Actor Jason Isaacs has led the tributes to his uncle Lennie Isaacs, the JC’s Liverpool correspondent for 15 years, who died last week aged 70.

The Harry Potter star said: “Even though we sat at his bedside in the last days, even though we saw his coffin lowered, even though we’ve been through the remnants and records of his life, sat shivah and said goodbye in all the ways our culture allows, it’s impossible to believe that Lennie’s gone. That the phone won’t ring at least once a day, that the glue, the hub of our extended family won’t be laughing his wheezy laugh and telling outrageous stories at every gathering.

“My Uncle Lennie was the best of us. Despite a difficult life; never a complaint, never an ounce of self-pity, never anything other than the joy of the moment and the love of connection, human connection, above all else. A lesson to us all.”

Addressing the 150 mourners at the funeral at Springwood cemetery, Rabbi Lionel Cofnas, senior rabbi to the Merseyside community, said Mr Isaacs “was a very caring person” who devoted himself to nursing his late wife Brenda during her final illness.

Mr Isaacs is survived by his son Jonathan and daughter Leanne Bar-Oz, who lives in Israel with husband Gidon and two young daughters.

Mrs Bar-Oz said he was “an amazing and wonderful grandfather to his two grandchildren”.