EastEnders actor Shane Ritchie and comedian Paul Chuckle were among the stars at singer Linda Nolan’s funeral in Blackpool on Saturday.

Nolan died at the age of 65 last month having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.

Her pink, sparkly coffin was carried into St Paul’s Church in her home city by her sons and others – while her sisters wore pink breast cancer broaches and earrings – opting for pink handbags to contrast with their black outfits.

Sisters Linda, Coleen, Bernie, Maureen, Anne, and Denise formed The Nolans in the 1970s and had hits including I’m In The Mood For Dancing and Gotta Pull Myself Together.

Linda Nolan also had a career in musical theatre, starring in Blood Brothers, Prisoner Cell Block H, and Pump Boys And Dinettes.

In her later years, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and wrote a column for the Daily Mirror newspaper.

A framed photo of her was placed outside the church and There You’ll Be by Faith Hill was played as mourners arrived.

In her eulogy, Denise Nolan-Anderson said: “She really loved going to premieres and opening nights, having her beautiful hair and make-up done, and always was the life and soul of any big occasion. She would have loved all the fuss today.”

She also said Linda showed “courage in the face of adversity”, adding: “It’s time to rest now Linda. The battle is over, you are free.”

Speaking before the service, Paul Elliott, better known as Paul Chuckle of the Chuckle Brothers, said he last saw her in 2024, adding: “She was just a fun, bubbly person. The world’s a darker place without her.”

Shane Richie was previously married to Coleen Nolan. Other stars who paid their respects at the funeral included Charlotte Dawson, singer Lisa Maffia, and comedian Tommy Cannon.

The family statement announcing her death read: “At around 10.20am on Wednesday 15th January, she passed peacefully, with her loving siblings by her bedside, ensuring she was embraced with love and comfort during her final moments, aged 65.”

After her initial diagnosis, Nolan helped to raise £20m for charities Breast Cancer Now and the Irish Cancer Society.

She had a mastectomy and was given the all-clear in 2011 – but was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer that spread to her liver in 2020 and her brain in 2023.

The singer was born in Dublin but made Blackpool her home – marrying her husband of more than two decades, the late Brian Hudson, there.

The family are raising money for Trinity Hospice in her memory – another organisation Nolan supported.

Sterling K Brown says being part of Black Panther was a “cultural moment” that allowed him to be “part of history” – and he’d jump at the chance to become part of the Marvel world again.

The 48-year-old actor, who’s currently starring in the mind-bending drama Paradise, told Sky News: “I remember reading that script – they don’t give it to you – you have to read it and then turn it back or your hands burn off or something like that…

“I remember thinking, this is a cultural moment. This is so big, not only for black America but for black people across the globe to see themselves front and centre in the largest, most zeitgeisty pop cultural machine in the world right now, the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe].

The superhero movie won three Oscars – Marvel’s first ever Academy Awards – including a win for costume design and best production design, the first in both categories for women of colour.

Brown goes on: “I just want to be a part of history. It was history. It was awesome.”

The Missouri-born star’s career trajectory has been impressive, from “living beneath the poverty line” to being nominated for an Oscar, he’s always been single-minded in his pursuit of acting.

He explains: “I didn’t have a hard knock life. We grew up in a house. My mom was a schoolteacher. My dad was a grocery clerk. All our needs were met.

“But I would tape my basketball shoes up if the sole came apart because that fixed them. And my mom got mad at me one time, she’s like, ‘You know, we can buy you shoes?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but I fixed them. What’s the big deal?'”

He says making his living through his craft was always his focus, adding, “I know that’s a luxury that’s not afforded to a lot of people. The fact that it’s gone my way, I’m incredibly thankful for.”

A three-time Emmy winner, The People V O J Simpson: American Crime Story saw him gain public attention, followed by a season in The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the multi-award-winning This Is Us.

‘I’ve got good taste’

When his role in American Fiction earned him an Oscar nomination, he insists he didn’t see it coming, saying: “I just knew it was a great story, a great script, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

He goes on: “They’re all sort of game-changers. People will give me credit. I’ll take credit for having good taste, but you never know when lightning is going to strike, right?”

A fatalist, he says: “I leave it in the hands of the universe and just say, ‘If you want me to step here, I’ll step there and whatever happens, happens’.”

Now he’s leading the cast of Disney+ drama Paradise, playing Agent Xavier Collins, a man charged with protecting a second-term president – played by James Marsden – in a serene community of high-net-worth individuals.

Brown admits the role came with obligations: “There is a different level of responsibility when you’re one on the call sheet. I think people do look to you to help set the tone of what the environment is going to be like, and I don’t mind that.”

The brainchild of Dan Fogelman, best known for his work on This Is Us and Only Murders In The Building, Paradise is a murder mystery with something much bigger underneath.

‘Billionaires on camera’

Impossible to elaborate on further without giving away spoilers, it’s enough to say the first episode throws up a twist few will see coming.

Despite various parallels with the current political climate, Fogelman says he came up with the idea over a decade ago, but concedes the timing is “certainly unusual”.

Fogelman tells Sky News: “We’re openly seeing billionaires on camera having a big hand in government. And while money and wealth have always been a factor in things behind the scenes, it’s very out front and centre right now in a way that the show openly discusses [and] things about the environment and climate change.”

Brown too says the themes are prescient: “The world is unpredictable and a little bit nutty and a lot of people are on edge as to what is next. I don’t know if it’s across the world. I definitely know that it’s in the United States for certain.

“I think the show in a very strange way, is sort of asking the same questions like, ‘All right, we’re in new territory right now. I have no idea what happens next. I’m a little scared about that.'”

He goes on: “People are going to draw all sorts of conclusions and inferences and comparisons. I will leave them to draw whatever they wish because if I was an audience member, I would too.”

The first three episodes of Paradise are available on Disney+ now, with new episodes dropping each Tuesday.

Nickel Boys has become one of the surprise additions to the 97th Academy Awards.

Based on the 2019 Colson Whitehead novel of the same name, it has been nominated in the best picture and best adapted screenplay categories at the Oscars this March.

Shot entirely in the first-person perspective, it follows the friendship between two black teenagers living in the harrowing environment of a racially segregated reform school in 1960s Florida.

In trying to give a voice to the voiceless, director RaMell Ross tells Sky News he made a conscious decision to shift the narrative away from the violence and instead shine the spotlight on the people at the centre of the story.

He describes it as “a multiple fold”.

“One of the folds is just the history of cinema and its relationship to the voyeurism of black folks being harassed, tortured, and beaten. And knowing that enough, the image is already in our heads,” he says.

“The second fold would be that there’s so many ways to explore trauma, and I would say most of them are by far unexplored. And so, what other ways are there?”

What makes Nickel Boys even more distressing is the fact that it was inspired by a real place, the Dozier School in Florida, where mass graves containing the bodies of young black boys were discovered.

Ethan Herisse plays Elwood in the film, a promising teenager who unknowingly gets into a stolen car and is arrested just as he’s on the cusp of creating the life he desires.

The When They See Us actor says being involved in the project was a unique experience.

Herisse says: “While we were making it, it felt like we were doing something special and there was so much love from all the people that were working on that set. So, I was just hoping that it was able to come across when it was all said and done.

“I can’t remember the last time that I had been so absorbed and immersed in a world of a movie. It was in such a unique way with this one.

“I wasn’t necessarily in my own body, and I think that that’s a really rewarding experience to have as a viewer.”

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Nickel Boys takes some bold risks in cinematography and Herisse believes audiences are looking for films that challenge the viewer.

Herisse says: “I think there is a real deep desire from audience members to watch, like original and exciting and unique new films that bring them to a different place or force them into a different perspective.

“I think it’s a beautiful thing.”

The film is something of an underdog for best picture, simply because the others, like Conclave, A Complete Unknown, Emilia Perez and Dune: Part Two, received much wider releases and are currently available to watch either in cinema or on streaming platforms.