“He can’t join us in person, but this message shows he will be with us in spirit and it really means a lot to us,” they added.
In his message, Sir Ian said: “When I first went to Wigan Grammar School in 1951, I had to learn the school song ‘Oh Wigan is a grand old town… The Romans knew it well… It always had its good King Coal… As long as folks can tell…’ well, coal no more in Wigan and no more grammar school either, things have changed.
“Some things remain of course, like Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls. I used to spend my three pence pocket money on those every Saturday.
“And things have changed, yes – Pride! No Pride in Wigan when I was a kid, not in the sense that we celebrate it today,”
He said gay people now can “just walk in the streets, proud to be themselves, proud to say that they’re gay and they can be supported by their allies and friends and family and neighbours”.
Sir Ian was born in Burnley in 1939 and moved to Wigan when his dad started working for the council as an engineer.
The family then moved to Bolton when he was 12.
“The grounding for everything I’ve turned out to be really happened here [in Wigan],” he told the in 2015 when he was given a star on Wigan’s own version of Hollywood’s walk of fame.