Idris Elba, Torvill and Dean receive honours at Windsor Castle

Actor Sir Idris Elba was one of several stars to receive honours from King Charles at Windsor Castle on Tuesday. The 53-year-old, known for US crime series The Wire and police drama Luther, was awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours for services to young people. There was also a knighthood and damehood for Olympic champions Dame Jayne Torvill and Sir Christopher Dean, for services to ice skating and to voluntary service.

Actress and comedian Dame Meera Syal, known for The Kumars At No 42 and Goodness Gracious Me, was recognised for services to literature, drama and charity.In 2022, Sir Idris founded the Elba Hope Foundation, which supports community empowerment, education, youth advocacy and sustainable development.

The actor used a grant from the Prince’s Trust – now the King’s Trust – to attend the National Youth Music Theatre aged 18. It was announced last year that the Luther star will team up with the King to create a documentary marking 50 years since Charles founded the charity, due to air on Netflix this autumn.

Ice dancers Dame Jayne and Sir Christopher took home the Olympic gold at the 1984 Winter Games for their Bolero performance. The pair later became the faces of ITV celebrity competition show Dancing On Ice. After finding out about the honour, Dame Jayne, 68, said the timing seemed “perfect” after the two danced on the ice for the final time last year.

She said: “We had such a great time, we were so happy with the tour and the fact that we got through it. “It was a big thing for us to mark our career before retirement, and then receiving this award at the end of the year, it’s just finished everything. It’s perfect.”

Dame Jayne Torvill has also been a celebrity ambassador for a children’s hospice in the South East for more than 20 years, while Sir Christopher Dean has served as a head coach and mentor for the British Ice-Skating Academy of Dance.

Dame Meera Syal had her breakthrough writing and starring in the BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me in the late 1990s, and went on to appear in The Kumars at No. 42 in the early 2000s.

In 2017, the actress was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2023, she was awarded the Bafta Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest accolade for a career on screen.

Dame Meera, 64, is also an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society, a role she took up in 2013 after receiving “amazing” help from the charity following her father’s dementia diagnosis. She is also a supporter of Kisharon – a charity for Jewish children, young people, and adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Also on Tuesday, Rotherham comedian Paul Elliott, best known as one of the Chuckle Brothers, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for charitable service. The comedy double act, made up of Paul and his late brother Barry, were a staple in British homes with their TV show ChuckleVision.

Nearly 300 episodes, which aired during the 1990s and 2000s, showed the hapless, accident-prone brothers uttering their catchphrase “To me, to you” as they caused chaos everywhere they went. Elliott, 78, known as Paul Chuckle, has been a prominent supporter and ambassador for Marie Curie.

The charity’s nurses provided end-of-life care for Barry, and Paul previously spoke about how the nurses looked after his brother “with incredible care and kindness”. (BBC)