An OBE for Kylie - and arise, Sir Parky

He may be renowned for an instinctive austerity, but the first new year honours list of Gordon Brown's premiership is scattered with a handful of stardust, as a chatshow host, numerous actors and the nation's favourite diminutive pop singer, Kylie Minogue, receive accolades.

Minogue, who battled back from cancer this year, is to receive an OBE, while Michael Parkinson, who retired from his sofa last week, will be knighted. Britain's grandest theatrical knight, Sir Ian McKellen, becomes a Companion of Honour for "services to drama and equality". Jacqueline Wilson, the children's author who has sold 20m books in Britain alone, becomes a dame.

The prime minister ordered the labyrinth of Whitehall committees which vet nominations from both the public and officialdom to concentrate on people who serve their communities in schools, hospitals and the voluntary sector. Downing Street let it be known yesterday that the vast majority of the 972 people honoured today - 599 of them at the modest MBE level - are what Brown calls "the often unsung heroes of our cities, towns and villages". Some are also heroes of last summer's floods, with residents of Worksop, Tewkesbury and York receiving MBEs for their actions to help neighbours and restrict damage to property.

There are faint echoes of the Blair years with the award of the Order of the Bath to Tom Kelly, the prime minister's official spokesman, who admitted to describing David Kelly, the scientist at the centre of the "dodgy dossier" furore, as being "something of a Walter Mitty character".

There is also an OBE for Dr Debby Reynolds, the former chief veterinary officer, who took early retirement this year after handling crises of foot and mouth, avian flu, bovine TB and bluetongue virus. Blair has yet to issue a resignation honours list.

The most high-profile recipients come from the worlds of entertainment, the arts and retailing. There are no peerages, but knighthoods go to Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, who has led a revival in the retailer's fortunes, and Nicholas Kenyon, the managing director of the Barbican, who directed the BBC Proms seasons for 12 years. Charles Saumarez Smith, who left the National Gallery after a power struggle and crossed Piccadilly to the Royal Academy, where he is secretary and chief executive, is made a CBE.

Minogue, on holiday in Melbourne with her family, said she felt "deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home". Other new OBEs include the actor Richard Griffiths, who played Hector in the film of The History Boys, and Trevor Romeo, also known as Jazzie B, the creator of the Soul II Soul music empire.

Des Lynam, the broadcaster who anchored Match of the Day for years, said his OBE was "a splendid surprise". Brendan Foster, founder of the Great North Run and Olympic medallist, becomes a CBE, as do the veteran actor Leslie Phillips and Julie Walters, who is working on a big-screen adaptation of the hit musical Mamma Mia, the novelist Hanif Kureishi and jazz pianist Stan Tracey.

In science, Dolly the Sheep's creator, Ian Wilmut, will be knighted for "revolutionising" biology through the cloning technique. Cambridge-based cancer researchers Professor Bruce Ponder and Professor Li Ka Shing are to be knighted.

Whitehall desk warriors will sigh with relief to see that Sir David Manning, Tony Blair's ambassador to Washington, gets an upgrade for his knighthood, from KCMG to GCMG.

But the high-profile names are overwhelmed by headteachers, classroom assistants, youth workers and charity fundraisers such as John Hewlett, who has been a Poppy Appeal organiser in Worcester for more than 40 years. The Rev David Hands, a Sunderland bus driver, receives an MBE for services to public transport, and Alisdair Macdonald, headteacher of Morpeth school in east London, is to be knighted.

There are 378 women on the list, 39% of the total, as in 2006, and 6% of the total are from ethnic minorities. Of the MBEs and OBEs, 78% are honoured for charitable, voluntary or extracurricular work.

In sport, there are OBEs for Jason Robinson, the retired England rugby player, and Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, who captained the England women's cricket team from 1966 to 1978 and was unbeaten in six Tests.

Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the British Transport police, is awarded an OBE, while Nuala O'Loan, who became the first police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, becomes a dame.

Tracey Palmer was one of a clutch of ordinary people who behaved heroically during the summer floods and received MBEs in the New Year honours list.