9 Sassy Mrs Merton Moments That Will Make You Laugh

The celebrated comedy character created by Caroline Aherne, who has died aged 52, was famous for her sharp wit.

1. "What first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?" Mrs Merton asked the late magician's wife Debbie McGee.

youtube.com

2. And to Paul Daniels himself: "Debbie was a hit with the pensioners, you're proof of that yourself."

youtube.com

3. "When you were a little boy, knocking a football around Belfast, did you ever think you'd one day be famous in every pub in Britain?" Mrs Merton asked footballer George Best.

youtube.com

She also asked: "If you hadn’t done all of that running around and playing football, would you have been as thirsty?"

4. "Politics, is it a load of rubbish?" she asked Ken Livingstone, who would go on to be mayor of London.

BBC / Via dailymotion.com

5. To controversial comedian Bernard Manning: "It's been a long time since you've been on telly".

youtube.com

6. "Could you impersonate somebody that tall?" she asked Steve Coogan, referring to her previous guest who was at the time the world's tallest man.

youtube.com

Coogan is 5ft 9in.

7. "What's acting like? Is it as easy as it looks?" she asked Men Behaving Badly star Martin Clunes.

youtube.com

8. To Carol Thatcher, "Everybody always wants to talk about your mother. It's not going to be like that tonight, Carol. What's your father like?"

BBC / Via dailymotion.com

9. "Do you think it was a mistake setting EastEnders in London?" she asked famous cockney Barbara Windsor when she joined the show in 1995.

youtube.com

"It's so depressing! Do you know how much a loaf of bread costs?" Mrs Merton continued.