Caroline Aherne

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.

• Name — Caroline Aherne • Birth Name — Caroline Mary Aherne • Born — 24 December 1963 • Birthplace — Ealing, London, England • Died — 2 July 2016 • Place of death — Timperley, Greater Manchester, England • Education — Liverpool Polytechnic • Occupation — * Actress • comedian • writer • director • producer • Years Active — 1990–2016 • Notable Works — The Fast Show (1994–2014) The Mrs Merton Show (1995–1998) The Royle Family (1998–2012) Gogglebox (2013–2016)

Caroline Mary 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. Her first job was as a secretary at the BBC in Manchester. She gave a cassette of her work to the DJ Martin Kelner. 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 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 Words 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. From 9 April 1991 she appeared on the Radio 5 comedy series on Tuesdays at 12.30pm called 'Where Were You in...?', which featured mostly Manchester comedians. She appeared on BBC1 on 3 August 1991 on the late-night Saturday programme 'Paramount City', also with Simon Day. From 20 November 1993 she appeared on ITV's late-night Saturday programme 'Raw Soup'.

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

She joined The Fast Show in January 1994, when the series had not been given a title. Filming would begin in March 1994. The first broadcast was on Tuesday 27 September 1994. 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. The series was being written by August 1996, to start production in 1997. 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. After Dossa and Joe, Aherne avoided media attention. When The Fast Show was featured on the BBC One show Comedy Connections, Aherne was the only cast member not interviewed. In April 2006, the BBC said Aherne and Cash were developing a script for a one-off special of The Royle Family. The Royle Family: The Queen of Sheba was broadcast on 29 October 2006, to an audience of 7.8 million. Aherne subsequently made few TV appearances. On 14 October 2008, she appeared in the BBC comedy drama Sunshine, written by Cash and Phil Mealey, as a barmaid. She appeared in The Royle Family special "The New Sofa" on Christmas Day 2008. In 2009, she appeared in another special for Comic Relief, as well as another Christmas Day special entitled "The Golden Eggcup". She co-wrote the ITV comedy-drama The Fattest Man in Britain, which was broadcast in December 2009. In November 2010, Aherne appeared in the special The Royle Family: Behind the Sofa shown on Gold, featuring clips of The Royle Family and interviews with Aherne, Cash and the cast, which was followed by another Christmas Day special, "Joe's Crackers". She narrated a BBC1 documentary series Pound Shop Wars broadcast in November 2012. She also appeared in The Fast Show internet specials, sponsored by the lager brand Fosters, which reunited most of the original principal cast; only Mark Williams was unable to participate. Aherne wrote the 2013 one-off sitcom The Security Men, along with Jeff Pope for ITV. The episode starred Paddy McGuinness, Brendan O'Carroll, Dean Andrews, Bobby Ball and Peter Wight. Aherne's final major role was as narrator of the Channel 4 comedy reality series Gogglebox, reflecting her character in The Royle Family, who would frequently be watching TV and commenting on it. Cash filled in when she was unavailable and took over the role permanently in April 2016. Aherne's final on-screen appearance came in the Sky One show After Hours, where she was reunited with Cash who produced and directed the show. She played the role of Sheila.

In January 1994, Aherne met musician Peter Hook at the Hacienda, after filming at Granada. They married in Las Vegas on 23 July. By July 1996 they had separated, and divorced in 1997. During their marriage, he appeared in her TV series The Mrs Merton Show as leader of Hooky & the Boys, the show's house band. After Aherne's death, Hook said that their marriage was turbulent and that she had once attempted to stab him with a kitchen knife. By September 1996 she had met 27-year old Matt Bowers, a TV producer from Watford, who had been at Granada from August 1996. They lived together in Didsbury. Their relationship ended by January 1997; by mid-February, Bowers was hospitalised with stomach cancer at Watford General Hospital, having had months of stomach pains. He died on 9 April 1997. Aherne struggled with depression and alcoholism. She attempted suicide in July 1998 after Bowers' death and the end of her relationship with the actor Alexis Denisof. She checked in to the Priory, where she was diagnosed as a binge alcoholic. She had suffered from bladder cancer and had been born with a rare cancer of the retina. In 2014, she also embarked on a programme of treatment for lung cancer. In June 2014, Aherne appeared in Manchester at the launch of the Macmillan Cancer Improvement Partnership (MCIP), a £3.4 million scheme to co-ordinate cancer care in the city. She spoke about how a sense of humour had helped her cope with the disease. In 2016, Aherne became the voice behind the UK government's "One You" health campaign, to persuade people to cut down on cigarettes and alcohol. On the morning of 2 July 2016, Aherne died of lung cancer at her home in Timperley aged 52. Aherne had told family and close friends in May that she was terminally ill. Her funeral took place on 14 July 2016. Many friends and co-stars were in attendance. In October 2016, Steve Coogan paid tribute to Aherne at the Stand Up to Cancer 2016 event, speaking about her before a video was played of her TV moments, and then Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds performed The Royle Family theme tune "Half the World Away". As part of the Oasis Live '25 Tour, during their performance in Heaton Park, Gallagher dedicated the song once again to Aherne and Cash.

• Year — Title — Actor — Writer — Acting role — Additional information • 1992 — Frank Sidebottom's Fantastic Shed Show — Mrs Merton — 3 episodes • The Dead Good Show — Various characters — Unknown episode(s) • 1993 — It's a Mad World, World, World, World — Various characters — TV special • Comic Timing — Mrs Merton — 1 episode • 1994–2014 — The Fast Show — Various characters — 25 episodes (acting) 10 episodes (writing) • 1995 — The World of Lee Evans — Daughter — 1 episode • The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer — Woman with Dog / Flatulent Mother — 2 episodes • 1995–1998 — The Mrs Merton Show — Mrs Merton — Leading role – 4 series (29 episodes) • 1996 — Auntie's All-Time Greats — Mrs Merton — TV special • 1998–2000, 2006–2012 — The Royle Family — Denise Royle — Leading role – 3 series & 7 specials (25 episodes) 11 episodes (director) 8 episodes (associate producer) • 1999 — Mrs Merton and Malcolm — Mrs Merton — 1 series (6 episodes) Additionally served as associate producer • 2002 — Dossa and Joe — Director & executive producer (6 episodes) • 2008 — Sunshine — Donna — Miniseries (episode 2) • 2009 — The Fattest Man in Britain — Television film • 2013 — The Security Men — Television drama – executive producer • 2013–2014 — Strange Hill High — Stephanie — 2 series (26 episodes) Additional voice roles • 2015 — After Hours — Sheila — 2 episodes