Queen Liz is showing her true colours as a telly box fan with her New Year's Honours list for 2014, with a rake of Os, Ms and CBEs being handed out to those from the small screen.
Top of the list is Murder She Wrote star Angela Lansbury, who joins the ranks of other Dames such as Judi Dench and Maggie Smith with her very own title, and said that ''It's a lovely thing to be given that nod of approval by your own country and I really cherish it.''. Not too shabby for playing a crime-solving writer who just happens to be surrounded by murder everywhere she goes.
Also on the list of fresh Dames is actress Penelope Keith, who you should remember as Margot Leadbetter from '70s sitcom The Good Life and The Manor Born, who said: ''It's a recognition for not only my 54 years being an actress but also for all the charities with which I'm associated and I think they'll be thrilled.''
Elsewhere, The Apprentice's Karren Brady is set to receive a CBE for 'services to entrepreneurship and women in business', and Gavin & Stacey star and co-creator Ruth Jones will get an MBE and had the best reaction to the news, saying: ''This isn't just tidy, it's proper tidy. I had no idea it was coming. I just came home one night, opened the post and there it was: this letter telling me I was being put forward for it and being really strict about not telling anyone.''
''And I'm quite obedient. So I didn't. Except my husband, who's really proud. And my dad, who's beside himself with excitement. Apparently Great Uncle Leslie got an OBE in the '40s and Uncle Jack the fireman got one in the '60s. So I'm keeping up with the Joneses, ha ha. Anyway, I'm thrilled.''
It also marked the first year since its inception in 1917 that women outnumbered men in the overall Honours list.
