[after being formally knighted at Buckingham Palace] It is fantastic. It was lovely to see the Queen again. I love seeing
the Queen and I have always been a royalist. She has got a great smile
and her whole face lights up when she smiles. I told her I have been in
show business 41 years successfully and she said to me that I
had given a lot of people a lot of pleasure. I come from a coal-mining,
working-class background. My father was a coal miner. Today is just
tremendous. When you first come into show business and you get a hit
record, it is the start of something. As time goes on, it just gets
better. This is the best thing that I have had. It is a wonderful
feeling, a heady feeling. Sometimes you just can't believe it, you
think you have been dreaming.
