Stephen Fry is knighted for his services to mental health awareness as he leads long list of TV and film stars included in the New Year’s Honours list

Stephen Fry has confirmed his status as a national treasure after being knighted in the New Year Honours.

The comedian, actor and presenter said he felt ‘shocked and mesmerized’ after receiving the top gong – and insisted it came ‘out of nowhere’.

Sir Stephen, 67, who has spoken candidly about his battle with bipolar disorder after being expelled from school, was recognized for his services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.

Pioneering black actress Carmen Munroe, 92, will also receive top honors for being made a Dame for services to drama.

Best known for her role as Shirley Ambrose in the Channel 4 sitcom, Desmond’s star came to Britain from Guyana in 1951 and has played an important role in the development of black British theatre.

Meanwhile, actresses Sarah Lancashire, 60, and Carey Mulligan, 39, have been made CBE, as has celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh, 75.

Last night Sir Stephen said he hopes his knighthood can show people with mental health problems that ‘there is always hope’.

He said he would also try to be “brave, chivalrous and courteous” as they are “all knightly qualities.”

The QI presenter has spoken candidly about how his battle with the disease saw him expelled from boarding school as a boy and even served a spell in prison.

He went to Cambridge, where he formed a comedy troupe with Dame Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery and Hugh Laurie in the university’s famous Footlights club.

He shot to fame playing Laurie in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and starred alongside the House actor in Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder.

But all the while he battled manic depression, which he has chronicled in documentaries and memoirs.

This saw him become president of the charity Mind since 2011, while he has also been vice-president of the conservation organization Fauna and Flora International since 2009.

Sir Stephen has also worked with the Terence Higgins Trust since 1991, raising awareness and funds for people living with HIV and AIDS.

He said it was “great” to see these charities recognized because “it all goes back to my own terrible, worst experiences of what mental illness can do to someone.”

Broadcaster and gardener Alan Titchmarsh said he is “excited to the core” to become a CBE for services to horticulture and to charities.

Titchmarsh admitted he shared a “tearful moment” as he told his wife Alison and daughters about the honor which comes 25 years after his MBE.

He has been a well-known face since covering the Chelsea Flower Show for the BBC in 1983 and fronting Gardener’s World from 1996 to 2002.

He also presented the TV show Ground Force with a garden makeover, which made him, Charlie Dimmock and Charlie Walsh famous.

But in addition to his television work, the Yorkshire-born gardener has been chairman of Perennial, formerly the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society, since 2004. He is also chairman of the charity Plant Heritage, whose patron is the King.

“I’ve been an MBE for 25 years, so I actually thought that was… I’m very happy with that,” he said.

Titchmarsh described his emotions as follows: ‘Totally thrilled, surprised, but excited and honored to be considered worthy of a CBE, incredibly flattering.’

Bafta-winning actress Sarah Lancashire said it was an ‘unexpected delight’ to be awarded a CBE for her services to drama.

She has received critical acclaim for performances in Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax following her breakthrough role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street.

Three-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan will also receive a CBE for services to drama.

She rose to prominence in the coming-of-age hit An Education before rising to prominence with her performances in Promising Young Woman, She Said, Drive and Maestro.

Stage and film star Anne-Marie Duff, 54, said she feels ‘incredibly lucky and privileged’ when she became OBE.

Duff, who made her name in the comedy-drama series Shameless playing Queen Elizabeth I and Lady Macbeth, said that “being recognized in any way always feels like an incredible blessing.”

Actor Eddie Marsan, 56, who plays Amy Winehouse’s father Mitch in the biopic Back to Black, said he is ‘shocked, delighted and deeply honoured’ to have been made an OBE.

The Happy Go Lucky star said he wants to share the credit for his achievements in drama with “my wife, my family and the people I grew up with in Bethnal Green.”

Inspector Morse and Lewis actor Kevin Whately, 73, said he was ‘grateful and delighted’ when he was appointed OBE for services to drama and charity.

The Northumberland-born actor is an ambassador for Action for Children and a trustee of the Wavendon Foundation, which supports creation and education in the performing arts.

He said: ‘Full-time charity workers dedicate their lives to their cause, and every one of them deserves a medal.’

Myleene Klass, 46, said she was ‘absolutely over the moon’ after being appointed MBE for services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and to charity.

The former Hear’Say singer has spoken openly about the psychological impact of four miscarriages.

Following her campaign, the Ministry of Health last year announced a package of new measures to ‘promote the health and well-being of women and girls’.

Klass, who now has three children, said she thinks about “how this all started” and how she had fought back “from a very dark place.”

“I certainly didn’t have any intention of becoming a campaigner at the time,” she says.

Coronation Street star Anne Reid, 89, who played Ken Barlow’s first wife Valerie in the 1960s and 1970s, will become CBE, along with author Robert Harris, 67.

Doctor Who star Tom Baker, 90, who played the fourth incarnation of the Time Lord between 1974 and 1981, was awarded an OBE for television services.

BBC Radio 6 presenter and DJ Steve Lamacq, 60, has been made an MBE for services to broadcasting and music venues.