Ralf Little pays tribute to Royle Family co-star: ‘I was big-nosed teen, Caroline was a superstar…and I really fancied her’
Actor says Aherne was 'generous, warm, hilarious, kind, caring and decent' and that he looked up to her on set
PEOPLE ask me what it was like to film The Royle Family.
My answer is always the same — we arrived in the morning, laughed pretty much non-stop for about 12 hours, went to the pub and laughed for a few more hours, then went home.
I can’t remember filming very much of anything, to be honest.
Frankly it’s amazing there was actually a series.
That laughter almost always originated from the creators, Craig Cash and the exceptional, sadly departed Caroline Aherne.
When I first met Caroline, she was a bona fide TV legend, having had huge success as the innocently wicked Mrs Merton.
On my first day on set, I was pretty nervous.
I was just some skinny, big-nosed teenager plucked out of nowhere but Caroline was this superstar. And I have to confess, the 17-year-old me really fancied her.
It was pretty terrifying when she saw me come through the door and immediately marched over, saying, “Oh god, Ralf, we’re so sorry — did they not tell you? You’ve been recast.”
I looked horrified as she pointed to Ricky Tomlinson and said, “Ricky’s going to shave and play your part now.”
She paused as I stood, dumbstruck, before bursting into gales of laughter and giving me a welcome hug.
In the next five minutes she’d thanked me for coming, told me I was a brilliant actor, asked me if I was a virgin, laughed when I said no, called me a liar, made me a cup of tea and disappeared off to rewrite scene one.
Suddenly I wasn’t nervous.
The fact that she’d come straight over to take the p**s out of me showed me that we were all equals on the set.
People ask me why she was so special. It’s hard to quantify.
Aside from all the obvious things — she was generous, warm, hilarious, kind, caring and decent — there was something that set her apart.
I think it was joy. Caroline had a joy about her. She had some (well documented) difficult times but actually she prized laughter above all else.
Those twinkly blue eyes would flash with mischief and you knew you were in for a rough time as she’d mercilessly take the p**s, without ever causing hurt or offence.
Which is what made the Royle Family so successful.
Caroline saw the world slightly differently to the rest of us and delighted in the humble, unpretentious absurdities of everyday life, without ever looking down on it.
The world of The Royle Family is a world she never left and never wanted to.
She may have found humour in showing us our idiosyncrasies but she never judged them.
She celebrated them and delighted in them, and, as was Caroline’s way, she found joy in them. She never turned her back on her working-class roots. The Royle Family isn’t a p**s-take of working class family values — it’s a love letter to them. Every character is written with affection and heart.
She never believed in “bettering herself”. She didn’t feel there was anything about her background that needed bettering.
She believed in family, friendship, unity, fun, joy, and most of all, laughter.
So much, so much laughter.
Fortunately she wanted to share the laughter with the rest of us, and her comic gift was so universally joyful that this diminutive girl from a corner of Manchester transcended politics, societies, classes, genders and races. Lucky, lucky us.
I want to finish with a quote from The Royle Family and I could have picked from dozens.
But I love this — Barbara’s fascination with what Dave had for tea:
“Have you had your tea Dave? What did you have?”
“Liver and onions.”
“Any gravy?”
“Nah, me mam couldn’t be a**ed.”
“Oh I don’t blame her, it’s nearly summer.”
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That’s Caroline finding joy in the smallest, silliest things. In the absurdity of mundanity.
Brilliant. What a voice, what a mind, what a woman.
I’ll miss her making us all cry with laughter. I’ll miss her supportive texts when I write new things. I’ll miss her silliness, her intelligence, her laughter and her joy. I’ll miss her mischief.
I’ll miss those twinkly blue eyes. I’ll miss her.
We lost one of the good ones.