Caroline Aherne was a genius. Not your superficial, doing hard sums, inspirational Instagram post style of “genius”, but a bona fide, dictionary-definition one. She had an IQ of 176, trumping Stephen Hawking, Nicolaus Copernicus and Bill Gates (all in the 160s).
Thankfully, for us, Aherne decided to sidestep the pedestrian pursuits of science, medicine and computer engineering and instead dedicated her big, beautiful brain to comedy. It is no surprise that she created some of the most distinctive comedic works of the late 90s and 2000s, paving the way for classics such as The Office, This Country and Alma’s Not Normal.
In partiular, The Royle Family – which she co-created, co-wrote and starred in – is a miracle. Her masterpiece. A sitcom that not only enjoyed universal appeal but also blanket identifiability, an almost impossible artistic feat. We all saw our own families reflected back at us via the Royles. I didn’t grow up in the Manchester suburbs, my dad was employed and not much of an open farter. But Jim Royle was my dad. He was everybody’s dad. It was an incredible achievement.
Aherne, such a keen observer of life, nearly didn’t see anything at all. She was blighted as a child with a rare, genetic form of cancer, retinoblastoma, that left her vision impaired. Her brother lost his right eye completely. This cancer must have been like a ticking clock inside her. Her mum, a vital cog in her life, assured her that the disease made her “special”. And she always knew she might not have that have much time to make any sort of impact.
