She sometimes said she’d rather be a hairdresser but Aherne’s cheeky early appearances in the pubs and clubs of Manchester led her to TV fame
In the early 90s, Manchester’s cultural revolution was in full swing. “Everything was thriving,” remembers actor, writer and comedian John Thomson who grew up in Preston before studying drama at Manchester Polytechnic. Beyond the Haçienda, a comedy scene was growing in the city’s pub rooms where Thomson made friends with Wythenshawe local Caroline Aherne. “In Manchester at that time, there were a lot of funny people,” Thomson says. “Caroline was naturally funny.”
Aherne’s comic creation Mrs Merton, the elderly talk-show host treading the line between innocence and insult, had begun making appearances in the late 80s alongside Frank Sidebottom. Aherne was also performing as the Mitzi Goldberg Experience. “She used to wear this awful acrylic, curly wig, and she put on a southern drawl. It was Dolly Parton of sorts,” Thomson recalls. “I think she had a guitar, but she couldn’t play. There were probably no strings.”
