Ronnie Cobett’s widow has spoken of her grief 14 months after his death from motor neurone disease.

The diminutive comic had deep ties to Sussex having once lived in Crowhurst., and his two daughters, Emma and Sophie, still live in Eastbourne and Hove respectively.

His widow Anne told a national newspaper: “‘I still can’t listen to his voice on the television, or anywhere else. If it comes on for any reason, I just cannot listen to it.

“There has been an empty feeling since Ron has gone . . . An emptiness, yes, that’s what it is. But I think and hope that I am slowly emerging from the mist.

‘Many kind friends rallied and invited me out, to parties and to the theatre. But I just felt I couldn’t face the world.

‘I can’t believe it’s almost 15 months since he’s been gone. I’ve been lost.

‘People, hoping to encourage me, keep saying how “wonderfully” I am doing, but I know only too well I’m not. It’s the actress in me giving a performance of doing wonderfully. At times it’s seemed almost too much to bear, but you have no choice, do you? Life must go on.’

Anne has had serious health problems of her own over the years and used to ‘dread’ what Ron would do if she went before him even though ‘he was a very able man. He could cook. He could iron! Turnbull and Asser, where he always bought his shirts, taught him how to iron them!

‘Thank God I’ve got the girls and grandchildren,’ she says. ‘They ring me a lot and come to spend time with me. Emma does wonderful work helping children with special difficulties. Sophie is still a successful actress, doing voiceovers for TV commercials.

‘My eldest grandson, Tom, has written two novels and several plays. His sister, Tilly, is at university on a film course, working on a television documentary.

‘Sophie’s son, Dylan, is the actor in the family. He won a place at the National Youth Theatre. And my youngest grandson, Billy, who is 11, has one of the leading roles in a school production of The Addams Family musical. So the family tradition lives on.

‘It’s with their help that I am surviving, but I am just surviving. I don’t enjoy much any more.’