Celebs from Lulu to Bake Off’s Prue Leith, 81, and His Dark Materials star Ruth Wilson given Queen’s Birthday Honours

SINGER Lulu has had her OBE upgraded to a CBE as a host of showbiz celebrities are handed Queen’s Birthday Honours.

The star, 72, is joined on the list by fellow 1960s crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, 85, who becomes an MBE.

Bake Off’s Prue Leith, 81, and ex-Strictly judge Arlene Phillips, 78, are to become dames, while radio stalwart Simon Mayo, 62,  and His Dark Materials actress Ruth Wilson, 39, both receive MBEs.

Bond villain Jonathan Pryce, 74,  has  been given a knighthood — before he takes over as the Duke of Edinburgh in the final two seasons of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown.

Singer Alison Moyet, whose 1984 debut solo album was called Alf, has also been made an MBE.

She said: “A remarkable, happy-making 60th birthday surprise for me. Basildon’s Alf with extra initials. I didn’t see that coming.” 

Engelbert  described the honour as a “dream come true” and paid tribute to his late wife, Patricia, who died in February after contracting Covid.

He said: “I have always flown the British flag wherever I went. I didn’t just go there as an entertainer. I went there as a British subject.”

Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, 72, said he is “stunned and genuinely very proud” after being made a CBE and that he wished his parents were alive to see it.

Rock singer Skin, 53, from the band Skunk Anansie, is also awarded an OBE for her services to music.

Former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, 73,  said he is delighted to have been made a CBE  for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention.  He dedicated the honour to the crime science institute founded in memory of his late colleague Jill Dando. Sun legal expert Judge Robert Rinder, 43, gets an MBE for his work educating the nation about the Holocaust, alongside his mum Angela Cohen. 

He said: “I have a kind of nuclear-powered sense of impostor syndrome. It has been dialled up even more in receiving this honour, made more beautiful because my mum is getting one on the same day.”