HUNDREDS of mourners have paid their respects to former Japanese prisoner of war Eric Lomax.

Mr Lomax, who died aged 93 following a period of ill health, was laid to rest in his adopted home town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, with those who attended the service wearing brightly coloured clothing after a request from his widow Patti, 74.

Andy Paterson, producer of the film currently being made about Mr Lomax's ordeal during the Second World War, led the tributes along with screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce.

They took time off from completing the film, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, to give a joint eulogy at a packed celebration of Mr Lomax's life at Berwick Parish Church.

Together they told of their struggle to find an actor of a high enough calibre to portray Mr Lomax, who was captured in Singapore in February, 1942, while a second lieutenant with the Royal Signals.

Mr Cottrell Boyce said: "The first big question was who could play him? Who would you ever cast as Eric? Eric had all these qualities which are gone from the earth – he's taken them with him – that combination of reserve and warmth, that curiosity, that grace."

Mr Paterson added: "Scripts were written. And years passed and we still didn't have anyone who was a big enough star to play Eric.

"Fortunately, one actor had used the intervening period to get older and to win an Oscar for the King's Speech. And suddenly it all started to make sense."

He also paid tribute to Mrs Lomax, who helped her husband overcome the trauma he continued to suffer after his ordeal at the hands of the Japanese during the war.

Mr Paterson added: "Of course the horrors of what the men went through on the Death Railway can never be overestimated, but the suffering of those who dealt with the consequences is immense too, and Patti is the second miracle in Eric's life."

Mr Lomax, whose best-selling book The Railway Man describes his ordeal during his imprisonment, died last Monday and was laid to rest during a private funeral yesterday.