Queen of Comedy

 Like many men, I have become more tear-prone as I get older – but I never expected to be reduced to a moist-eyed wreck by a TV documentary about someone from the biz we call show. Last night, however, I caught up with Caroline Aherne: Queen of Comedy on BBC iPlayer (it originally went out on Christmas Day), a profile of that hugely talented performer and writer, who died of cancer in 2016, aged only 52. It's an Arena documentary, which in itself is generally a guarantee of quality, and it was beautifully made, bringing its subject (back) to life with a deftly managed mix of archive footage, images and, particularly, the memories of those who knew and loved her best – and boy, did they love her, and do they still grieve for her. I've never seen such clearly genuine raw emotion in a documentary of this kind, and it was intensely moving. Even Steve Coogan, who reportedly wept buckets at her funeral, was finally too overcome to speak. This was a wonderful documentary, and it's on iPlayer for a while yet, so catch it if you can. I'd almost go so far as to say that a programme like this is worth paying the licence fee for, but I imagine the Corporation has been plotting the demise of Arena for years. Or am I just being cynical?