She wrote little of her own material, her "humour" was benile and all the Royle family did was reinforce stereotypes. It's very similar to Mrs Brown's boys, shoite in the extreme and aimed at the unintelligent.

Really? Can I assume you've written to the BAFTAs to tell them, when they gave her the awards for best sitcom they obviously didn't know this


WTF is "benile"?


Er, no, all the Royle Family did was make millions of viewers laugh out loud. The whole comedy was brilliantly centred on stereotypes and you have stood the facts on their head. Part of the whole point, and what made it so funny, was the banality of some of the dialogue, and the painfully accurate portrayals of stereotypical characters most of us could seriously relate to, and of a mundane way of working class life.

The British Film Institute's 2000 list, picked not by Joe public but by a poll of industry professionals,was to determine the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened. The Royle Family is in that list at #31. So you may have underestimated it, or maybe it's just over your head?


Ah, so you have no sense of humour, and a puffed up sense of your own importance - sorry, I didn't realise. The combined viewing figures for the 2015 Xmas Special pushed 10m, making it the #2 watched show. There are clearly a lot of us "unintelligent" people, and with 3 consecutive annual wins at the NTAs for Mrs Brown's Boys (2013-2015) we seem to have much power and influence

But back to the script. Caroline Aherne was indeed a comedy genius, by any opinion worth reading. You are also entitled to your opinion, but an obit thread for appreciation and condolences at someone's passing is a poor choice of venue to spout it.

Spot on FA

Very well put - it's entirely ok to not join in the public outpourings of sadness when someone passes (I felt similarly disconnected from the Princess Diana mass hysteria for example) but it seems in very poor taste to pick apart her body of work in a thread which is based on sympathy and sadness; surely someone's lifetime achievements aren't deemed unworthy because you as an individual didn't appreciate them?

Anyhow - I liked Mrs Merton - and thought the Royle Family was brilliantly observed; and the fact that she held her own as a northern woman in a comedy world that was increasingly owned by an Oxbridge elite, is something to admire; as is her lifelong battle with depression, alcoholism and various forms of cancer.

Sad news - 2016 continues to be a total ter.