Dame Mary Beard 'dead chuffed' with honour

Historian and Cambridge University professor Dame Mary Beard tweeted she was "hugely pleased" to be honoured with a damehood.

She told BBC Breakfast that she feels "dead chuffed" along with feeling "a sense of disbelief" - and she was up late last night celebrating.

"It's an honour for me but an honour for the ancient Greeks and Romans too and for all my colleagues who work on classical civilisations," she said. "What's not to like?"

She said her family have joked whether she has been made a "pantomime dame", with her husband telling her: "You must be Buttons."