Arise, Dame Remain! Gongs for right-on Emma and luvvie pals
EMMA Thompson has been made a dame in the Queen’s birthday honours – one of a string of pro-Remain luvvies to be handed gongs.
The Oscar-winning actress, who is recognised for services to drama, was one of the most vocal stars who called for Britain to remain in the EU during the referendum.
Once dubbed ‘ queen of the luvvies’, she heads a long list of pro-EU figures to receive an honour, including actress Keira Knightley, Cambridge don Mary Beard, and historian Simon Schama.
Ahead of the 2016 vote Miss Thompson, 59, said the UK would be ‘ mad not to’ stay in the EU, adding: ‘ We should be taking down borders, not putting them up.’
The Cambridge- educated star, who lives in a multi-million pound house in north London, has said the UK’s reaction to refugees has ‘ a lot to do with racism’, claiming that the country would do more to help if refugees were white.
Yesterday she said: ‘I’ve always wanted to be able to refer to myself as a dame – small D. Dame with a capital D is even more thrilling. I was, however, disappointed it didn’t come with a castle.’
Fellow actress Miss Knightley, 33, receives an OBE, months after the two women organised a protest against sexual harassment at the Baftas.
The Atonement star also appeared in a celebrity-studded video for the official campaign to keep Britain in the EU.
Schama, 73, who is awarded a knighthood, rose to fame after his BBC series A History of Britain in 2000.
Most recently, he co-presented the corporation’s flagship series Civilisations alongside fellow pro-Remainer Miss Beard.
The programme was criticised as ‘dumbed down’ and subject to ‘clumsy political revisionism’.
Schama strongly backed Remain, warning before the vote that Brexit would ‘wreak shortterm devastation and long-term shrinkage on the economy’.
Meanwhile, Professor Beard, 63, who is made a dame, has called for a second EU referendum and regularly states her right-on views online. The classics scholar said: ‘It is of course a smashing honour. I think there will be a bit of ribaldry to be honest – and a few jokes about “pantomime dames”. But all good fun.’ Other notable names on the list include New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, 74, who is made a Companion of Honour. Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, 63, whose books include The Remains of the Day, will be knighted after winning the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature. Timothy Bentinck, the Earl of Portland, 65, known for his long-running role as David Archer in Radio 4’s The Archers, is awarded an MBE.
Actor Tom Hardy, 40, known for his hard-man roles in films such as Mad Max and The Revenant, receives a CBE, while Fenella Fielding, 90, ‘England’s first lady of the double entendre’, who made her name in the Carry On films, gets an OBE.
Bamber Gascoigne, 83, who presented the BBC’s University Challenge for 25 years until 1987, receives a CBE.
BBC war correspondent Kate Adie, 72, is awarded a CBE, and TV historian Lucy Worsley, 44, receives an OBE.
In all, 1,057 people have been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours – although only 41 per cent of awards at the highest level, CBE and above, will go to women despite the committee specifically celebrating 2018 as the 100th anniversary year of women’s suffrage.