Showbiz stars will pay tribute to Coronation Street legend Bryan Mosley at a special memorial service later this month, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal today.

Soap fans will be rubbing shoulders with stars from the top-rating show when the service is staged on Tuesday, April 13 at Salford Cathedral, which can hold 1,100 people.

And filming of the soap - in which Mr Mosley played Alf Roberts for 37 years before retiring last autumn - at Granada's Manchester studios will stop for the afternoon to allow cast and crew members to attend.

The tributes paid to Mr Mosley, 67, who collapsed and died in Shipley town centre in February, will include a poem read by Sue Nicholls - who plays Alf's widow, Audrey.

William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow and is the soap's longest-serving cast member, Eileen Derbyshire (Emily Bishop) and actress Julie Goodyear - former favourite Bet Gilroy - will be among the other Street names speaking or giving readings.

Tributes will also be paid by actor Frank Finlay, comedians Ken Dodd and Bobby Ball and Chris Gidney - author of the recently published Bryan Mosley biography Street Life - who were all close friends of the father-of-six, who lived at Nab Wood with wife Norma.

A letter from pop star Sir Cliff Richard, another friend of Mr Mosley and like the actor a committed Christian, will be read out while Bradford's Lord Mayor, Councillor Tony Miller, is to represent the city at the service.

Mr Mosley's son-in-law John Lambert, who has organised the service with Street archivist Darren Little, said: "I think Bryan would have absolutely revelled in it - the opportunity to meet all the people he worked with and loved over the years.

"He would have felt so honoured. I don't think people like him appreciate just how famous they are and we hope he'll be there in spirit.''

Due to begin at 3pm the memorial service will be conducted by Monsignor Michael Quinlan, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford.

The hymns will include Light Upon the Mountain and For All the Saints, two of Mr Mosley's favourites and ones which he and Norma chose when they appeared on Songs of Praise last year.

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