Samantha Janus attends estranged father’s funeral

Actress Samantha Janus yesterday attended the funeral of her estranged father Noel, who was found hanged in his Brighton flat in an apparent suicide last month.

The EastEnders actress was one of more 100 mourners - among them the 60-year-old's biker friends, dressed in their motorcycle leathers - at the service at Woodvale Crematorium.

Samantha broke down in tears as she watched her father's body being carried into the chapel in a wicker coffin.

Noel, a former songwriter who worked with bands such as Fleetwood Mac, left his wife when Samantha was six years old. As a result, his relationship with his daughter was always strained - but they resolved their differences in 1996 and Noel attended his Samantha's marriage to actor Noel Womack in London earlier this year.

However, when the wedding was covered in the celebrity gossip magazine OK!, Noel and his side of the family were absent from the photographs. He saw this as a snub, describing it as "a dagger to the heart".

Sussex police have confirmed they are not treating the death as suspicious and an inquest will be announced later.