Stuart Hall awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting and charity

Stuart Hall has become an OBE in the Queen's New Year Honours list, for services to broadcasting and charity.

The 82-year-old, a familiar voice of sport, news and the gameshow It's A Knockout, has enjoyed a career stretching back more than 50 years.

He is still a regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 live and was also the original host of A Question Of Sport.

"I'm overjoyed," he told BBC Sport. "It's a great surprise, totally unexpected. I'm grateful."

Hall celebrated his 82nd birthday on Christmas Day and now has another reason to celebrate.

"It's a recognition that you've put something in," he stated. "I've worked for charity now for the last 52 years, I've raised millions of pounds and it's a little thank you.

"I feel, in my 82nd year, a little glow of pleasure.

"I've always regarded myself as a second-rate provincial hack. Well, that was yesterday. Now I've got the OBE I'm still a provincial second-rate hack, but I'm a good one. It has made all the difference."

The presenter has built a loyal following for his effusive style and flowery prose during his breathless football commentaries.

He also claims to have coined the phrase the "Beautiful Game".

Hall - an admirer of Shakespeare - plans to write a poem about his OBE honour but says retirement is not on the agenda, adding: "I intend to go on and on and on."