Eamonn Holmes leads funeral tributes for agony aunt Denise Robertson

Friends, family, fans and celebrity colleagues Phillip Schofield, Holly Willoughby and Ruth Langsford packed Sunderland Minster, with hundreds more on the road outside.

The twice widowed great-grandmother, who won a place in millions of This Morning viewers’ hearts with her no-nonsense yet warm approach to helping countless people, died from pancreatic cancer aged 83.

She worked on the daytime show since its start in 1988.

At the service, Holmes spoke movingly of the colleague he had known since they worked together at the BBC in the 1980s.

He said: “You think when you leave school or university or college that’s you finished with passing tests – until you met Denise Robertson, the matriarch of studio eight.

“Never was there a more shrewd judge of character.

“She could spot a fake at a hundred paces but once you were in as a graduate of the Robertson Academy of Life then you had a mum, an aunt, a best friend, a shoulder to cry on and a friend for life.”

Before the service, he spoke of following her advice to marry Langsford, to get a dog and to have his hips fixed so he could walk the new family pet.

Holmes told mourners his friend had saved many desperate people’s lives with her support which lasted well past any broadcast when people rang in with problems.

He said presenters all feared being found out: “Well for 28 seasons, 28 seasons at ITV, a record in itself, the glass lens never tired of Denise Robertson, it never found her out, because Denise was the real deal.”

An emotional Schofield said before the funeral how he was desperate for her approval when he joined This Morning, which broadcast from Studio 8 at the South Bank in London.

“She was feisty, really, really tenacious and would power through authority.

“If someone told her ‘no’, it wouldn’t make any difference.”

And Willoughby said: “She was an incredible person and a great friend. She was also a remarkable woman.

“She blazed her way through life and never let anything hold her back.”

Langsford also paid tribute to her colleague’s love of bright colours and recalled her “wafting” fragrantly down the corridors of the TV studios.

“We shared a lot of laughs with her as well,” she said.

Holmes said: “She was a national treasure, I don’t think we will see anything like that again.

“No-one can expect to have a gig for as long as she did – 28 years on one programme.”

His wife added: “She had it because she was so good.”

Robertson’s son Mark spoke of her charity work, being patron to almost 40 good causes, an MBE, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Durham and, in Asda, “that lass off the telly”.

He said: “When mum took on her role at ITV it was on strict understanding that they would help every correspondent, not just those who made it to air.

“And ITV were good to their word.”

The Rev Canon Sheila Bamber led the hour-long service, after which the crowd outside the church applauded as the coffin was driven away in the hearse.

Schofield was visibly moved after the service as he spoke to other mourners.

Robertson, who was buried at a private ceremony, leaves her third husband Bryan Thubron, who was a childhood sweetheart she met again in later life.

She was awarded an MBE a decade ago and given the Freedom of the City of Sunderland.