New Year Honours

Tom Jones, Roger Moore, Nigel Hawthorne and David Essex are among the entertainers receiving honours this year. The Welsh Elvis, the singer of choice for housewives to hurl their underwear at, is probably best known for his larynx than his thespian tendencies but did appear briefly in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks, is to be awarded an OBE. Roger Moore, the original Saint and the Bond with the eyebrows will get a CBE for his charity work for UNICEF. Nigel Hawthorne who played the slithery Sir Humphrey Appleby in the TV spoof Yes Minister is to become a genuine knight, admittedly a step down from his best known film role as the endearingly crackers King George III in The Madness of King George. David Essex, pilot of the eponymous crotch rocket in Silver Dream Racer will also be placing an OBE on his mantelpiece.