The Royle Family's Sue Johnston shares pain of watching series without Caroline Aherne

ok.co.uk:

The Royle Family star Sue Johnston has opened up on how difficult it is to watch the once hugely-popular comedy series in the years since fellow star Caroline Aherne sadly died.

Sue, who played family matriarch Barbara Royle in the iconic show from 1998 to 2012, was on-screen mum to daughter Denise (played by Caroline), and the pair joined show star Ricky Tomlinson as Jim Royle.

Sadly, Caroline, who also created the sitcom, died of cancer after a short battle with the disease in 2016. She was only 52 at the time, and seven years later, the series returns for a one-off tribute special in honour of Caroline airing on BBC2.Talking about how difficult it's been to look back to on her time on the series with fondness, Sue admitted she has only recently been able to start watching again.

The actress told Radio Times: "It was very hard, because there are so many people in it who are no longer with us, but The Queen of Sheba [a 2006 episode] is my favourite, and I watch it with a lot of pride. “The first series was rerun the other day, and do you know, little kids now ask for selfies with me because they love it as much as the older generations did.