SUFFOLK New College has honoured high achievers from the world of the music hall, archaeology and the theatre.In a ceremony yesterday, it awarded honorary doctorates to Roy Hudd, Carenza Lewis and Amanda Donohoe, who all have close links to the county.

SUFFOLK New College has honoured high achievers from the world of the music hall, archaeology and the theatre.

In a ceremony yesterday, it awarded honorary doctorates to Roy Hudd, Carenza Lewis and Amanda Donohoe, who all have close links to the county.

Roy Hudd OBE is a leading theatre historian as well as being one of the nation's foremost actors and scriptwriters.

His radio show, The News Huddlines on Radio Two, is now officially the world's longest radio comedy with 26 years under its belt.

He is also the proud possessor of one of the largest collections of theatrical memorabilia, is President of The British Music Hall Society and is currently in negotiation with the university to create a new national archive.

Roy, who has just returned to the cast of Coronation Street as the undertaker Archie Shuttleworth, said he was honoured to be awarded the degree.

TV archaeologist Carenza Lewis was honoured for her services to the popularisation of archaeology through her role on Time Team.

It was also recognition of her work with Suffolk's Aim Higher Project Team, encouraging teenagers to investigate the history of villages by analysing artefacts unearthed in local digs.

A visiting archaeology lecturer at Cambridge University, she grew up in Bungay and developed her love of the subject by roaming the Suffolk countryside - and made her first discovery of dinosaur vertebrae at the age of seven in a Suffolk field.

Amanda Donhoe, one of the few actresses to work steadily in the UK and America, said she was hugely shocked and pleasantly surprised by the honour - “particularly as I left school without any A levels”.

Having worked on such diverse series as LA Law and Bad Girls as well as appearing in films such as Liar of the White Worm for Ken Russell, Liar, Liar with Jim Carrey and Castaway with Oliver Reed, she has a unique perspective on the world of drama.