Coronation Street will tonight bid a sad farewell to the character Deirde Barlow who was played by Anne Kirkbride in the ITV soap for 42 years.

The Manchester-born actress passed away in January 2015, aged 60, following a battle with cancer.

Coronation Street will pay tribute to her character in tonight's two-part special at 7.30-8pm and 8.30-9pm, which will show Deirdre's funeral service.

The tear-jerking episode will see Anne's long-term on-screen best friend Liz McDonald, played by Beverley Callard, and on-screen husband Ken Barlow, played by William Roache, carrying her casket as she is laid to rest on the show.

Anne had taken a four month break from filming following her diagnosis with cancer, and her character's absence was explained with a visit to a friend.

But as Coronation Street prepared for Deirdre's return and the celebrations of her 60th birthday, her friend Bev Unwin (played by Susie Blake) turned up to say that she had died peacefully from a suspected aneurysm as she sat in a deck chair in the garden.

The actress began playing Deirdre Hunt in Coronation Street in 1972, and we're looking back at some of her best bits since her debut on the show.