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We all know and admire Caroline
Aherne today as the woman who blossomed in the Fast Show
and had us all in fits of laughter with Mrs Merton and
the Royle Family.
However, in the mid eighties,
Caroline Aherne, then an unknown drama student, put pen to paper
and wrote to Willy Russell. She bravely wrote about this letter
in her new found role as a columnist for The Sunday Times.
Nah!
 The following is a true
story. It will inspire you and give you hope. It reveals one
true fact that we all forget - that, in life, anything is possible.
Recently I received a letter
from the brilliant playwright Willy Russell. In it he explained
that he had been sorting through some old boxes of correspondence
and had come across a fan letter from 13 years ago from a girl
called Caroline Aherne, and he was wondering if it was me. He
enclosed the said letter and instantly I recognised my own handwriting.
So indeed it was from me, written
while I was studying drama at Liverpool Polytechnic. Now, the
fact that I wrote a fan letter to this man is not the point of
this - I believe Russell is a genius and I am still a huge fan.
It is the fact that a more excruciating embarrassing letter is
hard to imagine.
I actually cringed when I read
my weak attempts at humour and my first thought was to bin it
and forget about it.
But then I remembered my new
responsibility as a columnist and, bravely and unselfishly, I
am now going to lay bare the contents of that letter, word for
word, to enable hope to reign eternal in your hearts. It goes
as follows:
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Dear Mr Russell
Well, this is just a letter
to congratulate you on your plays and to tell you to keep up
the good work. I have seen Educating Rita, which was really good,
in fact, Willy, it made me laugh very much although I still think
they should have got off together at the end (this is purely
the only criticism I have for the play, by the way).
I have read Breezeblock
Park but not seen it; it was really funny.
I saw Blood Brothers, which
I found excellent. Thus Wil, it seems I am probably your biggest
fan since I've liked everything I've seen so far. I myself was
going to write a bestselling international play, but I haven't
had the time as of yet.
If you're stuck for ideas
for any new plays or films, base one on me - I'm 22½ years
old, full of fun and there's plenty of mileage to be had out
of me.
Anyway, congratulations
again, Will, keep writing the winners. (That's my advice).
Love from a big fan
Caroline Aherne xxx
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So to conclude, there is hope
for us all. Because the fact that the same girl who wrote that
childish letter is now an extremely highly paid columnist for
the Sunday Times Style section shows that anything is possible.
NB: seeing as this column is
about hope, I sincerely hope that Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Alan
Bennett don't go rooting through their old boxes of correspondence
and unearth the letters I wrote to them, too.
- THE SUNDAY TIMES
- 4th April 1999
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