The often troubled life and times of comic genius, writer and actress Caroline Aherne
Down-to-earth comedian dies aged 52 after 'lifelong battle' with cancer
CAROLINE Aherne was one of comedy’s leading lights throughout the 90s and well into the noughties.
Her hit shows – like The Royle Family and Mrs Merton – couldn’t have been further removed from the glitz and glamour of showbiz.
The dysfunctional Royle family was said to have drawn heavily on her own childhood and the people she met growing up.
Like many comedians in the 1980s she started in stand-up and quickly developed as both a writer and performer.
Throughout her career she battled recurring ill health, depression and chronic alcoholism.
Caroline Mary Aherne was born in Ealing, west London, on 24 December 1963, the daughter of Irish immigrants.
When she was three, her alcoholic labourer father Bert moved the family to live in Wythenshawe, Manchester.
Even at that young age she was battling with ill health.
Both she and older brother Patrick were born with a rare eye cancer.
When she was four, the local Catholic church even raised money to send the two children to Lourdes.
Despite the best efforts of doctors, she spent the rest of her life with partial sight in one eye.
Her abilities to mimic ‘famous’ people off the TV were well polished at a very early age.
“She was funny from the time she was really little,” said her brother.
A solid student, she gained nine Grade A O-Levels at a local convent school before studying drama at Liverpool Polytechnic.
By now she knew her future lie in entertainment.
She became a regular on the Manchester comedy circuit in the character of country singer Mitzi Goldberg.
Aherne’s career moved into overdrive when she met Craig Cash.
He encouraged her to develop the character of an agony aunt called Mrs Merton – one of her biggest TV hits.
The show launched on BBC TV in 1995 and ran for five seasons.
A series of guest stars were subjected to cheeky questions in front of a live audience of pensioners.
“And what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” was one of the gems aimed at guest Debbie McGee.
And what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?
Mrs Merton to Debbie McGee
Aherne was also a regular on The Fast Show as the Chanel 9 weather girl whose forecasts were always “scorchio”.
By the third series of Mrs Merton, Aherne was cracking under the pressure of the continual live performances, and her personal life was in turmoil.
Her marriage to New Order bassist Peter Hook collapsed in the public gaze and a Mrs Merton series filmed in Las Vegas flopped.
Her dependency on alcohol increased and she began suffering long periods of depression culminating in a well-publicised suicide attempt in 1998.
“I actually have no recollection of it,” she said later.
“But I’d been down for a while, and my mind was whizzing at night, so I was drinking to sleep.”
It was said the Royle Family was her salvation.
The down-to-earth series was an instant hit – even though the characters rarely left the sofa.
She incorporated elements of her own father in the character of the feckless Jim Royle, played by Ricky Tomlinson.
However, another series, Mrs Merton and Malcolm, based on a British Gas advert, was less successful.
By now Aherne had begun drinking again but insisted it was under control.
She then dropped out of the public gaze, re-emerging for Royle Family specials in 2006 and 2010 and to become the voice of C4’s Gogglebox.
Aherne continued to battle ill health. She suffered a bout of bladder cancer and, in 2014, revealed she had undergone treatment for lung cancer.
TV's Caroline Aherne's 'lifelong battle' with cancer
The 52-year-old was diagnosed with cancer four times during her life, ever since she was a baby.
She and her older brother Patrick were born with cancer of the retina.
It left Caroline almost blind in one eye while Patrick had just 30 per cent vision.
Later in life she suffered from bladder cancer, but was able to successfully treat it.
But in 2013 she was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer.
Although Aherne had been a long-time smoker, her lung cancer was actually related to the eye cancer she was born with.
Alongside her health battles, Aherne suffered from depression and alcoholism.
In 1998 she attempted suicide and spent time in The Priory.