Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire 'emotional' about OBE

Happy Valley star Sarah Lancashire said she was thrilled and "slightly speechless" after being made an OBE.

The actress received the honour for services to drama from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace.

Lancashire, who was accompanied by her three children, said she wished her father had been alive to see it.

"At times like this, really, one tends to focus on parents, and my father would have been the proudest man in the world," she said.

She added: "I think it is an emotional moment.

"It's very difficult because you are in these most spectacular surroundings and you are trying desperately to take it all in but your head is full of white noise because you don't want to fall over when you curtsey. It's wonderful."

Lancashire, who became a household name in the 1990s after starring as barmaid Raquel in Coronation Street, said she had been nervous before the ceremony because "I don't do things like this very easily".

The Oldham-born actress won acclaim for playing police sergeant Catherine Cawood in BBC crime drama Happy Valley in 2014 and 2016.

Her other TV credits include Last Tango in Halifax. Both dramas are written by Sally Wainwright.

Lancashire said Wainwright would return to write further series of both programmes.

"Happy Valley is unfinished business so we have to go back and finish that off," she said.

"And Tango is always a delight... we have sort of become a family away from the screen as well, so it's a lovely piece to work on."

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