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Tributes continue to comedy great Caroline Aherne

Updated / Monday, 4 Jul 2016 18:51
Caroline Aherne - One of the greats
Caroline Aherne - One of the greats

Tributes continue to be be paid to Caroline Aherne, the writer and actress behind BBC's The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show, who died at the age of 52 at the weekend following a battle with cancer.

BBC Director General Tony Hall said the organisation was "deeply saddened" to learn of Aherne's death, while her Royle Family co-star Sue Johnston said she was "numb with grief". 

Aherne's passing was announced by her publicist, Neil Reading, in a statement which said: "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer".

Caroline Aherne with her Royle Family co-stars in the show's 2008 Christmas Special

Her good friend Noel Gallagher paid tribute to her at a concert in Nashville at the weekend and played Half The World Away, the Oasis song which was The Royle Family theme tune.

"I want to dedicate the following song to a friend of mine who died this afternoon. Her name was Caroline. She was a very, very funny woman and she used this next song for a very, very, very, very brilliant sitcom in England called The Royle Family", he told the crowd.

Born to Irish parents in London, Aherne grew up in Wythenshawe in Manchester and went on to become one of the great voices of her hometown. She received nine straight As in her O-levels and studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic before taking a job as a BBC secretary in Manchester. Soon she would be on the other side of the camera. 

Aherne became a member of the Fast Show sketch ensemble, playing characters which included the merciless 'Checkout Girl' and 'Scorchio!' weather presenter Poula. 

 

In her role as acerbic chat show host Mrs Merton she put real-life celebrities through toe-curling interviews and became a household name in her own right. The Mrs Merton Show ran from 1995 to 1998 with its most famous moment Aherne/Mrs Merton's interview with Debbie McGee, the wife of magician Paul Daniels. The interview began with the question: "What first, Debbie, attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?" - a moment of TV gold. 

A good sport throughout, McGee was among the first people to pay tribute to Aherne after her passing was announced, calling the interview "a treasured memory". Paul Daniels passed away after a battle with cancer in March.

The Mrs Merton Show was followed by another TV classic, The Royle Family, which mixed family dysfunction and social commentary to perfection. Aherne played daughter Denise in the series opposite Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston and co-wrote the show with another co-star, Craig Cash. She also directed many episodes.

Aherne was a double BAFTA winner for her work on The Royle Family and also won Best Talk Show at the BAFTAs in 1997 for Mrs Merton. 

She said two years ago that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, having previously battled bladder and eye cancer. She had also lived with much-publicised depression and drink problems and spent time in the Priory clinic, before later moving to Australia to avoid media attention. 

In recent years Aherne had been the narrator of fly-on-the-wall TV hit Gogglebox. The makers of the programme said they were "devastated about the passing of our dearest Caroline".

Tributes have continued to pour in on social media from fellow comedians and entertainers

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