The Royle Family, the classic sitcom centred round the a TV-loving family, is 25 years old this year – so we look back at the hit show that made household names of its stars
It’s been 25 years since The Royle Family was first broadcast from their living room into ours.
Featuring the humdrum world of a TV-loving family from Stockport sitting on their sofa, it seemed like a non-starter. But inspired cast performances and a crafted script turned it into a classic. To celebrate the Royles’ silver jubilee, Gold is airing a documentary, The Royle Family: Down the Back of the Sofa. Get yourself comfy and take a look at the inside story…
The hilarious programme was of course the brainchild of the writers and stars Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash. The pair met in the late eighties while working on a Stockport radio show, and they hit it off immediately. “When I first met Craig when I got home on the very first day I’d met him I wrote in my diary, âI have just met the funniest man in the world’ and that’s because I’d run into someone on the way back⦔ Caroline joked.
But on a serious note they clearly found in each other an unparalleled comedy partnership, working together on The Mrs Merton Show – Caroline’s iconic elderly chat show host. Although this show which began in 1995 was only increasing in popularity by 1998, it was Caroline who decided she wanted them to create another series, based on their working class roots.