11 Jun 2011

Bruce Forsyth leads Queen’s Birthday Honours List

Showbiz legend Bruce Forsyth receives a long-awaited knighthood in the Queen’s honours list. Friend and entertainer Jimmy Tarbuck tells Channel 4 News Sir Bruce is an “icon” of British television.

In a career spanning more than half a century, 83-year-old Bruce Forsyth is knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The Strictly Come Dancing host was recognised after years of campaigning by fans, including 73 MPs who signed a parliamentary Early Day Motion calling for the award.

Admitting he feared he might never get the honour, a delighted Sir Bruce said he could not wait to call his wife “my lady”.

Bruce Forsyth, who was born in Edmonton, north London, started his career aged 14 as Boy Bruce, The Mighty Atom, and went on to become a fixture on TV, fronting family favourites including Play Your Cards Right, The Generation Game and Bruce’s Price Is Right.

He received a CBE in 2006, but had to wait another five years before receiving a knighthood despite frequent speculation that he was in line for one.

The catchphrase-loving entertainer, who lives with his wife, former Miss World Wilnelia Merced, in Wentworth, Surrey, said he thought it was a hoax when he received the letter telling him about the honour.

Bruce Forsyth leads Queen's Birthday Honours List

“The longer it goes on, the longer you think it’s never going to happen,” he said.

Tarbuck: ‘We’re thrilled’

Jimmy Tarbuck, entertainer and close friend of Sir Bruce, told Channel 4 News the knighthood was well deserved for an “icon” who had served the British public for so long.

“He’s been there for 50 odd 60 years on the tele – and on the top on the tele, and here he is still on the top. He’s a great, great pro,” Mr Tarbuck told Channel 4 News.

“When he’s working with the public on stage with him he’s the best push and shove merchant of all of us. He’s a wonderful host.

“We all love him. He’s an old moaner on the golf course. He’s an old woman, but we love him and it’s lovely. All of show business is thrilled for him.”

Among a host of others on the honours list, actor Colin Firth, whose performance as the Queen’s father in The King’s Speech won his an Oscar earlier this year, was awarded a CBE.

Singer Bryan Ferry, whose hits with Roxy Music include Love Is The Drug and Virginia Plain, said it was a “great honour” to receive a CBE.

England’s Ashes-winning cricketers are honoured with OBEs for captain Andrew Strauss, 34, and coach Andy Flower, 43, and an MBE for player of the series Alastair Cook, 26.

Read the Queen's Birthday Honours List in full

Ex-EastEnder Brooke Kinsella, 27, gets an MBE for her campaign against knife crime, prompted by the murder of her 16-year-old brother Ben in 2008.

Author Julia Donaldson, 62, best known for The Gruffalo, caps a week in which she was appointed the Children’s Laureate by being awarded an MBE.

OBEs go to Graeme Garden, 68, and Tim Brooke-Taylor, 70, creators of much-loved madcap 1970s TV series The Goodies with Bill Oddie, 69, who received his OBE in 2003.

Other broadcasters honoured include BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray, 61, who is made a dame, and BBC Radio 2 DJ “Whispering” Bob Harris, 65, who gets an OBE.

Actor Bernard Cribbins, 82, who narrated cult children’s show The Wombles and appeared in several Carry On films, said he was “completely gobsmacked” to be awarded an OBE.

IVF pioneer Professor Robert Edwards, 85, is knighted eight months after being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work that led to the birth in 1978 of Louise Brown, the world’s first test-tube baby.