Colman ‘totally thrilled’ by award
OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS Olivia Colman has claimed that she is “totally thrilled” to be made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, while stage actor Simon Russell Beale is knighted.
Elvis Costello, 64, and former frontman of The Undertones Feargal Sharkey, 60, are both made OBEs, accepting establishment endorsements far from their punk roots.
Colman, 45, who won the best actress Oscar for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite earlier this year and will play Queen Elizabeth II in the third series of The Crown, is honoured for services to drama under her real name Sarah Sinclair.
She said: “I’m totally thrilled, delighted and humbled to be in the company of these incredible people, most of whom have been nowhere near as visible as I have, but should be – and hopefully now will be. It’s such an honour.”
Beale, one of the most acclaimed stars of British theatre, is knighted for services to drama after a career spanning four decades. A chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral from the age of eight, he started his stage career at the Royal Shakespeare Company. where he forged collaborations with Sam Mendes whom he has continued to work with. Since 1995 he has been a regular player at the National Theatre.
He said: “It is a very great honour and I think my mother, were she alive, would be very proud.”
The honours list also recognises those involved with the wave of worldwide success for the British TV industry, with Blue Planet and Planet Earth producer Alistair Fothergill made an OBE.
The same honour goes to Andrew Harries, chief executive and co-founder of Left Bank Pictures – the production firm behind The Crown – for services to film and television.
Richard Williams, boss of Northern Ireland Screen, best known for its involvement in the making of Game Of Thrones , is also made an OBE for services to the country’s screen industries.
He said: “I am delighted to accept this award, which I see as a celebration of the tremendous value to Northern Ireland from the growth of the screen industries here and also recognition of the part that all my colleagues at Northern Ireland Screen have played in that success story.”
Actress Cush Jumbo, 33, who is best known for starring in the US legal drama series The Good Wife, is made an OBE, while journalist and broadcaster Dan Snow, 40, becomes an MBE.
Of the 1,073 people honoured in this year’s list, 47 per cent are women – slightly down on some previous lists. A total of 10.4 per cent come from a BAME background – the highest ever, by a small margin, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, although the figure was 12 per cent in this year’s New Year Honours list.
The oldest recipient is John Haymen, 100, who receives a BEM for services to the community in Binsted and Alton, Hampshire. The youngest person honoured is 17-year-old Richard Collins, who is also given a BEM for services to the community in Cookstown, County Tyrone.
I’m delighted and humbled to be in the company of these incredible people. Oscar-winning actress
Olivia Colman