Goodbye to a Comedy Genius

Caroline Aherne has died of cancer at the age of only 52.

17:34 04 July 2016

Actress and writer Caroline Aherne, beloved for creating BBC sitcom The Royle Family and gossiping granny Mrs Merton, has died following a battle against cancer. She was just 52 years old. She previously survived retina and bladder cancer but succumbed to lung and throat cancer.

 

Comedy producer Andy Harries, a long-time friend, called her ‘a real candle in the wind’, and said: ‘Caroline lived with cancer all her life and sensed that she would not have a long life.’

 

Caroline has announced her illness two years ago in an attempt to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. She then returned to her modest red-brick home in Timperley, South Machester to be near her mum and brother Patrick. She previously described her final years as “enchanting and extraordinarily kind.”

 

Caroline battled over the course of her lifetime with cancer. In 2014, she said: ‘My brother and I were born with cancer of the eyes, the retina. My mum told us only special people get cancer. I must be very special because I have had it in my lungs and bladder as well,’ 

 

Andy Harries, a producer for The Royle Family, said: ‘She had extraordinary comedy instincts. I am desperately sad that her brilliant career was really so brief — just ten dazzling years — but what a legacy in the creation of Mrs Merton and the game-changing sitcom The Royle Family.