DVD: The Mrs Merton Show (Complete Series)

Sustaining a believable comedy character for half an hour can be tough going. Sustaining it for a series can be difficult. Multiply that series by five and you realise why Caroline Aherne was one of the biggest female comedy talents of the 90s.

Part comedy series, part improvised chat show, the Mrs Merton Show took Caroline Aherne from her blink and you’d miss it character parts in the Fast Show and placed her firmly on the road to success. Interviewing a selection of well known faces from the mid-90s about their careers and personal life, Aherne played the lovable Mrs Merton, a cuddly OAP with a penchant for asking the questions that other interviewers dare not ask.

Possibly the best way to describe the show to anyone who doesn’t remember it is to imagine Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, but with actual rather than made up guests (therefore constituting an actual chat show) or Al Murrays Happy Hour, but with more than one joke.

Despite being more than 10 years old now, the appeal for Mrs Merton stays the same. It comes not just from the fact that the character asks ridiculously risqué questions to the guests (think Jonathan Ross, but a slightly older female version), who are more than willing to answer them, but the fact that the character itself is so believable, it’s only when the credits role at the end of the show that you realise that it’s a character and not a real grey haired old lady.

Although some of the episodes suffer slightly from dated references, the quips from Aherne (sorry, Mrs Merton) are so sharp that such matters can be overlooked, and with a Northern vibe very much like Peter Kay, this DVD release could be seen as a convenient Mother’s Day gift.

The Mrs Merton Show is available to buy on DVD  now by clicking here.