Stars out for Pete Postlethwaite memorial

Pete Postlethwaite's family and friends, including Oscar-winners Daniel Day Lewis and Kevin Spacey, have celebrated his life at a memorial service.

Daniel, who appeared alongside his friend in the Guildford Four movie In the Name of the Father, led the addresses - and sang to his widow Jacqui.

He told guests at the service: "My great good fortune was to serve an apprenticeship under Pete Postlethwaite."

The actor's own words rang out around the church in Shoreditch, east London, with a recording from AE Housman's A Shropshire Lad.

Pete, acknowledged as one of the finest actors in the world by director Steven Spielberg, died in January after a lengthy fight with cancer. He is understood to have been diagnosed first in the early 1990s.

Speaking outside the church Matthew Kelly, who worked with him in the 1970s, said Pete was a fantastic person:

''Was Pete probably the best actor of his generation? Yeah probably he was, I would say so, he was in the 70s when I worked with him.

''He was a fantastic person. He was solid, loyal and honest.''

Pete's films included The Usual Suspects, The Shipping News, Inception and Romeo + Juliet. He landed an Oscar nomination for his performance as Guiseppe Conlon in In The Name Of The Father, about the men wrongfully imprisoned for a notorious IRA bomb attack.

Other guests included Michael Gambon who shared a stage with Pete at the RSC, as well as Sue Johnston and Sorcha Cusack.