British divers who helped save a youth football team trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand have been decorated alongside stars of entertainment, sport and the arts in the 2019 New Year Honours list.

Sixties supermodel Lesley “Twiggy” Lawson receives a damehood for services to fashion, the arts and charity, and best-selling author Philip Pullman gets a knighthood.

Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter gets an OBE, while Monty Python star and travel documentary maker Michael Palin is awarded a knighthood.

Overall, 1,148 recipients are named in the 2019 New Year list, including 43 people recognised for their acts responding to the terror attacks in Manchester and London in 2017

Carter, who played Mr Carson in the hit British period drama Downton Abbey, said he was “delighted” his OBE for services to drama came in time to be seen by his 99-year-old mother, who “lit up at the good news”.

He added: “I’m hoping for a 2019 of good news and kindness. It seems perilous times and it would be good to get a bit of kindness, sanity and good cheer back into the world.”

Palin, who gets a knighthood in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas list for his international contributions to travel, culture and geography, said news of the accolade had not sunk in yet.

He said: “I don’t think it will be until I see the envelopes addressing me as Sir Michael Palin. I have been a knight before, in Python films. I have been several knights including Sir Galahad and the knight who said, ‘ni’.”

He added: “I am so very pleased that I was able to sort of morph from being Python and becoming a traveller, or a presenter of travel programmes. That gave me the chance to see an enormous amount of the world.”