Caroline Aherne

Caroline Mary Aherne (24 December 1963 - 2 July 2016) was an English actress, comedian, writer and director. 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, and narrated the Channel 4 reality series Gogglebox from its inception in 2013 until April 2016.

Born in Ealing, London, to Irish parents, Aherne was brought up from the age of two in Wythenshawe, Manchester. Like her brother Patrick, she had retinoblastoma in childhood, which left her partially sighted in one eye. She attended the Hollies Convent FCJ School and studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic. She began performing on the Manchester comedy circuit as characters such as Sister Mary Immaculate, an Irish nun, and her first job was as a secretary at the BBC in Manchester.

The Mrs Merton character originated as a voice on a 1988 Frank Sidebottom album and developed through radio and regional television before Aherne rose to prominence in 1994 with the mock chat show The Mrs Merton Show, which featured real-life celebrities answering faux-naïf questions. The series won a BAFTA for Best Talk Show in 1997 and spawned the sitcom Mrs Merton and Malcolm. She died of cancer at the age of 52.