The actor Patrick Stewart leads a stellar cast of those honoured today for their contribution to the arts and entertainment industry, receiving a knighthood for a career spanning half a century.
The 69-year-old, best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and who reportedly counts the Queen among his fans, said he was "very proud".
With roles ranging from Shakespeare to the X-Men films, Yorkshire-born Stewart, who recently returned to the British stage in Hamlet after years in Los Angeles, said: "The theatre is and has always been my great joy. In particular the past six years have given me acting opportunities that at one time I could not have imagined possible."
Also receiving a knighthood is Nicholas Hytner, 53, the National Theatre director, responsible for productions of Alan Bennett's History Boys and the West End hit War Horse.
Theatre grande dame Margaret Tyzack, 78, who appeared in the TV adaptations of The Forsyte Saga and I, Claudius, upgrades the OBE she received 35 years ago to a CBE. With no plans to retire, she has previously criticised the lack of roles for older women, saying they are either portrayed as "witches or crone-like" with scripts that are "a load of cliched old bollocks".
On the small screen, the wildlife presenter and star of the BBC's Springwatch and Big Cat Diary, Simon King, 47, receives an OBE. Tessa Ross, 48, Channel 4's controller of film and drama, who helped make Slumdog Millionaire an Oscar-winning hit, said her CBE was "a huge encouragement to do more".
Maggi Hambling, 64, the artist, joked her CBE must have been awarded because of her controversial work Scallop, a 12ft-high seashell on Aldeburgh beach in Suffolk which has been repeatedly vandalised since being erected in celebration of the composer Benjamin Britten in 2003. The figurative painter and sculptor, who has work in the National Gallery, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate, said: "I'm delighted. It's always a bit of a shock when you get one of those letters, but it's an important recognition of the place of the arts in society."
Children's author and illustrator Lauren Child, creator of Charlie and Lola, is awarded an MBE, and Anthea Bell, co-translator of the Asterix comic books, gets an OBE. Phyllida Lloyd, director of the hit film Mamma Mia!, gets a CBE.
Britain's fashion industry is recognised with an MBE for designer Luella Bartley, whose fans include Lily Allen, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller, while designer Amanda Wakeley and flamboyant milliner Stephen Jones, who makes Boy George's creative headwear, receive OBEs.
West London's Michelin-starred River Cafe is also recognised, with MBEs going to its co-founders and chefs, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers .