25 December 2023 , 19:55
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Comedy legend Caroline Aherne left family, friends and fans reeling when she tragically died at the age of 52 seven years ago - but her final wish was fulfilled.
Tonight, the Gogglebox voiceover star will be remembered in a new BBC Two film, Queen of Comedy, which celebrates her life and legacy and hears from writer and actor Craig Cash, who worked together on The Royle Family when it was first broadcast 25 years ago.
Caroline was best known for her character Mrs Merton and her role as Denise on the BBC sitcom, but to those closest to her off-screen, she was a dear friend with a warm and special personality. Before she passed away from lung cancer on July 2, 2016, sadly few of them realised how sick she really was.
Royle Family co-star Sue Johnston described Caroline as 'extremely kind, generous and funny' (BBC)For her Royle Family dad, Ricky Tomlinson, her seemingly sudden passing alone in her bungalow in Timperley, Cheshire, came as 'the biggest shock in the world'. "It's knocked me for six," he said, revealing how her brother Patrick and long-term collaborator Craig Cash had both recently seen her and said she was 'in good spirits'.
Indeed, just 10 days before her death, Caroline - who had suffered cancer three times - had been cracking gags and had friends in stitches over coffee in the local village. Carmel Morgan, a screenwriter who worked on Caroline's BBC show, told the Liverpool Echo: "We went to Costa in Timperley with her best friend Cal, we had such a laugh. She puts on a brave front but you could tell she was ill. She never lost her sense of humour though, she was always laughing and joking."
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As a baby, the star had a rare cancer of the retina, retinoblastoma, which robbed her of most of her sight in one eye. She was later diagnosed and successfully treated for bladder cancer before being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. Confirming her diagnosis at a Macmillian Cancer charity event, she told how she's struggled to take the news in and relied on her famous humour to get her through treatment.
"When you hear them telling you you have cancer, it's true that you really don't take it in properly, you just don't think of the questions," she said. "So many funny things happen when you're in there and, looking back, you do have a right laugh with the nurses. Although I was on morphine, so maybe it was just me laughing. But that's a way you can cope with it. If you can separate yourself from it, a sense of humour really, really helps."
Again, the treatment worked and co-star and on-screen Fast Show husband, John Thompson, revealed she was in remission by the time they worked on Sky comedy After Hours that year. "Her hair, beneath her wig, had regrown and she was thin, but despite all this she was on amazing form, the Caroline I knew and loved working with," he recalled. "This was the last time I saw her. I'm grateful for that fact, as that was how I would want to remember her."
Caroline continued to work, voicing Gogglebox and taking on future jobs. But the cancer returned and two months before her death, Caroline told only a handful of her closest friends and family it was terminal and that she had between three and 12 months left to live. "It's not going away,'" she said, according to The Sun.
She made the selfless decision to not have children in case her cancer came back one day (PA)But the humble star had one final wish - and that was for her friends to keep her terminal diagnosis a secret to avoid any 'fuss'. "She got in touch and made it clear she knew she was going to die," a heartbroken friend shared at the time. "She asked everyone to keep it quiet because she didn’t want any fuss and everyone respected her wishes. Most of the people who knew weren't showbiz friends, but people who had known her all her life."
Still, when the end came, even those who had been warned weren't expecting it to come so soon. It's thought that the fiercely private star Caroline kept her deteriorating condition from everyone before taking a turn for the worse. She didn't even leave a will, with doting mum Maureen inheriting her £500,000 estate.
And paying tribute to Caroline, her ex-fiancé, Brett Whitford, - who she was briefly engaged to in 2002 - shared the reason Caroline didn't have children of her own. According to the Australian businessman, she selflessly refused to put them through the same torment she had experienced. "Caroline always felt that she didn't have long to live and that the cancer she had would come back one day," he explained. "It coloured the way she lived her life, because there were things she felt she couldn't do."
Sue Johnston, who played Caroline's mum Barbara on Royle Family, revealed in 2020 that the late star was "the most kindest and generous girl that you could ever really wish to meet". An emotional Sue said not a day goes by when she doesn't think of her friend. "You wonder how such vibrancy can just disappear," she told The One Show. "She was just a beautiful person. Extremely kind, generous and funny. She's always in my thoughts, always."
However, she also revealed that there was a stroppier side to Caroline, which came out when BBC tried to get her to put canned laughter on The Royle Family. "She could be quite scary because she knew what she wanted. Sometimes she'd really lose it you know, and storm off. And out of that we built a naughty corner," Sue continued. Breaking down, she added: "It was just such fun and I'm very sad that we'll never do it again really."
- Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy airs on BBC Two at 10.25pm tonight on Monday, December 25.