Actor Stephen Graham made OBE in New Year Honours list

He's become one of the most revered and popular names in British acting

Actor Stephen Graham has been made OBE in the New Year Honours for services to drama.

The much-loved actor will receive the Order of the British Empire for his services, having appeared in a number of critically-acclaimed blockbuster films and TV dramas across his three-decade career.

Graham has starred opposite the likes of Brad Pitt in 2000 film Snatch and more recently featured alongside legends Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino in the 2019 gangster epic The Irishman.

The film he is best known for though is probably 2006 drama This Is England, where he played the dangerous English nationalist Andrew ‘Combo’ Gascoigne.

He has also become one of the most-loved and recognisable faces in British television. The 49-year-old reprised the character of Combo in the TV dramas This Is England ’86, This Is England ’88 and This Is England ’90, which aired on Channel 4.

Graham starred in the fifth series of Line of Duty, and had a role in the Peaky Blinders finale this year. [caption id="attachment_372288" align="alignnone" width="1262"] Graham had a starring role in the fifth series of BBC police drama Line of Duty (BBC)[/caption] Last year, he starred alongside Jodie Comer in Help, which won the International Emmy for TV movie, and received praise along with Sean Bean for his role in prison drama Time. This year he starred in drama The Walk In, a dramatisation of real-world events in which Graham plays reformed neo-Nazi Matthew Collins' as he tries to infiltrate and derail one of the UK’s most threatening far-right groups. He also received praise for his one-take film Boiling Point, in which he plays head chef Andy Jones as he battles numerous personal and professional crises. Names from across the worlds of sport, television, film and music have also been recognised in the 2023 New Year Honours. Related links:

• These were the most-watched Netflix movies and shows in 2022
• The JOE Friday Pub Quiz: Week 327 – the 2022 roundup
• Stephen Graham one-shot film has 98% on Rotten Tomatoes