Coronation Street Creator Tony Warren Dies at 79

William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in the soap, said Warren would be “desperately missed”

.

Tributes have been paid to Tony Warren, the Coronation Street creator and writer who has died aged 79.

William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow since the first episode, said he would be “so desperately missed”.

Coronation Street executive producer Kieran Roberts called Warren “a pioneer, a revolutionary, a true genius [and] a giant of British television”.

Warren, who started the Granada Television show when he was 24, died on Tuesday after a short illness.

Born in Lancashire in 1936, he wrote episodes for the ITV soap until the late 1970s.

Roache described the writer, who continued to visit the soap’s set in Trafford until recently, as the “father” of the soap.

“When I first met Tony, I couldn’t quite believe he’d created and written Coronation Street, because he was no more than a young boy,” he said.

He added the writer had a “boyish energy” that never left him: “I loved Tony’s energy. He was the father of Coronation Street and he gave us all so much.”

 Coronation Street has won numerous Baftas and Warren was made an MBE in 1994

.

Helen Worth, who worked alongside Warren for 42 years as the character Gail McIntyre, said Warren was “a genius of our time [and] the dearest, funniest and most inspirational man of his generation”.

“He brought real life into our homes for us all to relate to and enjoy. He will, of course, live on forever through Coronation Street,” she said.

Coronation Street actors Kym Marsh, Anthony Cotton and Samia Ghadie were among those who paid tribute to Warren on Twitter.

Cotton said the writer left “the greatest legacy”, while Ghadie said he had been “a truly wonderful man” and Marsh described him as “amazing”.

READ MUCH MORE  HERE  AT THE BBC NEWS WEBSITE