Star has new trick up her
sleeve after receiving MBE

The New Tricks star said that though she knows Charles is a fan of the hit TV crime drama, he was more interested in talking about her charity work.

After the ceremony at Buckingham Palace she said he had asked about the Artists’ Theatre School she set up, which has trained dozens of young actors.

She said: “He was surprised about how long it’s been since it was set up, and said what great talent we have produced.”

Redman is best known for her role as Sandra Pullman in New Tricks about a group of retired detectives.

Former England goalkeeper David James, who also received an MBE, said the Prince asked him about the foundation he has set up in Malawi to help local farmers.

The star, currently playing for Bournemouth said: “It is an agricultural foundation set up in Malawi to educate farmers on better farming techniques, in a bid to solve the problem of starvation issues.”

James, who has played for Bristol City, Watford, Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth, received the award for his services to football and charity.

Innovative Scottish comic writer Grant Morrison, famous as one of a trio of British writers who have transformed the American comic book industry and given it a darker adult edge that has inspired a series of Hollywood blockbusters, also received an MBE for services to film and literature.

The 52-year-old, who lives near Glasgow but now spends four months a year working in Los Angeles, said: “He asked me about comics, and said he used to like reading the Eagle in the 1950s.

“I would like to think the award is for the work I’ve been doing in America – it’s mostly British people who have changed the complexion of American comics, which has influenced the movies and TV, and expanded the sphere of British imagination.”

His father, Walter, received an MBE from the Queen in 1998 for his community work.

Film director Baroness Beeban Kidron, who directed Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, received an OBE for services to drama.

She said: “This has been lovely. This is a collection of people from so many different walks of life, that’s what I liked. ”

Former homeless soldier Jimmy Carlson, from Islington, north London, who transformed his life after nearly a quarter of a century as an alcoholic, received an OBE for his services to homeless people after dedicating his life to them.

Lady Archer, the wife of author and disgraced former politician Lord Archer, was awarded a DBE for services to the NHS as chairwoman of Cambridge University Hospitals Trust.