ITV Coronation Street star shares emotional tribute after colleague's sad death

Daily Record

4 days ago

Antony Cotton has paid tribute to his former colleague Matthew Owens after he passed away aged 38, who worked on the set of the popular soap.
Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton has paid a heartfelt tribute to his colleague Matthew Owens, 38, who sadly passed away. Matthew worked on the set of the ITV soap as a fire safety advisor and other BBC programmes.
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Antony, who is famed for his role as Sean Tully, took to social media to share a tribute to honour his pal. Alongside a photo from the order of service from the funeral, which confirmed Matthew passed away earlier this month on July 7, the actor wrote a touching tribute.
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He said on Instagram: "Today was a very hard day for so many people, especially Matt's family. I still can't quite get my head round it, to be honest. Matt was just a really, really nice lad. We met when he did the fire safety for a stunt block at Coronation Street, 13 years ago and we've been friends ever since.
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"He was a much-loved son, brother, dad, colleague and partner. He was also a quiet and humble, solid friend. I'll miss hearing from you Matt, out of the blue sometimes, but always with a smile. You are at rest now, no more worries, Matty Boy."
Fans and friends rushed to the comments section to honour Matthew as reported by the Mirror, with one user posting: "Sorry for your loss mate. Condolences to his friends and family."
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One person who had attended the funeral added, "I did the funeral today, I was one of the family limo drivers, I saw how sad you were, gave you a little smile, very emotional day. So many people attended, you could tell he was very loved."
Another fan wrote: "Just reading this news, I didn't know Matt had passed, really sad news. He was always so helpful and a joy to work with, helped me out lots with projects. Sending love to his family."
Matthew leaves behind his partner Amy and his young son Freddie, 11. In an emotional tribute to the late firefighter, fire stations throughout Staffordshire put their flags up at half-mast. He served as a fireman at Cannock Fire Station.
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The Corrie set-worker also ran a company that supplied fire safety training, extras and props to the BBC and ITV. In 2013, he worked on setting the iconic Rovers Return pub ablaze.
In the dramatic storyline, the pub blaze left Stella Price and Sunita Alahan trapped, whilst Karl abandoned Sunita in the cellar to perish. Matthew also even coached Corrie actor Tony Hirst on how to perform a fireman's lift for the harrowing scenes.
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Stella made it out alive and was rushed to hospital, however Karl later killed her when he removed her breathing equipment so she couldn't disclose who started the blaze.
Matthew previously remarked about working on set: "It's all a bit surreal being there on the set and on camera. At one point we were standing outside The Rovers Return, just watching it burn.
"Normally as firefighters, we'd get to the scene and be putting the fire out. It was unreal just watching the fire, especially at such an iconic pub.
"It was a hard three weeks working on the set, we were there from February 11 to last Tuesday. The first week we were working all night, from 3pm to 5am. The second week was all days, doing inside shots and the last week tidying bits up."