[6] She attended the Hollies Convent FCJ School in West Didsbury, Xaverian College in Rusholme in Manchester and then studied drama at Liverpool Polytechnic.

[7] The Mrs Merton character originated as a voice on the 1988 Frank Sidebottom album titled 5:9:88, after Aherne worked as a receptionist for his show on Piccadilly Radio.

[8] Aherne was then invited by DJ Martin Kelner to develop the character on his show, where she would spend many years appearing as a comedy agony aunt across the north of England on the BBC Night Network.

After that Mrs Merton became the regular celebrity interviewer on Granada's Saturday morning show Express!, a youth TV programme presented by I Am Kloot's John 'Johnny Dangerously' Bramwell[14][15] and Sumy Kuraishe from a number of random locations in the north west.

[16] For this Leeds-based ITV station Aherne had recorded a pilot of Mrs Murton's Nightcap,[17] but they had not pursued the concept.

In 1993, she made brief appearances in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and alongside Steve Coogan and John Thomson in a Granada TV pilot entitled The Dead Good Show.

Between 1994 and 2004 she appeared alongside Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson in The Fast Show, where her characters included "Our Janine", a teenage mum with a unique world outlook; Renée, the endlessly chattering Northern wife of hen-pecked Roy; Checkout Girl, a simple and chatty young supermarket employee; and Chanel 9 meteorologist Poula Fisch, whose weather forecasts invariably included the word "Scorchio!".

Aherne's most popular creation is the situation comedy The Royle Family, which she co-created and wrote with Cash, and directed in its third series.

After a 2000 spoof documentary with Cash entitled Back Passage to India, Aherne said The Royle Family would end in December 2000 after a Christmas special, and that she would not appear on television again, although she would continue to write.

[23] She also appeared in The Fast Show internet specials, sponsored by the lager brand Fosters, which reunited most of the original principal cast; only Mark Williams was unable to participate.

The episode starred Paddy McGuinness, Brendan O'Carroll, Dean Andrews, Bobby Ball and Peter Wight.

Aherne's final major role was as narrator of the Channel 4 comedy reality series Gogglebox, reflecting her character in The Royle Family, who would frequently be watching TV and commenting on it.

[27] She attempted suicide in July 1998 after the death of her former boyfriend, BBC technician Matt Bowers, from stomach cancer in 1997 and the end of a relationship with American actor Alexis Denisof.

[34][35] Aherne had told family and close friends in May that she was terminally ill.[citation needed] Her funeral took place on 14 July 2016.

[37] In October 2016, Steve Coogan paid tribute to Aherne at the Stand Up to Cancer 2016 event, speaking about her before a video was played of her TV moments, and then Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds performed The Royle Family theme tune "Half the World Away".