TV comedy writers receive CBEs

TV writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have received CBEs from the Prince of Wales.

The pair - who penned classic series The Likely Lads, Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - picked up the honour at Buckingham Palace.

Clement said afterwards: "It's wonderful. I feel very gratified."

He revealed that the Prince had asked them if they met at university, saying: "We said, 'No we met in a pub in Notting Hill'. He asked if we were still [writing]. We said, 'Yes because we don't know what else to do'."

The duo met on holiday while La Frenais, from Newcastle, was an out-of-work insurance salesman and Clement, from Essex, was a BBC trainee. They wrote a sketch about two Northern lads for Clement's director exams, which led to the BBC commissioning The Likely Lads.

La Frenais, who also worked on Lovejoy and Spender, said of the ceremony: "I was more interested than nervous at seeing the whole procedure."

The pair recently collaborated on Aardman film Flushed Away, which received a BAFTA nomination earlier this year. They have lived in the US since the 1980s, where they initially moved to write a US version of Porridge.