Jane Lynch
The 53-year-old actress - who plays tough-talking cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on the musical show - has yet to muster up the courage to find out how creator Ryan Murphy has decided to write the actor out of the programme, following his tragic death from a heroin and alcohol overdose last month.

She told the New York Daily News newspaper: "[The script] is at home waiting to be read. Gosh, I have no idea how to do it."

Jane is apprehensive about filming the episode and is glad the responsibility of giving the late actor - who starred as loveable jock Finn Hudson - a heartfelt send-off lies with the producers because it is so important to get the tribute right.

She added: "I am glad it is not my call, because not only are we saying goodbye to him, but the audience is saying goodbye to him, too, not just Cory but to Finn.

"It's really sad. They have a big job ahead of them."

Ryan recently revealed they were unlikely to show Finn dying of a drug overdose, and wanted to concentrate on celebrating Cory's life rather than focusing on the circumstances of his death.

He explained: "There were a lot of things that we had to decide - how are we going to deal with his death? At one point, we were going to have his character die after an accidental drug overdose - that was something we had considered.

"But we have decided that we're not going to have him pass from that. Basically, what we're doing in the episode is we are not telling you yet, or maybe not at all, how that character died.

"The idea being, how somebody died is interesting and maybe morbid, but we say very early on in the episode, 'This episode is about a celebration of that character's life.' That might be weird for some people, but it felt really exploitative to do it any other way."