Madcap comic Spike Milligan and five-times Olympic gold-medallist Steve Redgrave are the heroes of the New Year Honours list published today, with both men becoming knights.

The 82-year-old genius, who once publicly called his close friend the Prince of Wales "a little grovelling bastard", greeted the award with a single Milliganesque word: "Help!".

Redgrave, delighted by the recognition, said: "Having gone through the heights of the Olympic Games five times and picking up honours along the way, it's now finished with a knighthood - it's unbelievable. It's not something I dreamt about."

Honours go to all the British gold-medallists at Sydney.

North-East hero Jonathan Edwards, already an MBE, and the winner of the triple jump at Sydney, gets a CBE. There is an OBE for Denise Lewis, also a holder of the MBE, who won the heptathlon title in Sydney.

Milligan, whose knighthood is honorary because he is an Irish citizen, adopted his father's Irish nationality. He had refused to take the oath of allegiance which stood between him and a British passport.

Milligan's wife Shelagh, 56, said he was "delighted and thrilled" to receive the title. "I asked Spike what his reaction was and he simply said 'help'."

Paul Scofield, 78, one of the greatest Shakespearian actors of his generation, becomes a Companion of Honour.

Knighthoods go to Bafta winning actor Tom Courtenay and to astronomer Patrick Moore, 77, who has presented The Sky At Night for the BBC for more than 40 years.

As Coronation Street celebrates its 40th birthday, there is an MBE for actor Bill Roache, who as Ken Barlow is the only remaining member of the original cast of the first live episode in 1960.

Actress and Francophile Charlotte Rampling gets an OBE in the diplomatic list "for services to acting and UK-French cultural relations".

Comedian Jim Davidson, host of the BBC1 hit The Generation Game, who regularly entertains British service personnel abroad and who has raised funds for the Conservative Party, receives an OBE.

He said: "It's all a bit unreal. I never saw myself getting one. I didn't think there was any way that this Prime Minister and this Government would give me an honour."

An MBE goes to actor Trevor Harrison, who has played Eddie Grundy in BBC Radio 4's The Archers for more than 20 years.

There is also an MBE for TV prankster Jeremy Beadle, who receives the award for his charity work, a CBE for veteran actor Joss Ackland, 71, while jazzman Acker Bilk, 71, gets an MBE.

An OBE goes to broadcaster Sue Lawley, hostess of the long-running radio series Desert Island Discs.