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                          TELEVISION

              Royle Family star turns off TV

                       By ANITA SINGH, PA
                               LONDON
                     Monday 9 April 2001

          Caroline Aherne: "I want my life back."

              Comedy actress Caroline Aherne has vowed never to appear on television again because she is sick of tabloid intrusion.

              The creator of The Royle Family, who became famous as chat-show hostess Mrs Merton, said quitting TV was the only way to escape the attentions of the paparazzi.

             Aherne, 37, made the decision after a Sunday newspaper followed her on holiday to Mauritius and took secret snaps of her by the pool.

            She told The Independent: ``I will drop out of telly altogether for a while, and when I come back I will just write and direct. I want my life back.''

              Aherne has been the subject of tabloid stories after a battle with alcoholism and a suicide attempt three years ago.

              Admitting that she enjoyed some aspects of fame, she said: ``But the cost is too much. For whatever reason, my drinking, trying to top myself, going to The Priory, I realise that I'm a tabloid attraction...because my life has been up and down like a rollercoaster.''

             She added: ``I don't feel persecuted or singled out. It's what happens. I know it's a game. I'm just saying that I'm getting out of it.''

            The Manchester-born comedienne has scrapped plans for an upcoming 10-part BBC chat show hosted by her collaborator, Craig Cash.

             A film called The Learner, due to go into production next January, has been postponed, and Aherne recently announced that there will be no more series of The Royle Family.

             She now intends to move abroad for a while and write a book based on her life, the paper reported.

             Aherne's recent holiday in Mauritius was marred by the publication of poolside photographs of her accompanied by reports of ``what I'd been eating, even the music I'd been dancing to'', she said.

            But despite complaining about the intrusion, she admitted that she had agreed to be photographed during the second week of the holiday by Hello magazine.