<\/p>\n
LONDON<\/strong> \u2013 Britons ranging from Hollywood stars Idris Elba<\/a> and Cynthia Erivo<\/a> to a 102-year-old judo instructor have been named in King Charles III\u2019s<\/a> New Year\u2019s honors list, an annual tradition that recognizes people for their contributions to U.K. public life.<\/p>\n Elba, who starred as a drug dealer in \u201cThe Wire\u201d and the president of the United States in \u201cA House of Dynamite,\u201d was knighted for his services to young people after he and his wife, Sabrina, founded the Elba Hope Foundation to target issues such as knife crime, education and poverty.<\/a><\/p>\n The actor accepted the honor on behalf of the young people served by the charity.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope we can do more to draw attention to the importance of sustained, practical support for young people and to the responsibility we all share to help them find an alternative to violence,\u201d Elba said.<\/p>\n Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the ice dancing duo who won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics<\/a> in Sarajevo, were also awarded top honors, with Torvill receiving a damehood and Dean a knighthood.<\/p>\n Erivo, one of the stars of \u201cWicked,\u201d was named a Member of the British Empire, or MBE, for services to music and drama. And John Hearn, who goes by the name Judo Jack, received a British Empire Medal, after the Guinness World Records recognized him as the world\u2019s oldest judo instructor.<\/p>\n Other honorees include author and comedian Richard Osman, who writes the \u201cThursday Murder Club\u201d<\/a> book series and was declared an Officer of the British Empire; retired marathon runner Paula Radcliffe,<\/a> Officer of the British Empire; and 101-year-old D-Day veteran Mervyn Kersh<\/a>, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for school talks on Holocaust remembrance and his wartime service.<\/p>\n The history of Britain\u2019s honors system stretches back to the Middle Ages, when monarchs gave gifts of land, money and titles to those who served the crown. In modern times, that has evolved into a hierarchy of honorary distinctions awarded by the king on the recommendation of the government.<\/p>\n Modern honors are awarded for contributions in areas such as government, academia, the arts and sports. While many of the awards go to politicians, pop stars and Olympic medalists, honorees often include librarians, charity workers and civil servants who serve their communities with little fanfare.<\/p>\n In all, 1,150 people received New Year’s honors this year.<\/p>\n The most prestigious honors are knighthoods and damehoods. Men who receive the awards are entitled to use the honorific \u201csir\u201d before their names, while women use the title \u201cdame.\u201d<\/p>\n Below that are the three levels of the Order of the British Empire. These are known, in order of precedence, as Commander, or CBE; Officer, or OBE; and Member, or MBE. Recipients are entitled to use the initials related to their award after their names.<\/p>\n Honors are generally announced twice a year on New Year\u2019s and the king\u2019s birthday. They are presented by the king or another member of the royal family at ceremonies throughout the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.click2houston.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LONDON \u2013 Britons ranging from Hollywood stars Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo to a 102-year-old judo instructor have been named in King Charles III\u2019s New Year\u2019s honors list, an annual tradition that recognizes people for their contributions to U.K. public life. Elba, who starred as a drug dealer in \u201cThe Wire\u201d and the president of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2216294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[428369,40246,21741,344754,428367,183049,428368,428370,339309,22814],"class_list":["post-2216293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-christopher-dean","tag-cynthia-erivo","tag-entertainment","tag-idris-elba","tag-john-hearn","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-mervyn-kersh","tag-paula-radcliffe","tag-richard-osman","tag-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hollywood-stars-Idris-Elba-Cynthia-Erivo-recognized-in-New-Years.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216295,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216293\/revisions\/2216295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2216294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}