Stephen Fry has said he is “startled and enchanted” upon receiving a Knighthood for his work on mental health awareness as part of the King’s 2025 New Year Honours.
Blackadder and QI star Fry, 67, is an honorary fellow of Royal College of Psychiatrists and has been president of the mental health charity Mind since 2011.
During his time as president of Mind, he has been instrumental in changing the conversation around mental health and has worked tirelessly to change public attitudes in the UK for the better.
Fry said: “When you are recognised it does make you feel a bit ‘crikey’, but I think the most emotional thing is that when I think of my childhood, and my dreadful unhappiness and misery and stupidity, and everything that led to so many failures as a child.
“And for my parents, really, what a disaster. I mean every time the phone rang, they thought, ‘Oh, God, what has Stephen done now?’ It was a sort of joke in the family.”
Fry is joined by many other figures from arts and culture on the list, such as Tracy Beaker author Jacqueline Wilson, and actors Eddie Marsan, Carey Mulligan, and Sarah Lancashire.
Wilson has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature. Earlier this year, she published Think Again, a grown-up sequel to her much-adored Girls in Love children’s novel.
In September, she was asked in an interview in The Independent whether she has ever worried about no longer being relevant. “Yes!” came her quick, wide-eyed response. She spoke about how she had felt “lost” in her early career, before she found her feet in writing, and said she is not even thinking about giving it up: “I think now, when most sane people would say, just put your feet up, read other people’s books, enjoy yourself, I just feel compelled to carry on writing.”
Back to Black star Marsan, 56, who has been made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), said: “I am shocked, delighted and deeply honoured to receive this award.
“I am only in this position because of the constant love and support of my wife, my family and the people I grew up with in Bethnal Green, so I share this with them all.”
Bafta-winning actor Lancashire, famous for her role as a no-nonsense cop in Happy Valley, has said being recognised in the New Year Honours is an “unexpected delight”.
The star, 60, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.
Another Bafta-winning actor, Anne-Marie Duff – recently seen in the black comedy Bad Sisters on Apple TV – has been made an OBE and she said she feels “incredibly lucky and privileged” to do a job she loves.
Coronation Street star Anne Reid has become a CBE for services to drama. The 89-year-old was nominated for a Bafta this year for her role in the true crime drama The Sixth Commandment, which explored the deaths of Ann Moore-Martin and Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, and also starred Timothy Spall.
Other celebrities to be honoured include gardening presenter Alan Titchmarsh, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, broadcaster Loyd Grossman, DJ Steve Lamacq, Doctor Who star Tom Baker and singer Myleene Klass.
More than 1,200 people from across the UK have received honours in the New Year list.
Former England manager Gareth Southgate and London mayor Sadiq Khan have been knighted, while honours have also gone to a host of Team GB athletes, including runner Keely Hodgkinson, who was named the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and mountain biker Tom Pidcock, after the Paris Olympics.
There are also honours for those who campaigned on behalf of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters, after the Horizon IT scandal.
An MBE for Keely Hodgkinson, 22, caps a year in which she claimed gold in the 800 metres at the Paris Olympics, successfully defended her European title, and set a new British record of one minute 54.61 seconds that made her the sixth fastest woman in history.
Two-time Olympic champion Tom Pidcock, 25, is made an OBE, having won gold in mountain biking, while Paralympian Hannah Cockroft becomes a CBE after coming first in the T34 100m and 800m in the French capital.
Other honoured gold-medallists include swimmer Duncan Scott (OBE), sailor Ellie Aldridge (MBE) and rowers Lola Anderson, Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry and Georgie Brayshaw (all MBE).
Former F1 driver and broadcaster Martin Brundle is made an OBE and former Scotland and Liverpool footballer Alan Hansen has been made an MBE.
Additional reporting by Press Association
