Arabella Weir has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list for services to the Arts and to Young People. As well as performing Weir does volunteer work to help disadvantaged kids access opportunities.

Weir posted her response on X: "I am very honoured, genuinely humbled, to have been awarded an MBE not because I’m all about the Empire but because I believe in helping all young people access opportunities regardless of their backgrounds and this acknowledges that. Thank you to all who thought me worthy."

Weir, who was born in San Francisco to Scottish parents, is widely known as one of the stars of hit Scotland-based BBC comedy Two Doors Down, where she plays Beth alongside Alex Norton and Kieran Hodgson, but for a generation of sketch show fans she will be best known as a member of the Fast Show ensemble, most famously adored for her insecure woman with the catchphrase Does My Bum Look Big in This? which spawned both live performances and the title of a novel.

She also played the female character who was assertive until men appeared and then went all passive and giggly. She also played the woman who had ideas which were ignored and then stolen by men in the room. She was also the wife of co-star Charlie Higson's depressive painter and the pushy saleswoman with the catchphrase "no offence". 

She has appeared in numerous others TV shows and live productions. She was in Calender Girls onstage, in the Doctor Who Christmas Special in 2011 and has recently been in Coronation Street. She was also reunited with her Fast Show chum Paul Whitehouse in the recent Xmas edition of Gone Fishing. 

Picture from Two Doors Down: Beth (ARABELLA WEIR), Eric (ALEX NORTON)

Watch Two Doors Down here.

Credit: BBC Studios/Anne Binckebanck