Catherine Zeta Jones gets top billing with CBE

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The Welsh beauty rose to fame after playing fresh-faced Mariette Larkin in ITV's popular adaptation of HE Bates's The Darling Buds of May in 1991 and her greatest Hollywood success to date was her performance in 2002's Chicago as vampish killer Velma Kelly, for which she won the best supporting actress Oscar.

The 40-year-old is honoured alongside fellow stars of the screen John Nettles, star of Midsomer Murders and Bergerac, and Sophie Okonedo, who was nominated for an Oscar for the film Hotel Rwanda, with both receiving OBEs.

Two women who helped teach generations of Britons to cook, Prue Leith and Marguerite Patten, are awarded CBEs and there is an OBE for writer and broadcaster Bonnie Greer, who featured on the controversial BBC Question Time panel that included BNP leader Nick Griffin last October.

Swansea-born Catherine Zeta Jones said she had her sights firmly set on her acting career since childhood.

"I have made a lot of sacrifices in my life – but that's because I'm so ambitious," she said. "I've always admitted it. That's why I'm here today."

Born in 1969 she appeared in stage productions including Annie and Bugsy Malone as a child before moving to London and winning parts in West End shows.

After the success of the Darling Buds of May she gained TV and film roles in America, making her breakthrough in Hollywood as Elena Montero in 1998's The Mask Of Zorro.

Ms Jones went on to star in gritty drugs trade drama Traffic beside Michael Douglas, whom she married in New York that year.

Well-known faces from television also recognised in the list also include 'Allo 'Allo actress Vicki Michelle, 59, and presenter Fred Dinenage, whose credits include long-running children's science show How. Both receive an MBE.

There are also OBEs for Avengers writer Brian Clemens, TV journalist and conservationist Julian Pettifer, 74, and Eileen Gallagher, 50, chief executive of Shed Productions, makers of ITV drama Footballers' Wives.

Mr Dinenage, who was honoured for his five decades on TV, said: "I'm being honoured for enjoying myself."

For a generation of TV viewers, the 68-year-old will forever be one of the faces of children's TV show How, sharing facts and trivia with a young audience.

He has also achieved renown as presenter of ITV's World Of Sport and game show Gambit for many years, as well as being a long-serving regional news presenter in the south of England.

But he admitted the joy of seeing his daughter, Caroline, become Conservative MP for Gosport in Hampshire and make her maiden speech this week meant his own achievement had actually slipped his mind.

"The funny thing is that I got wrapped up in the excitement of my daughter being elected – it's been all-consuming, and so I forgot all about it until today," he said.

Prue Leith said she was "very pleased" to be made a CBE and was looking forward to wearing it to dinner parties.

The food guru was honoured for services to the catering industry.

She said: "I got an OBE many years ago now, and I always wanted to go to one of those parties which say 'decorations will be worn'.

"I was invited to one last week. If it had been a week later I could have worn this one instead."

Variously a restaurateur, writer, broadcaster and novelist, the 70-year-old remains best known as one of the UK's favourite cooks.

Until earlier this year she was head of the School Food Trust, a leading light in the campaign to encourage the nation's children to eat more healthily.