Coronation Street star's husband 'died after dive into unheated pool'

The husband of actress Carol Royle died after diving into a freezing outdoor swimming pool, she has revealed.

Julian Spear was a music industry boss who helped to make stars out of bands such as The Boomtown Rats and The Stranglers.

He had seen steam rising from the pool and assumed it was heated - as it was every other time he had used it over the past four years. But when he jumped in, the cold triggered a brain haemorrhage.

Carol Royle as Lady Patricia Brewster, 'Heartbeat' TV Programme - 1997. Pic: REX

Mr Spear, 74, was able to drive home from the pool in southwest London and even made himself lunch and begun to put stamps on Christmas cards when he started feeling ill and became dizzy.

The former PR boss for music company Phonogram collapsed in a downstairs cloakroom and shouted out to his Coronation Street actress wife for help.

She called an ambulance and he was taken to the West Middlesex Hospital from his home in Twickenham, southwest London, on Sunday afternoon. He died on Monday. The internal bleeding had occurred in a part of the brain that was inoperable.

His devastated wife yesterday paid tribute to him. She said: 'We met at 14 years old and were childhood sweethearts. We went our separate ways, of course, but we reunited in 1977 and had been together since then.' Ms Royle, 70, added: 'He was the healthiest person you could meet, he ate organic wholefood.

'He was a keen jogger, he would run every day. He used to cycle to the shops rather than drive and he'd go for a walk after every meal.

'He loved life, unbelievably passionate about music. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of music from the 1960s to the present. He loved quiz games because of that, he used to make me bad tempered because he got everything right all the time.

'But he was very humble, he never boasted about the incredible successes he had, like breaking The Boomtown Rats and The Stranglers.'

She added: 'The cards we were about to send to friends and relatives abroad are still in the same place on his desk untouched.

'Apparently there were signs warning the pool was unheated that day but we don't know where these signs were exactly and how prominent they were.'

Reginald Bright and Carol Royle as Mrs Bright, 'Endeavour' TV Show. Pic: REX

Sudden immersion in cold water can cause a massive spike in blood pressure as the blood vessels suddenly contract and the heart has to work harder.

In Coronation Street, Ms Royle has been playing Anthea Deering, whose son Joel was murdered in one of the soap's latest plotlines. She became famous as the star of the BBC sitcom Life Without George, which ran from 1987 to 1989, and had roles in hit shows such as The Professionals, Bergerac and Heartbeat.

She married Mr Spear in 1977 and the couple had two children.

Dee-Dee Bailey, as played by Channique Sterling-Brown, and Ed Bailey, as played by Trevor Michael Georges, meet up with Anthea, as played by Carol Royle, and Gus, as played by Chris Garner, for lunch in the bistro. Anthea apologises for their earlier behaviour and Dee-Dee's pleasantly surprised. When Amy Barlow, as played by Elle Mulvaney, lets slip that Joel and Dee-Dee are engaged, Anthea and Gus are taken aback, 'Coronation Street' TV Show. Pic: REX

As head of promotions for Phonogram, Mr Spear had worked with ABC, Soft Cell, Big Country, Tears For Fears, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, Elton John and

Band Aid on the single Do They Know It's Christmas? In 2016, he went solo with his company, Julian Spear PR, working with Sheryl Crow and bluesmen Robert Cray and Gary Clark Jr.