated in English and philosophy at the University of Kent in the 1970s, before studying creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
Earlier this year it was revealed that another of Ishiguro’s novels, When We Were Orphans, is to be turned into a TV show.
When We Were Orphans is centred around the character Christopher Banks, who becomes a detective and tries to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his parents during his childhood in Shanghai.
Classicist Mary Beard, who was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours, will receive a damehood for services to the study of classical civilisations
Classicist Mary Beard, who was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours, will receive a damehood for services to the study of classical civilisations.
The academic said: ‘It is of course a smashing honour. I feel especially pleased that someone working on the ancient classical world gets honoured in this way.
‘I’d like to treat it as a bit of a tribute to the Greeks and Romans themselves – as well as to all my wonderful academic colleagues who also do so much for the study of antiquity.’
Despite her many accolades, the scholar said she reacted with ‘a mixture of disbelief and pleasure’ at the news.
Yet she expects her friends and family to throw around a few jokes when they find out about her award.
‘I think there will be a bit of ribaldry to be honest – and a few jokes about ‘pantomime dames’. But all good fun,’ she said.
Born Winifred Mary Beard, she is often described as Britain’s best-known classicist for her regular appearances in the media.
In 2004 she became Professor of Classics at Cambridge and launched her TV career in 2010, when she presented Pompeii: Life And Death In A Roman Town, on BBC Two.
She has gone on to write a number of documentaries on the subject as well as appear on Question Time.
The author of almost twenty books, she also writes the A Don’s Life blog for the Times Literary Supplement and has recently spoken about the #MeToo movement.
As the NHS celebrates 70 years since its foundation, medics are recognised for their dedication, with health sector workers making up 12 per cent of the 1,057 people honoured in the list.
Former Second World War nurse Rosemary Powell, who at 103 is the oldest on the list, is made an MBE for voluntary service to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, having spent 97 years collecting for the charity.
Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England Professor Susan Hill is made a dame for services to the 100,000 Genome Project and to NHS Genomic Medicine, while surgeon Nadine Hachach-Haram is awarded a BEM for services to surgery and innovation, having co-founded a company pioneering virtual access to surgery for people in remote areas.
Veronica Donovan, a consultant midwife at Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is made an OBE for services to midwifery, while palliative cancer care specialist Debra Smith receives a BEM for for services to nursing.
Premier League and England striker Jermain Defoe has described himself as ‘blessed and humbled’ to be recognised with an OBE for his services to the charitable foundation set up in his name
Sporting stars are also well represented among the recipients, with Premier League and England striker Jermain Defoe describing himself as ‘blessed and humbled’ to be recognised with an OBE for his services to the charitable foundation set up in his name.
Defoe said he felt ‘mixed emotions’, with the award coming almost a year after the death of six-year-old football mascot Bradley Lowery, with whom the player struck up a strong friendship as the little boy battled a rare childhood cancer.
World heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua is made an OBE for services to sport, while 20-year-old alpine skier Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain’s most successful winter paralympian, is the youngest on this year’s list, picking up an MBE for services to Paralympic winter Olympic sport.
Following a wave of terror attacks which struck the UK in 2017, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley, who led the national response, is honoured with a knighthood.
On his retirement in March after 31 years in policing Mr Rowley was praised by Prime Minister Theresa May for his ‘dedication to protecting public safety and tackling the evils of terrorism’.
While there are no honours for local heroes involved in the response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the Cabinet has said it expects ‘acts of bravery and extraordinary community spirit’ which emerged from the tragedy to feature on future lists, adding that its approach will be ‘time-appropriate’.
Of the total number recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year, 210 have been made an OBE, 392 an MBE, and 318 awarded a BEM.
Forty-nine percent of the honorees are women, while 10 per cent of all those on the list are from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.