Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent in Black Adder the Third
James Hugh Calum Laurie has been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Drama in the Queen’s New Year Honours List.
A performer perhaps best known for House, M.D., Laurie’s genre credits include the alt-history series Blackadder II (Prince Ludwig / Simon Partridge), Black Adder the Third (The Prince Regent, their master), Blackadder Goes Forth (Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Barleigh) and other Blackadder productions. He’s also played the family patriarch in the live-action and animated Stuart Little features, David Nix, leader of the future world in Tomorrowland, and Bertie Wooster in the Jeeves and Wooster series. He’s been a voice actor in the Monsters vs. Aliens franchise.
There are others on the List with tangential genre credits (former Beatle Ringo Starr, for one). See the full list of honorees in the Mirror. Maybe you’ll spot somebody else who needs mentioning.
[Thanks to JJ for the story.]
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Awesome! Here’s Sir Barry Gibb being science fictional. Vaguely.
While Laurie is best known as House in the US, he was far better known for his comedy in the UK (Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder) before pitching up as a Serious Actor in the US. It’s a testament to his skills at an actor that I can mostly forget all that when watching House.
It’s a similar situation to Ian McShane’s new career playing a series of hard men in US shows when he’s best known in the UK as a lovable rogue.
Helen Sharman, euphemistically credited in that Mirror piece “for services to Science and Technology Educational Outreach” – although that could be just a cut’n’paste from a press release.
Some relevant background reading for those who haven’t heard of her.
Great news!
Catching up on Sharman (who I don’t remember ever hearing about); can any Brit on this list comment on her getting the CMG, which is most visibly awarded for foreign service (either abroad or dealing with the rest of the world)? The links speak of her as a leader in education in the UK.
Chip Hitchcock: can any Brit on this list comment on her getting the CMG, which is most visibly awarded for foreign service (either abroad or dealing with the rest of the world)? The links speak of her as a leader in education in the UK.
One of the links talks about her being one of two applicants out of 13,000 who were selected to train at Moscow’s Star City in Russia for 18 months, learning the language and doing advanced mechanics. Then she was selected to go on an eight-day mission with a Soviet crew aboard the Russian station Mir. I would imagine that’s where the “foreign service” comes in.
Yes, I’ve seen a statement somewhere that they decided that Outer Space counts as foreign service, which is perfectly fair if you ask me.
I can certainly see a non-UK space station as involving foreign service — but AFAICT the Honors List is usually for work that didn’t end 26 years ago. (e.g., I recall a spy story (maybe a Laundry?) in which the top man is expecting a *CMG on retirement.) Also, it doesn’t square with her statement (in John S.’s first link) that her OBE long ago was for space and the CMG is for later work in education (“[mumble] outreach”; Wikipedia says it’s for “services to Science and Technology Outreach”. Has she been doing international education that W doesn’t mention? Or is this some very British matter of precedence (*MG is senior to *BE), or even a way of giving her another gong without making her a Dame? (W is silent, but the terminology and the forms of other orders suggest that this lowest rank of MG comes without a knighthood.)