Family '˜didn't expect Caroline Aherne to go' as she died alone

Caroline Aherne arriving home in 1998 after she checked out of the Priory clinic

The star, best known for the sitcom The Royle Family and for ageing up as the agony aunt Mrs Merton, had been diagnosed with lung cancer and had previously been treated for bladder and eye cancer, as well as fighting depression and drink problems.

Her brother Patrick said: “My heart is broken as I loved her so much. But she is now in a better place and most of all she has no pain. I have lost a beautiful sister and the world has lost an amazing talent.

“I know Caroline would want everybody to be happy and not sad and I think we should now remember the comedy legacy she has left for us. RIP Caroline.”

Noel Gallagher, who paid a heartfelt tribute to his friend Caroline Aherne by dedicating his song Half The World Away to her during a show in America.

Another relative said the family “didn’t expect her to go” and that she “died on her own” at her home in Timperley, near Manchester.

Aherne created The Royle Family after she threw herself into her work following a suicide attempt, which she described as her lowest ebb.

It is considered a classic British sitcom, despite the constrained format of a working class family sitting in a living room.

It was the toast of the 1999 British Comedy Awards, and went on to take the best sitcom Bafta in 2000 and 2007.

Caroline Aherne and her then boyfriend Matt Bowers at the British Comedy Awards in 1997

Ralf Little, her co-star in the series, recalled that she “saw the world differently” and “delighted in the humble, unpretentious absurdities of everyday life without ever looking down on it”.

He said Aherne had a “joy about her” and that despite her difficult times “prized laughter above all else”.

“What a voice, what a mind, what a woman. I’ll miss her making us cry with laughter. I’ll miss her supportive texts when I write new things. I’ll miss her silliness, her intelligence, her laughter and her joy,” he added.

Meanwhile, her friend Noel Gallagher, the former frontman of the band Oasis, paid a heartfelt tribute by dedicating his song Half The World Away to her during a show in Nashville.

Gallagher told the crowd at the Ryman Auditorium: “I want to dedicate the next song to a friend of mine who died this afternoon. Her name was Caroline and she was a very, very, funny woman.

“She used this next song on a very, very, very brilliant sitcom in England called The Royle Family.”

He finished by adding, “So, wherever you are,” and pointing heavenward, before launching into the song.