Do You Like Us? The Green Room, Manchester, 1993

I was exceptionally fortunate to see a comedy night in Manchester in 1993 featuring very early in their careers, Steve Coogan, John Thomson, and Caroline Aherne.  Having completed their first sketch show, The Dead Good Show for Granada TV, the three comedians performed their show, Do You Like Us? in the city’s Green Room arts venue.  Aherne stole the show with her Sister Mary Immaculate character – an outrageously naughty nun.  On the verge of introducing her memorable character Mrs Merton, who would go on to have her own successful TV chat show asking cutting questions to unsuspecting guests in an extremely innocent and warm manner and creating very humorous situations, I could see that this early on, I was watching three major comic talents.

When Coogan had a major tour in 1998 with his show, The Man Who Thinks He’s It, my brother and I were in attendance and without realising, it was press night.  Major celebrities were in the audience at the Lyceum Theatre in London including Liam Gallagher from Oasis, and Aherne’s popular and fantastic hit series, The Royle Family had just started on the BBC.   We were talking about how accurate the portrayal of the family was, and as we were walking into the theatre, there was Ricky Tomlinson (who played dad Jim Royle) at the bar. We both told him we thought that he was the funniest thing on television, and he pointed to Aherne and said she wrote it. She sat in the corner very timid, but smiling and waving at us. It was a precious moment.

In 2016, at just 52 years old, Aherne tragically passed away from cancer.  The comedy world mourned the loss of a comic great.  In December 2023, the BBC showed the Arena documentary Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy which was a fitting tribute to a comedy legend.