Richard Osman and Bill Bailey receive honours from Princess Royal at Windsor
Author and broadcaster Richard Osman and comedian Bill Bailey were among a raft of figures to receive honours from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle.
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Osman, the writer of the best-selling Thursday Murder Club novels and former host of House of Games and Pointless, was made an OBE for services to literature and broadcasting.
Strictly Come Dancing 2020 winner Bailey was made an MBE for services to entertainment.
Celebrity chef Marcus Wareing, a restaurateur and judge on MasterChef: The Professionals, was also made an MBE for services to the culinary arts and broadcasting.
Read More: Warwick Davis and Alex Greenwood among those honoured by Prince of Wales
Speaking after the ceremony, Osman said he had "a nice chat" with Princess Anne about writing and quizzing.
He said he was "very proud of being from Britain" adding "I'm very proud of the opportunities this country gave me. I'm very proud of growing up in a country that's full of writers and funny people and creative people.
"I owe this country an awful lot, and I intend to pay as much of that back as I can."
After developing and co-hosting game show Pointless for 13 years, Osman moved into writing fiction, releasing the first instalment of his hit crime mystery book series in 2020.
Last year, the story of the group of pensioners who band together to solve murders was adapted for a Netflix film starring Dame Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan.
Bill Bailey, whose real name is Mark Bailey, was made an MBE for services to entertainment at an investiture ceremony with the Princess Royal.
Speaking after the ceremony, the 61-year-old said: “Obviously (AI) is a big threat to the creative industries.
“But I think that if anything, people now value live performance more than anything else.
“I think that if AI does anything to what I do, it is that it focuses people’s thoughts.
“The communal feeling, that sense of belonging, that live performance does that AI can’t ever really replicate.”
As he received his award at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, he told the Princess Royal how “witty” and “beautifully measured” the King was during his state visit to the US.
“We talked about comedy, talked about the importance of humour, and saying how well the King did in his speech in America to Congress.
“It was witty, it was beautifully measured. And it sort of shows that, actually, comedy has a way of getting under the radar a little bit.
Bailey’s big break came in 1995 when his show Bill Bailey’s Cosmic Jam, which was filmed and broadcast on Channel 4, won the Edinburgh Festival Critics Award.
Asked whether it has got harder for comedians to break into the industry, Bailey said: “I think now there are more outlets.
“Comics can have their own YouTube channel, they can have their own Instagram, TikTok.
“They can reach their fans directly without having to go through television.
“TV is a fantastic platform to reach a wider audience, but you don’t necessarily really have to do that these days.”
In 2020, Bailey was crowned the oldest winner of Strictly Come Dancing, when he lifted the glitterball trophy aged 55, alongside professional dancer Oti Mabuse.
“I mean that was a big highlight. That was an unexpected thing. I never expected in a million years that I’d be any good at it.
“So that was something which came out of the blue, really.
“But what I did notice was for me personally, it gave me more confidence.”