Bruce Forsyth gets long-awaited knighthood - didn't he do well?

Queen's honours list also includes CBEs for oscar-winner Colin Firth and singer Bryan Ferry, and OBEs for Ashes heroes

• Michael White
• The Guardian, Saturday 11 June 2011
• Article history

Bruce Forsyth at his Wentworth home, as he poses for photographers after receiving a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

A collective sigh of relief will be heard across Britain, quickly followed by a suitably awful pun: "Knight to see you, to see you knight." At 83 the evergreen entertainer Bruce Forsyth has finally got his long-predicted knighthood.

The nod comes in the Queen's 2011 birthday honours list – one of 965 people whose diverse services to society, including David Cameron's "big society", are recognised on Saturday.

But after years of speculation, gossip and tabloid outrage against the tardiness of Whitehall and Buckingham Palace, Forsyth's gong is the eye-catcher. The entertainer, who is...

enjoying a renaissance as host of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, started his career at 14 and fronted countless game shows, perhaps most memorably The Generation Game. He admitted that he feared the day might never come but said the elation upon finding out was not just restricted to the impact on him: "I did feel as happy for my wife as I did for me and I can't wait to call her my lady."

Paying tribute BBC1's controller, Danny Cohen, said: "Bruce Forsyth is a TV legend and a true gentleman. He is an incredible entertainer and this is a wonderful recognition of his 70 years in show business."

Among the famous, there were CBEs for the Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth and the singer Bryan Ferry, OBEs for England's Ashes-winning captain, Andrew Strauss, and team director, Andrew Flower, plus an MBE for Alastair Cook, the youngest England player to make 5,000 Test runs. There was also an OBE for the British basketball star John Amaechi, who became the first openly gay NBA player after coming out in 2007.

In politics the former Conservative leader, Lord (Michael) Howard, mentor to the prime minister, becomes a Companion of Honour, a rare gesture, while Chris Woodhead, controversial educational reformer, gets a knighthood. So does another cultural hero of the right, Brian Souter, the Stagecoach pioneer of deregulated buses, who led an unsuccessful campaign against plans to scrap section 28 legislation which banned councils from allowing the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

The gesture is balanced by a damehood for Jenni Murray, the archetypal BBC leftie for some Tory listeners to Women's Hour. Elish Angiolini QC, the first woman to be lord advocate in Scotland, also becomes a dame, as do the veteran actor, Janet Suzman; Helen Alexander, president of the CBI; and the archaeologist, Prof Rosemary Cramp.

The golfer Lee Westwood is among the OBEs, as is the actor and comedian Bernard Cribbens. Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden, former members of the Goodies, are made OBEs, following Bill Oddie, also an ornithologist, who was given the award for services to wildlife conservation in 2003. The artist Sam Taylor-Wood also becomes an OBE.

Prof Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England during the protracted global financial crisis since 2007, will now face City critics as Sir Mervyn which may help steady the markets. Frank Chapman, chief executive of BG Group is knighted, as is David Higgins who won plaudits as chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority for handing over the huge east London site well on time.

There is even a small "business as usual" gesture towards the banking community, conspicuously absent during the bust-and-bonus years. John Peace, chairman of the venerable Standard Chartered Bank (John Major was once a junior employee), also becomes Sir John. Brooke Kinsella, the EastEnders actor who campaigns against knife crime after the murder of her brother, also gets an MBE.

With Whitehall determined in recent years to steer the honours system away from showbusiness glamour and questionable awards to major political donors, the Cabinet Office again stressed it was recognising "a large number of people including those supporting the big society by making a real difference to their local community through volunteering, fundraising, social action and philanthropy".

Among the educators, health workers, scientists and entrepreneurs, almost half the recipients (43%) are women and 74% work – paid or as volunteers – at a local level. Ethnic minorities have a 7.4% share of the total. There is even a section for "amazing Brits abroad", such as the knighthood for Dr George Buckley, chairman and chief executive of the US firm 3M – whose products include the yellow Post-it note.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/11/bruce-forsyth-gets-knighthood