facts

The idea came from Aherne's frustration with sitcoms. "We wanted to make one about real people" she said when the show first aired in September '98, "nothing much happens. It's just a slice of life".

Denise Royle's best pal Cheryl was to be played by Kathy Burke, bus she had to pull out.

The theme song is Oasis' "Half the world away" - originally on the Whatever single, also available on the B-sides album, The Masterplan.

Sud johnston and Ricky Tomlinson didn't know they'd be working together for the first time on TV since Brookside until they turned up for the readings.

Critical reaction wasn't entirely positive when the show first aired. The Socialist Review, of all things, was scathing: "Why would anyone want to spend half an hour watching the idiosyncrasies of a family on television, when probably we all know similar families to the Royles who we can visit?"

Aherne admitted that her character Denise Royle's fondness for a tipple is based on her own experiences. "She's always hungover and has ahad a load of drink because we wrote about our own lives and what happened in them".

The move to BBC1 has been a ratings winner. The first episode garnered over 7.5million viewers, two million more than Let them eat Cake, the show before it.

BBC2's summer repeats became the channels second most popular show of the week, behind The Simpsons.

Craig Cash (Dave) and Ricky Tomlinson often need breaks from filming because they crack up laughing, and it's usually Liz Smith (Norma/"Nana") who sets them off. "She's only got to pout her lips and we're awa," says Tomlinson, before adding "she was knitted for that part".

The cast has such a good time filming that Liz Smith even visits on her days off.

Tomlinson's favourite line from the current series, comes when Nanna explains what the surgeon has said to her before her eye operation, "Even thought I'm taking the cataract out of your eye, I'm leaving the twinkle in".

When Aherne and Cash appeared on This Morning (with Richard and Judy) recently, they asked if they could present a show while the couple are next on holiday!

TAKEN FROM HEAT MAGAZINE.