Sad for anyone to die, let alone so young. But she was no great comedy actress.

You are entitled to your opinion even if you are wrong.

A working class writer and actor at a time when virtually every British comedy was and still are written by pubLic schoolboys. Developed some great characters. Mrs Merton was a superb interviewer who asked the e questions others would be scared to but did it in a very subtle and amenable way
.


Tell me one interviewer who asked a trophy wife, 'did you marry him for his money then ".

I genuinely feel sad about her death as the Royle family was so close to home as being my childhood. She was so good.

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.

Loved Mrs Merton , Royle family was turd imo , still a shame at that age RIP

On reflection , didn't watch much Royle family as I cannot stand Ricky Tomlinson

Retinal cancer, bladder cancer and then lung cancer and she wrote and performed comedy to a high level and yet she was shoite.
The poor woman.
And I am perfect!
Jesus!

And Debbie was far from a trophy wife, maybe you need to read the details of how their relationship developed, maybe get someone to read it to you?

At what point did I say anything about her as an individual? A tragic chain of misfortune and horrible illness, a life taken too soon. Far from a comedic genius though.

And it's Aherne, not Aherens

Actually Mr Crumpledshorts the OP's spelling mistake was Ahernes.

And yes she wasn't a comedic genius, but she added to our comedic stock in a very mild and ordinary way and made her mark.

Only heard the news this morning. No age and very sad.

Bono Estente!

SCORCHIOOOO!

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.