Wesker, Dankworth and Jones knighted in New Year Honours

Published Tuesday 3 January 2006 at 13:35 by Nuala Calvi

Playwright Arnold Wesker, author of Chicken Soup With Barley and Longitude, has been made a knight in the 2006 New Year Honours list, along with jazz musician John Dankworth and pop star Tom Jones.

Wesker, who came to attention at the Royal Court in the fifties with plays such as Roots, The Kitchen and Chips with Everything, enjoyed a comeback in 2005 with the premiere of Longitude at the Greenwich Theatre and revivals of Chicken Soup at the Nottingham Playhouse and Tricycle Theatre.

Composer and saxophonist Dankworth has played for some 65 years and worked with greats including Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald. He and chart-topper Jones were both honoured for their services to music.

Meanwhile, Heritage Lottery Fund chair and former BBC Radio managing director Liz Forgan becomes a dame and Royal Opera House chief executive Tony Hall, TV entertainer Bruce Forsyth and former Channel 4 deputy chief executive David Scott were awarded CBEs.

From the world of acting, Bafta winner Imelda Staunton, star of Vera Drake and Pride and Prejudice, was made an OBE, as was Harry Potter and Cracker star Robbie Coltrane and actor/writer Sanjeev Bhaskar, from Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No 42. Other OBEs included writer and filmmaker Roger Graef, choreographer and director Royston Maldoon, and Capercaille lead singer Karen Matheson.

MBEs included Coronation Street’s Roy Barraclough, actresses Una McLean and Olivia Nash, folk singer Eddi Reader and all three of the Beverley Sisters - Babs, Joy and Teddie.