Alan Bates joins the ranks of the actor knights

Knighthoods for the actor Alan Bates and the film director and producer Ridley Scott lead the honours awarded to leading figures in the world of arts and entertainment.

Brian McMaster, 59, who has run the Edinburgh International Festival for the past decade, is also knighted, while the writer Peter Ackroyd, the artist Sir Howard Hodgkin and the opera singer Bryn Terfel are also recognised.

Alan Bates, 68, has been one of Britain's finest performers since his career took off with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in 1956.

The knighthood for Scott, 65, comes a year after his fellow director Alan Parker was similarly honoured. His films include Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise and Gladiator. Other film and stage stars to be recognised include the actor, director and writer Brian Cox, who is appointed CBE.

Brenda Blethyn, twice nominated for Oscars, is created OBE as are Edward Fox and the former Hollywood leading lady Jean Simmons, 73, more than half a century after she played Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.

Others appointed OBE include Stuart Craig, the designer who created the magic scenes in the Harry Potter films, and the theatre director Michael Blakemore. Raymond Baxter, face of television science on Tomorrow's World, is made an OBE for services to heritage as co-founder of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships. The comedian Jasper Carrott is appointed OBE for services to charity.

Ackroyd, author of books on London, Charles Dickens and others, is created CBE as is the poet Jo Shapcott, the first person to win the National Poetry Competition twice. At 90, Anthony Buckeridge, creator of the Jennings books, is appointed OBE, as is Ranjit Bolt, translator of classic plays. Terfel and the conductor Jane Glover are both created CBE.

Hodgkin and Sir Denis Mahon, an art historian who has given much of his private collection to the nation, are made Companions of Honour.