Ralf Little Recalls His Crush On Caroline Aherne In Emotional Tribute

Ralf Little has admitted he had a sweet teenage crush on Caroline Aherne when they starred together in her comedy show The Royle Family.

The Royle Family (Copyright: Rex)

The 36-year-old actor, pictured above left, was just 17 years old when he was cast as Antony Royle in Caroline’s (centre) hilarious comedy about a telly obsessed, working class family. Caroline sadly died on Saturday aged 52 at her home in Timperley, Cheshire, two years after she announced she was battling lung cancer.

Ralf remembered her fondly in a tribute posted in The Sun newspaper and recalled his first day working with the TV legend.

He said: “On my first day on set, I was pretty nervous. I was just some skinny, big-nosed teenager plucked out of nowhere but Caroline was this superstar. And I have to confess, the 17-year-old me really fancied her.

“It was pretty terrifying when she saw me come through the door and immediately marched over, saying, ‘Oh god, Ralf, we’re so sorry — did they not tell you? You’ve been recast.’ ”

Copyright: Rex

Ralf continued: “I looked horrified as she pointed to Ricky Tomlinson and said, 'Ricky’s going to shave and play your part now.’ She paused as I stood, dumbstruck, before bursting into gales of laughter and giving me a welcome hug.”

The show starred Ricky Tomlinson as Jim, Sue Johnston as his wife Barbara, Caroline as their daughter Denise and Ralf as her brother. Craig Cash played Denise’s husband Dave and Liz Smith as her grandmother Norma.

Speaking about the atmosphere on set, Ralf added: “We arrived in the morning, laughed pretty much non-stop for about 12 hours, went to the pub and laughed for a few more hours, then went home. I can’t remember filming very much of anything, to be honest. Frankly it’s amazing there was actually a series.”

The actor took to Twitter on the weekend to share his reaction to the Mrs Merton star’s death, after his co-star Ricky had paid tribute, and admitted he was left in shock by the news.

He said: “Sorry for silence - I just… don’t know what to say. What a sad, sad day. We’ve lost another one of our best.“A character. A legend. A boss. A sister, real (for me) fake. A boss. A writer. An actor. A genius. A friend. Big, big heart. Goodbye.”