Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gong that I want
Grease star Olivia is made a dame for charity & entertainment work
nity in Birmingham, which was the setting for the hit series. It starred Cillian Murphy as the hard-drinking gang leader Tommy Shelby.
And Knight, who grew up in Birmingham, said: “It’s amazing. I’m very, very, very honoured. Tommy Shelby occasionally has a bottle of champagne, so that’s what I’ll do.”
Director Steve Mcqueen, 50, who won an Oscar for 12 Years A Slave, is knighted for services to film.
Conservationist and TV presenter Steve Backshall, 46, becomes an MBE, and wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan, 47, whose credits include Planet Earth II, is made an MBE for his services to conservation and wildlife film-making.
TV chef Ainsley Harriott, 62, gets an MBE, along with Nadiya Hussain, 35, who won the 2015 series of The Great British Bake Off. Chef and author Nigel Slater, 61, becomes an OBE for services to cookery and literature.
Ainsley said his mother would have been proud of his MBE for services to broadcasting and to the culinary arts.
He said: “When I was first told about it, I immediately thought about my dear, late mum, which really choked me up because I know how proud she would have been.
“Her boy’s proud too. It’s a great honour for me and for everyone who has helped me on my way.”
He became a TV favourite thanks to shows such as Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook and Ready Steady Cook.
Among the musicians honoured was Billy Ocean, 69, who becomes an MBE for services to music.
Snow Patrol lead singer Gary Lightbody, 43, gets an OBE for services to music and charity in Northern Ireland after he founded the Lightbody Foundation, a group which gives annual donations to charities.
Mike Pender, 78, founder of Merseybeat group The Searchers, becomes an MBE. Peter Saville, 64, the man behind the cover for Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures, is made a CBE for services to design.
One of the oldest to be recognised this year is 94-year-old D-day veteran Harry Billinge, who has raised more than £10,000 towards the cost of building a national memorial honouring his fallen comrades. Mr Billinge said he would accept the MBE for the 22,442 service personnel who were killed on D-day and during the battle for Normandy. In June, Mr Billinge travelled from his home in St Austell, Cornwall, to Normandy to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings. He said: “Nobody should have got off the beaches at D-day and I was lucky. I’ll never forget any of the blokes I was with – 22,442 were killed. “And it’s very difficult for me to talk about that.”