Author and television presenter Richard Osman has said he is 'very proud of being from Britain' after receiving an OBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle. The 55-year-old former Pointless co-host was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature and broadcasting during an investiture ceremony on May 5th.
Speaking to the Press Association afterwards, Osman said: 'I'm very proud of being from Britain, and this place paid for my entire education and paid for my entire healthcare when I was growing up. I'm very proud of the opportunities this country gave me. I'm very proud of growing up in a country that's full of writers and funny people and creative people. I owe this country an awful lot, and I intend to pay as much of that back as I can.'
Osman, who moved into crime fiction with the launch of the first book in the hugely successful Thursday Murder Club series in 2020, revealed he discussed writing and quizzing with Anne. 'We had a nice chat,' he said. 'I was always trying to remember you have to shake hands and walk back to and then bow and then walk off. That's all I was thinking. I felt very nervous going in there. It's crazy being in Windsor Castle. It feels like a responsibility more than an honour.'
When asked what being British means to him, he said: 'When you're in a place like this, and you see the pageantry of it, and you see the tradition of the place, you just think, this is a particular part of Britain, but there's another part of Britain, which is my part of Britain. Part of Britain, which is the youngsters growing up and making sure they've all got creative opportunities and making sure they all had the opportunities that I had when I was growing up.'
Osman stepped down as co-presenter of BBC One gameshow Pointless in 2022 after 13 years to concentrate on his writing career. His six novels follow a quartet of pensioners-turned-amateur detectives residing in a Kent retirement village, who band together to investigate unsolved crimes and crack murder cases. A film adaptation featuring Pierce Brosnan and Dame Helen Mirren was released on Netflix last year. Osman revealed his exit from the BBC's House Of Games in March, with actor Michael Sheen set to take over the presenting role.
