A Suffolk man said he feels 'tranquil' as he was made a CBE for his services to cinema and drama.
David Gothard was given the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 new year honours list.
Mr Gothard, who now lives in London but hails from Worlingham, near Beccles, has hosted a variety of international productions as an artistic producer and director.
His gleaming career has seen him travel across the world on many artistic projects as a producer, director and a writer.
He was trained as a director at the Edinburgh Traverse Theatre after studying Italian studies as well as philosophy with an MA in Mental Philosophy in 1965.
After completing his degree, he was sent to Krakow and later began working of larger-scale performances.
He was recognised after producing The Dead Class which was a historical success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
But for the first 20 years of his life, Mr Gothard spent his time roaming the cobbled streets of Norwich and winding through the markets on Saturday with his mother.
Now aged 69, Mr Gothard said he looks back on his time living on the Norfolk and Suffolk border as 'romantic'.
He said: 'My family was from East Anglian villages on both sides, they were gamekeepers at Sandringham, hemp weavers on the river Waveney and above all, my grandfather was a Suffolk Punch horse man behind the plough.
'My father was a printer - In short we all celebrated heavy Norfolk or Suffolk dialect in all its glory,' he said.
'I was born in Worlingham and attended Beccles Secondary School - it was the kind of place where if you saw a red squirrel outside, the whole school would stop and all look outside.
'We had great teachers who would teach us local history. In a village school you are learning that you have medieval history.
'Worlingham was a great village school and Sir John Leman expressed the bounteous nature of postwar education.'
Despite chalking up an impressive career and nearing the age of retirement, he said he will continue to contribute to the arts and is currently directing in Barcelona and making a new independent film.
'Although I am at the age of retirement, you just carry on doing it until you don't get up,' he said.
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