Stephen Fry is knighted for his providers to psychological well being consciousness as he leads lengthy listing of TV and movie stars included within the New Year’s Honours listing

Stephen Fry has cemented his status as a national treasure after being knighted in the New Year Honours.

The comedian, actor and presenter said he felt ‘startled and enchanted’ after receiving the top gong – insisting it came ‘out of the blue’.

Sir Stephen, 67, who has spoken candidly about his battles with bipolar disorder having been expelled from school, was recognised for his services to mental health awareness, the environment and to charity.

Trailblazing black actress Carmen Munroe, 92, also picks up the highest honour as she is made a dame from services to drama.

The Desmond’s star, best known for her role as Shirley Ambrose in the Channel 4 sitcom, came to the UK from Guyana in 1951 and has been instrumental in developing black British theatre.

Meanwhile actresses Sarah Lancashire, 60, and Carey Mulligan, 39, are made CBEs as is celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh, 75.

Last night Sir Stephen said he hopes his knighthood can show those suffering from mental health problems that ‘there’s always hope’.

He said he would also attempt to be ‘gallant, chivalrous and courteous’ as they are ‘all knightly qualities’.

The QI presenter has spoken candidly of how his battles with illness saw him expelled from boarding school as a boy and even do a stint in prison.

He went on to attend Cambridge where he formed a comedy group with Dame Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery and Hugh Laurie at the university’s famous Footlights club.

He shot to fame with Laurie in A Bit of Fry & Laurie as well as starring alongside the House actor in Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder.

But throughout he was battling manic depression which he has chronicled in documentaries and memoirs.

This saw him become president of the charity Mind since 2011 while he has also been Vice President of conservation charity Fauna and Flora International since 2009.

Sir Stephen has also worked with the Terence Higgins Trust, raising awareness and funds for people with HIV and Aids, since 1991.

He said it was ‘wonderful’ to see these charities being recognised because ‘it all goes back to my own terrible, worst kind of experiences of what mental illness can do to one’.

Broadcaster and gardener Alan Titchmarsh said he is ‘thrilled to bits’ to become a CBE for services to horticulture and to charity.

Titchmarsh admitted to sharing a ‘teary moment’ telling his wife Alison and daughters about the honour which comes 25 years after his MBE.

He has been a familiar face since he covered the Chelsea Flower Show for the BBC in 1983, going on to front Gardener’s World from 1996 to 2002.

He also presented the garden makeover TV show Ground Force, which propelled him, Charlie Dimmock and Charlie Walsh to fame.

But alongside his television work, the Yorkshire-born gardener has served as the president of Perennial, formerly the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society, since 2004. He is also the president of the charity Plant Heritage, whose patron is the King.

‘I’ve been an MBE for 25 years, so I kind of thought that was… I’ve been very happy with that,’ he said.

Describing his emotions, Titchmarsh said: ‘Thrilled to bits, surprised, but thrilled and honoured that I should be thought worth a CBE, flatted beyond belief.’

Bafta-winning actress Sarah Lancashire said it was an ‘unexpected delight’ to get a CBE for services to drama.

She has won plaudits for performances in Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax following her breakthrough role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street.

Carey Mulligan, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times, also picks up an CBE for services to drama.

She rose to prominence in coming-of-age hit An Education before winning acclaim for her performances in Promising Young Woman, She Said, Drive and Maestro.

Stage and screen star Anne-Marie Duff, 54, said she feels ‘incredibly lucky and privileged’ as she was made OBE.

Duff, who made her name in comedy drama series Shameless and has played Queen Elizabeth I and Lady Macbeth, said ‘to be acknowledged in any way always feels like an incredible blessing’.

Actor Eddie Marsan, 56, who plays Amy Winehouse‘s father Mitch in biopic Back to Black, said he is ‘shocked, delighted and deeply honoured’ to be made OBE.

The Happy Go Lucky star said he wants to share the honour for services to drama with ‘my wife, my family and the people I grew up with in Bethnal Green’.

Inspector Morse and Lewis actor Kevin Whately, 73, said he was ‘grateful and delighted’ as he was made OBE for services to drama and to charity.

The Northumberland-born actor is an ambassador to Action for Children and trustee for the Wavendon Foundation, which supports creation and education in the performing arts.

He said: ‘Full-time charity workers dedicate their lives to their causes, and every one of them deserves a medal.’

Myleene Klass, 46, said she is ‘absolutely over the moon’ after she was made MBE for services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and to charity.

The former Hear’Say singer has spoken openly about the psychological effects of suffering four miscarriages. 

Following her campaign the Department of Health announced a package of new measures to ‘boost the health and wellbeing of women and girls’ last year.

Klass, who now has three children, said she is reflecting on ‘how all of this started’ and how she had battled back ‘from a very dark place’.

‘I certainly didn’t have it in mind to become a campaigner at the time,’ she said.

Coronation Street star Anne Reid, 89, who played Ken Barlow’s first wife, Valerie, in the 1960s and 1970s, is made CBE, alongside author Robert Harris, 67.

Doctor Who star Tom Baker, 90, who played the fourth incarnation of the Time Lord between 1974 and 1981, was made an OBE for services to television.

BBC Radio 6 presenter and DJ Steve Lamacq, 60, is made MBE for services to broadcasting and music venues.