'Emmerdale' star pays tribute to Hornby

Emmerdale actor Kelvin Fletcher has paid tribute to his late co-star Clive Hornby, describing him as a "second father".

Kelvin formed a close bond with Clive soon after he joined the ITV1 soap in 1996. Their relationship mirrored the scenes they were filming for the show, which saw Fletcher's wayward character Andy taken in by kindly Jack Sugden, played by Hornby.

Clive died at the age of 63 earlier this month following a period of ill health. He had been forced to take a break from the soap at the beginning of this year.

"It's not really hit me yet. There is such a massive void there," Kelvin told The Mirror. "The minute he went there was a huge hole. There are certain scenes now that you think he should be in and he should be there.

"He was definitely a second father to me, without question. He was a massive part of my life from 12 years old."

Fletcher confirmed that Hornby's death came as a shock to the entire cast. The actor had always insisted to his co-stars that he would be back eventually.

"We knew he'd been ill for a while but like anything else you don't accept it," Kelvin explained. "He had been off work for a couple of months and what was the hardest was to do scenes saying we missed Jack. We would say, 'Oh Jack's on holiday, I wonder when he's coming back.' It was hard to do that."

Emmerdale cast members paid their final respects to Hornby at his funeral last week.