Ken Dodd Knighted

Veteran comedian Ken Dodd has been knighted in the Queen's New Year's Honours list.

The Liverpool legend is best known for his sixty-year-long career as a music hall style entertainer but has made a few forays into drama, one notable appearance playing the Tollmaster in the 1987 Seventh Doctor story Delta and the Bannermen.

The comedian has been a staple of the British Comedy circuit since the 1950's, and still, at the age of 89, continues to tour the UK with his Happiness Show.

He has had 19 UK Top 40 hits including the song Tears, which topped the UK charts for five weeks in 1965 and remains one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all time.

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Also Honoured

The actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who is made an OBE.
Tim Pigott-Smith acted in two Doctor Who stories. He played Captain Harker in the Third Doctor story The Claws of Axos, returning in 1976 in the Fourth Doctor story The Masque of Mandragora, where he played Marco. His most well known Television role was as Ronald Merrick in ITV series The Jewel in the Crown. He has had a long and distinguished Radio and Stage career.

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The actress Helen McCrory, who is made an OBE.
Helen McCrory played Rosanna in the Tenth Doctor story The Vampires of Venice. On film she portrayed Cherie Blair the 2006 film The Queen and portrayed Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films. She also plays Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders.

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The actor Clive Rowe who is made an MBE.
Clive Rowe played Morvin Van Hoff in the 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned. He is best known for his role as Norman Ellington in BBC Children's drama The Story of Tracy Beaker and has appeared in Disney show The Evermore Chronicles.

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The cartoonist Peter Brookes who is made an CBE.
Peter Brookes was the main artist producing covers for the Target range of Doctor Who books in the mid 1970's. His most well know covers include The Green Death and Planet of the Spiders. He has worked for Radio Times, The New Statesman and The Spectator. He has recently worked on a notable series of cartoons known as the "Westminster Academy", which depicted Nick Clegg as a public school fag to a red cheeked David Cameron, who was portrayed as a prefect dressed in a Eton suit. He depicted leader of the opposition Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls as Wallace and Gromit