Sue Johnston has given an emotional interview on Loose Women about her late friend Caroline Aherne.
The 74-year-old soap icon said on Thursday’s show that she still has moments when she just can’t believe Caroline has gone.
Caroline was just 52 when she passed away from cancer in 2016.
Sue, who starred with Caroline in The Royle Family, said: “She is a hero of mine. She was taken too young. She was the most generous, kind and funny person.
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“She had met Ricky (Tomlinson) at an awards do and said, ‘You’re going to be my dad and Sue Johnston is going to be my mum.’ And he rang me and said, ‘What do you think she meant?’
“Then the script arrived for The Royle Family. She had us in her head when she wrote it.”
Sue revealed The Royle Family cast will be marking the show’s 20th anniversary later this year with a reunion.
And it will naturally be a poignant event for all of them.
“They are getting us all together,” she said. “I’ve seen people individually out of the cast, but this will be the first time we’re together (since she died).
“If you don’t see people regularly you don’t miss them continuously, if you see what I mean.
“Then suddenly you get a realisation she’s gone and it washes over you.”
Sue said she has been unable to watch The Royle Family since Caroline’s death and has yet to delete her phone number from her mobile.
“I can’t do delete,” she said. “I can’t delete. I have a few friends on there who have died and I’m sure you have, too.
“To go and delete… I don’t know how you do that so I’d rather leave them here.”
Sue then became emotional and dabbed her eye as she said: “Oh, this has taken a turn for the worse, this conversation.”
Caroline, who also played Mrs Merton and narrated Gogglebox, had been suffering from cancer.
She was diagnosed with lung cancer two years prior to her death, having previously had bladder and eye cancer.
In an earlier interview with iNews, heartbroken Sue revealed how Caroline referred to her as her “second mum”.
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She said of Caroline’s death: “I just found it so cruel, so unfair. Because she was such a beautiful woman. And so generous and clever and funny. She didn’t deserve it. She was so wonderful in illness.
“She never brought it to work, even. She’d always find a way of laughing about it and her treatment, even when she was really poorly.”
Sue can be seen in the new movie, Walk Like A Panther, in cinemas this week.