Caroline Aherne: the working-class woman’s comedian

BRENT CUTLER relishes a life that arose from Manchester’s underground scene to the highest peaks of TV fame

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THE actor and comedian Caroline Aherne, who sadly passed away in 2016, is the subject of David Scott’s latest book. It is also a history of British comedy from the late 1980s to the early 2000s.  

The city Manchester has for many years been the home of a number of musicians, artists and comedians. Examples include the Gallagher Brothers, Les Dawson, Steve Coogan and, some would say, the present occupant of Number 10 Downing Street. Caroline Aherne, although born in Ealing from Irish parents, was very much part of this tradition.

Caroline’s comic career emerged from the Manchester underground scene in the late 1980s; a movement defined as much by what it was not as what it was. A rejection of both the traditional northern comics who dominated the working men’s clubs, with their racism and misogyny; as well as the privileged, elite comedians who emerged from institutions such as Cambridge Footlights.

The Manchester Underground scene revolved around working-class people laughing at themselves; which was the root of the characters that Caroline and her close collaborator Graig Cash are famous for. In much the same way as the sketch story Goodness Gracious Me saw British Asians laughing at themselves, these comedians saw white working-class people doing the same thing.

Meanwhile Scott is critical of comedians such as Caroline Tate, David Walliams and Matt Lucas from Little Britain for their portrayal of working-class characters.

From the same tradition came the comedian and actor Steve Coogan; who created characters like Paul and Pauline Calf. Ironically, in 1994, the year that Coogan came on air with his show Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, in which a pretend host interviewed pretend guests, Caroline hosted the Mrs Merton Show, in which a pretend host interviewed real guests. Perhaps the most famous interview was with the racist comedian Bernard Manning. Aherne’s character asked him the question: “Who do you vote for now Hitler’s dead?”  

Caroline regularly appeared on The Fast Show; a sketch-based comedy series that featured the likes of Arabella Weir, Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse. In 1998 Aherne, alongside Craig Cash appeared in the Royle Family. The series featured Ricky Tomlinson as Jim Royle and Sue Johnsone as his wife; whilst Caroline and collaborator Graig Cash took the role of daughter and son in law.

The Royle Family took the form a spoof, fly-on-the-wall documentary in which cameras were taken into the home of a working-class Manchester family: a highly successful series that struck a chord with working-class viewers across Britain, not just in the north. The author is no doubt a fan of the series and gives particular praise to the 2006 episode The Queen of Sheba which revolves around the death of the grandmother Nana, played by Liz Smith.

The book also covers problems of Caroline’s personal life. As a child she suffered from retinoblastoma; a rare form of cancer that left her partially sighted. In later years she struggled with alcoholism and depression. These problems may well indicate that whilst Caroline was able to produce high class comedy, many of television series she was instrumental either only ran for a few series or like the Royle Family were broadcast intermittently.

Scott points out that mental health problems are not uncommon amongst comedians; who often use a comedic persona as a mask for their personal problems.     

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