Laurie and Keith recognised in Queen's New Year's Honours

Actors and directors have been recognised in The Queen's New Year's Honours List for 2007, with some well-known names being rewarded for their services to the industry.

Hugh Laurie, star of the television series Blackadder, Jeeves & Wooster and House (in the US), and Sally Greene, the owner and director of The Old Vic Theatre (of which Kevin Spacey is Artistic Director), have both been awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) whilst the actress Penelope Keith, famous for her starring role as Margo in the BBC television series, The Good Life, was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

Along with her, Tony award winner John Wood, the Shakespearean actor who joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s and starred alongside Ian McKellen in the film Richard III in 1995 also received the award. Another RSC Associate, Steven Pimlott, who was company director for their 1996 Stratford Season, received an OBE. Among many other production credits, he has directed Bombay Dreams at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the London Palladium (and other productions around the world), Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George at the Royal National Theatre and more than 30 operas in the UK, Germany, Austria, Australia and Israel.

The artistic director of Welsh theatre company Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Terry Hands, also received a CBE, which recognised his long career in the theatre. He joined the company in 1996, after leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company with which he'd spent 25 years. Hands said on winning, "I'm surprised and delighted. I think it's always good for the arts to get any kind of award - it sort of proves that we're not entirely rogues and vagabonds!"

The New Year Honours List pays tribute to outstanding achievement and service right across the community. A key aim is to reward those people who have really made a difference, or who have given outstanding service to others in difficult situations. The list also reflects the British Government's commitment to honouring those in its key priority areas: education, health, law and order.

To read the full New Years Honours List 2007, please visit www.honours.gov.uk

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