EastEnders actress June Brown, most famous for playing Dot Cotton in the BBC soap, has described receiving her MBE as a "quite remarkable" experience.
The Queen awarded the 81-year-old star the honour for her services both to drama and charity.
Brown, who received the honour at Buckingham Palace, said her character would have relished the occasion.
"Dot would have been absolutely delighted. She's a great royalist and a fairly good Christian," she added.
"She wavers off but so do we all," the actress said.
Brown joined the EastEnders cast in 1985, and Dot Cotton - now Dot Branning - has become a firm favourite with viewers and a fixture in Albert Square.
"Actors don't retire. Not unless they've lost their faculties," she said.
Brown is also president of the Michael Elliott Trust, which gives children with special needs the chance to look after abandoned donkeys.
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