FRIENDS and family are to give an emotional farewell to an "amazing lady" credited with forming one of Britain's best-loved TV double acts.

Extracts from Ant and Dec's autobiography reveal the first time the pair were told to try acting together by their college tutor, Shirley Britton.

Mrs Britton, who lived in Tyson Square, Ulverston, was for many years a big part of the local amateur dramatic societies in Furness and the South Lakes.

She died aged 76 on Thursday March 2, after suffering a deterioration in her health over recent months.

Despite breakthrough performances as PJ and Duncan in Byker Grove, a young Ant and Dec had seemingly not given much thought to a real-life partnership, and in their late teens had arrived at a crossroads.

Speaking about the moment in their book, Ooh! What a Lovely Pair: Our Story, Dec says: "During one of my rare appearances at college in the first term, the lecturer, Shirley, sat us and the rest of the class down and told us they were putting together an end-of-term show and that all the students had to take part.

"We had to do it otherwise we risked failing the course."

Ant adds: "We had to come up with an act, and as usual, we had no idea what to do, so Shirley suggested we did a double act.

"We both reacted in exactly the same way: 'A proper double act? Us two? That's never going to work.'"

It was as a college tutor at Newcastle College, that Mrs Britton also tutored a young Ross Noble, the Geordie comedian who only last week had audiences at The Forum in Barrow in fits of laughter.

Mrs Britton's son, Chris, said: "My mum said even then you could tell they had something special between them. They were exactly how they come across on television.

"Although she was a hard taskmaster, Shirley had the ability to bring the best out of people and allow them to see talents they didn't realise they had."

"She said that not one day teaching the students had ever seemed like a job to her - it was pure fun from start to finish."

A funeral for Mrs Britton will take place on Monday March 20 at 1.45pm at the crematorium in Barrow, followed by a gathering at Hawcoat Park Sports Club in Hawcoat Lane, Barrow.

Anyone who knew Mrs Britton is invited to attend.