Caroline Aherne

Caroline Mary Aherne (24 December 1963 – 2 July 2016) was an English actress, comedian, writer and director.

Aherne was born in Ealing, London, on 24 December 1963, the second child of Irish parents Bartholomew Edmond "Bert" Aherne, a railwayman with London Transport, and Mary Frances "Maureen" Aherne (née Regan).

From the age of two, Aherne was brought up in Wythenshawe, Manchester.

Like her brother Patrick, Aherne had retinoblastoma in childhood, which left her partially sighted in one eye.

She attended the Hollies Convent FCJ School in West Didsbury, Xaverian College in Rusholme in Manchester and then studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic.

Aherne began performing on the Manchester comedy circuit as characters such as Mitzi Goldberg, lead singer of the comedy country and western act the Mitzi Goldberg Experience, and Sister Mary Immaculate, an Irish nun.

The Mrs Merton character originated as a voice on the 1988 Frank Sidebottom album titled 5:9:88, after Aherne worked as a receptionist for his show on Piccadilly Radio.

Aherne was then invited by DJ Martin Kelner to develop the character on his show, where she would spend many years appearing as a comedy agony aunt across the north of England on the BBC Night Network.

In 1990 Aherne became a late night radio presenter on KFM Radio in Stockport, joining a line-up which included Craig Cash as well as Jon Ronson, Spence MacDonnald and The Word's Terry Christian.

Aherne's first TV appearances were as Mrs Merton in a semi-regular spot on the Granada TV discussion show Upfront in 1990.

After that Mrs Merton became the regular celebrity interviewer on Granada's Saturday morning show Express!, a youth TV programme presented by I Am Kloot's John 'Johnny Dangerously' Bramwell and Sumy Kuraishe from a number of random locations in the north west.

In 1992, Aherne appeared as Mrs Merton in the local Yorkshire Television series, Frank’s Fantastic Shed Show, with Chris Sievey in his Frank Sidebottom persona.

For this Leeds-based ITV station Aherne had recorded a pilot of Mrs Murton's Nightcap, but they had not pursued the concept.

In 1993, she made brief appearances in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and alongside Steve Coogan and John Thomson in a Granada TV pilot entitled The Dead Good Show.

She rose to prominence in 1994 as her created character Mrs Merton on the mock chat show The Mrs Merton Show under her married name of Caroline Hook.

The guests were real-life celebrities, not actors, who found themselves the subject of outrageous faux-naïf questions – in one memorable example the wife of magician Paul Daniels, Debbie McGee, was asked "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

- while a regular audience of pensioners were used each week for Mrs Merton to bounce questions off.

Another episode featured comedian Bernard Manning and actor Richard Wilson.

Manning clashed with Wilson and Aherne as she asked him about his racist attitudes at one point saying, “Who do you vote for now Hitler's dead?”, although he acknowledged that One Foot in the Grave was funny.

The series ran in various formats from 1994 to 1997, winning a BAFTA for Best Talk Show in 1997.

The success of the show was partly attributed to the "round vowel sounds of the North West accent" which "naturally sound safe and unthreatening" and which allowed the character "to ask the most outrageous, below-the-belt questions of her guest stars".

The Mrs Merton character was given a sitcom, Mrs Merton and Malcolm, which depicted her home life with her "mummy's boy" son (played by co-writer Craig Cash).

This aspect of Malcolm's character was exaggerated to the point that many complained the series ridiculed those with learning difficulties.

Between 1994 and 2004 she appeared alongside Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson in The Fast Show, where her characters included "Our Janine", a teenage mum with a unique world outlook; Renée, the endlessly chattering Northern wife of hen-pecked Roy; Checkout Girl, a simple and chatty young supermarket employee; and Chanel 9 meteorologist Poula Fisch, whose weather forecasts invariably included the word "Scorchio!".

Aherne's most popular creation is the situation comedy The Royle Family, which she co-created and wrote with Cash, and directed in its third series.

She was best known for performing as the acerbic chat show host Mrs Merton, in various roles in The Fast Show, and as Denise in The Royle Family (1998–2012), a series which she co-wrote.

She won BAFTA awards for her work on The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family.

The programme ran for three series from 1998 to 2000.

Aherne starred alongside Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston, as their daughter Denise Royle.

The show was a commercial and critical success, and ran for three series with a total of 20 episodes as well as five one-offs made for showing at Christmas.

After a 2000 spoof documentary with Cash entitled Back Passage to India, Aherne said The Royle Family would end in December 2000 after a Christmas special, and that she would not appear on television again, although she would continue to write.

Aherne received BAFTAs for Best Sitcom in 2000 and 2007, and she won the BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in 2000.

She was nominated for directing in 2001.

Following a disagreement with Cash, Aherne moved to Australia and retreated from the press.

She wrote Dossa and Joe which was screened on BBC Two in 2002.

Although critics applauded it, the show failed to attract viewers and did not return for a second series.

Returning to Britain, she began work on another sitcom with Cash, but pulled out, after which Cash wrote Early Doors with Phil Mealey; Aherne was listed in the credits in the "Thanks To" section.

Mrs Merton and Malcolm lasted one series, and was released on DVD in 2008.

Aherne narrated the Channel 4 reality television series Gogglebox from its inception in 2013 until 8 April 2016.

She died of cancer at the age of 52.