Roache pays tribute to 'loving wife'

Coronation Street star Bill Roache paid tribute to his late wife Sara at a public memorial service today.

The actor, who plays Ken Barlow on the ITV1 soap, was joined by fellow cast members and other mourners at Bartholomew's Church in Wilmslow, Cheshire this afternoon. A private funeral for friends and family had been held hours earlier.

Mrs. Roache passed away suddenly at her home earlier this month. She was 58.

Bill and Sara tied the knot over 30 years ago and had two grown-up children together, Verity, 29 and William, 23. Their second daughter Edwina died of a chest infection in 1984, aged 18 months.

Speaking at the service today, Roache explained: "[Sara] was the perfect mother to Verity and Will. She did everything. She dressed us, fed us, and she made the house beautiful.

"She paid the bills, she taxed the cars. She jokingly said to me some time ago 'if I went before you, you wouldn't have a clue what to do would you?' How right she was. But it wasn't just that, and being the loving wife and mother, she really was my best friend."

He added: "I am the luckiest man alive to have had such a loving, loyal, devoted beautiful wife for 35 years and to have two beautiful and loving children in Verity and Will. Sara has fulfilled her destiny and gone to a wonderful home to join our daughter Edwina. I know, and I really do know, she is in a beautiful place and we are eternally connected."

Samia Smith (Maria Connor), Ann Kirkbride (Deirdre Barlow), Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) and David Neilson (Roy Cropper) were among the Corrie stars who attended the service.