Luther star Idris Elba is among a host of famous faces to get gongs in the New Year Honours list, as sport stars include the Lionesses and ice dancers Torvill and Dean
Actor Idris Elba has been knighted in the New Year Honours List after leading a campaign to end youth violence.
The Luther star is among a host of famous faces from showbiz, sport and politics to get gongs, including comedians Bill Bailey and Matt Lucas, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo and Chuckle Brother Paul Elliot. Sir Idris, who is also known for his role in The Wire and a string of Hollywood films, has been honoured for his campaigning to stamp out youth knife violence.
Last year, he launched the Don’t Stop Your Future campaign in The Mirror, standing next to 247 piles of folded clothes in Parliament Square – each one representing a life lost to knife violence in 2023. He told us at the time: “I can’t stay silent as more young lives are lost to these brutal and heartless crimes.”
The 53-year-old was born to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother, and grew up on a council estate in Hackney, in east London. After leaving school at 16, a grant from the King’s Trust helped him afford a place at the National Youth Music Theatre and set him on a path to a successful career as an actor, filmmaker and musician.
READ MORE: New Year Honours list 2026 in full – from Idris Elba to Cynthia Erivo and Lioness starsREAD MORE: New Year Honours: Oldest Post Office victim dedicates OBE to those whose lives were ruined
Sir Idris has since founded the Elba Hope Foundation with his wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba, which supports community empowerment, education, youth advocacy and sustainable development. He said: “I receive this honour on behalf of the many young people whose talent, ambition and resilience has driven the work of the Elba Hope Foundation. I hope we can do more to draw attention to the importance of sustained, practical support for young people and to the responsibility we all share to help them find an alternative to violence.”
Roy Clarke, creator of much-loved sitcoms ‘The Last of The Summer Wine’, ‘Open All Hours’ and ‘Keeping Up Appearances’, has also been made a Sir in honour of his decades-long career in TV comedy. Born in 1930 in Austerfield, in Yorkshire, he worked as a taxi driver and a teacher before he started creating thrillers for BBC radio, including ‘The 17-Jewelled Shockproof Swiss-Made Bomb’.
He went on to write ‘The Last of The Summer Wine’, following the madcap antics of young-at-heart OAPs in a Yorkshire village. The show had a record-breaking run with 31 seasons and embedded characters like Compo, Clegg and Nora Batty in the hearts of the nation. Sir Roy went on to create the iconic Hyacinth Bucket – pronounced Bouquet – and her long-suffering husband Richard in Keeping Up Appearances, which ran from 1990 to 1995.
‘Open All Hours’, which starred Ronnie Barker as a grocer and David Jason as his errand boy, ran for four series between 1976 and 1985. Sir Roy also penned TV series ‘The Misfit’, starring Ronald Fraser; ‘The Wanderer’, starring Bryan Brown; the 1988 film ‘Hawks’; and the 1993 film ‘A Foreign Field’.
Comedy actress and writer Meera Syal was made a Dame for her services to literature, drama and charity. Born in Wolverhampton to Indian Punjabi parents, she is best known for writing and starring in British Asian comedies ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Kumars at No 42’. Dame Meera, who is married to her co-star Sanjeev Bhaskar, also wrote the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ‘Bombay Dreams’.
She has appeared in a string of films, including Paddington 2 (2017), Nativity Rocks! (2018), Yesterday (2019) and Tinsel Town (2025). Dame Meera has also written three acclaimed novels, Anita And Me in 1996, which won her the Betty Trask Award, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee in 1999 and The House Of Hidden Mothers in 2015.
She became an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society in 2013 after receiving “amazing” help from the charity following her father’s dementia diagnosis in 2012. She also supports Kisharon – a charity for Jewish children, young people, and adults with learning disabilities and autism.
Among the host of TV stars honoured was Paul Elliott, one half of the Chuckle Brothers, who said finding out he was being made an MBE was “probably the best shock” of his life. The double act, made up of Paul and his brother Barry, became a comedy staple through their TV show ChuckleVision.
He is being honoured for his support for end-of-life charity Marie Curie, which cared for Barry before his death from bone cancer aged 73 in 2018. The 78-year-old said: “It’s absolutely brilliant. It’s such an honour, a lad from a council estate in Rotherham, and after all these years, getting an MBE is just such an honour. I’m very much a royalist.”
Little Britain star Matt Lucas said he thought the letter telling him he had been made an OBE was a prank. The comedian, who rose to fame in Shooting Stars before forming a comedy duo with David Walliams, said: “I was half-asleep. I had to read the letter a couple of times, and then I thought it might have been a prank, so I had to really scrutinise it.”
He added: “I’m still in shock. It hasn’t sunk in yet. I really wasn’t expecting it at any point.” On his trip to the palace to pick up his medal, he said: “My mum’s going to come along. I’d better go on a diet now, though, or I won’t fit in my suit.”
Stand up comedian Bill Bailey, 60, who starred in Black Books and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, is made an MBE, while Harry Potter and Star Wars actor Warwick Davis gets an OBE.
West End and Broadway star Cynthia Erivo, who shot to global stardom in Wicked, also receives an MBE for services to music and drama. The 38-year-old, who is an Oscar away from prestigious EGOT status after winning a Tony award, a Grammy and a daytime Emmy, described it as “an honour I could never have thought would happen”.
Former Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay, 52, dedicated her MBE to working class people in the industry. The Stockport-born actress, best known for playing the long-suffering Rovers Return landlady Shelley Unwin, said: “I am extremely honoured to receive this award for services to drama. Throughout my career I have met incredible people, made life-long friends and worked on many memorable projects.
“I would like to dedicate this award to the rest of the 8% of working class people who make up my industry and hope in the future there will be many more of us.”
Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer has been made an MBE for his support for homelessness charity St Mungo’s. The property expert, 56, said: “I’m hugely honoured and humbled. I mean, it’s a hell of a thing. It’s not something that I’d ever expected or even thought about. So it’s a huge honour.”
Game show host and author of The Thursday Murder Club series Richard Osman, 55, was also made an OBE, along with historian Dan Cruickshank, 78, who is known for presenting BBC’s Around The World In 80 Treasures.
In music, composer Max Richter and opera singer Alice Coote both get MBEs. And singer Ellie Goulding has been made an MBE for her environmental campaigning. The pop star, 39, who racked up a string of hits, is a global environmental ambassador for the UN.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “This year’s Honours list celebrates the very best of Britain – people who put the common good ahead of themselves to strengthen communities and change lives. Their quiet dedication speaks to the decent, compassionate country we are proud to be. On behalf of the whole nation, thank you – and congratulations to everyone recognised today.”