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Caroline Aherne, born 24th December 1963, was an English comedian and BAFTA-winning writer and actress, best known for performing as the acerbic chat show host Mrs Merton, various roles in The Fast Show, and for her role in The Royle Family.

Aherne was born in Ealing to the family of an Irish railway worker, and from the age of two was brought up in Wythenshawe, Manchester.She attended the Hollies Convent Grammar School in West Didsbury and then studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic.

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 her outrageous faux naïve questions:

"So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

To Debbie McGee

"If you hadn't done all that running around playing football, do you think you would have been so thirsty?'

To George Best

"That's what I love about you Barbara, you're one of us... You're like a big film star, but you're still common as muck!"

To EastEnders star Barbara Windsor

"Do you have to plan your tactics before the race or do you just try and run faster than the other blokes?"

To Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi

"You're an Aquarius, which means you're ruled by ­Uranus? Do you think they'll ever find a man on Uranus?"

To astrologer Russell Grant

"You're more than just a pair of ­bosoms aren't you? Because you won rear of the year last year didn't you?"

To former Sun Page 3 girl Melinda Messenger

She went on to co-create and write, with Craig Cash, The Royle Family. 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 twenty episodes as well as five one-offs made for showing at Christmas. After a 2000 spoof documentary with Craig 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 won the BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in 2000. She was nominated for directing in 2001.

She died in 2016 at the age of 52.

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