Royle Family’s Ricky Tomlinson swaps booze for art and opens up about missing co-star Caroline Aherne

THE Royle Family’s Ricky Tomlinson has swapped booze for art and opened up about missing his co-star Caroline Aherne.

The 80-year-old actor played Jim Royle in the hit BBC comedy alongside Caroline, who passed away from lung cancer in July 2016 aged just 52.

Ricky is still saddened by her death, and told The Sunday Mirror: “Meeting Caroline and playing Jim Royle was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Caroline was such a wonderfully warm human being. She was a great British talent and is sadly missed.”

Despite having a quadruple heart bypass in 2012 as well as suffering from asthma, Ricky is feeling the best he has in years after ditching the booze.

He said: “Maybe I’m getting old or maybe I’m getting wiser, I don’t know.

“I used to like a pint and chat, and I still love a natter with friends, but now I have a cup of tea instead.

“It’s so much better having a clear head and it’s great to be alive and well.

“I have had one or two shandies but I haven’t touched a drop of the sauce for nearly 18 months now.”

In fact, Ricky has swapped his pints for paint brushes and jokingly calls himself ‘Ricasso’.

His art work has even been sold for charity, with money raised for causes he supports including Claire House children’s hospice, Human Milk Bank, Ronald McDonald House, Alder Hey Hospital and the Walking With Giants Foundation.

He said: “I completely lose myself in painting. I love it. I painted a completely blue square on a blank canvas I bought from the pound shop. I called it ‘Yellow Submarine’.

“Some soft s** paid £40 for it and then asked me where the submarine is. I told them it was under the bloody water.”