Cilla (2014)

Cilla (2014)

Dir. Paul Whittington | 3 episodes, approx 45 minutes each.

I was born in the decade after the swinging sixties had swung their last, so my experience of Cilla Black while growing up was primarily as the red-headed woman on TV who said "lorra lorra laughs," and "Here's our Graham with a quick reminder..."

I knew her musically for having performed the emotionally stirring theme song to the film Alfie (1966), the UK version at least, but I knew nothing of how she rose from being a music fan to embracing fame as an actual singer, so watching the miniseries was a real eye-opener. It's also damn good; although that ought not to be too surprising given that it's from the same writer, producer and director team that made Mrs Biggs (2012).

It begins in 1960, Liverpool, the same year and location in which The Beatles formed. Cilla's own evolution runs parallel to theirs and even overlaps on occasion. As you'd expect, almost everyone speaks in a Liverpudlian accent. The hard 'g' and '–ckk' sounds are better performed by some of the cast than by others, but everyone is easily identifiable as being Scouse.

Cilla is played by Sheridan Smith. She's not a dead ringer, but when topped with the famous red hair and outfitted in the correct period fashions she definitely looks the part. The aesthetic trappings could've been all for naught if the voice wasn't authentic. Thankfully, Sheridan can really sing. She performed all tracks live on set, in both of Cilla's unique styles, and it's genuinely superb. I'd link an example on YouTube but removing them from context wouldn't be a good idea.

While the miniseries is primarily about the titular character, she didn't make the difficult journey alone. It's also the story of the devoted Bobby Willis (Aneurin Barnard), who played a pivotal role, and to a lesser extent the famous record producer Brian Epstein (Ed Stoppard).

Directly after viewing the final episode I went looking for archive clips of the real Cilla singing in the studio to see how Sheridan compared. Doing so was instrumental in my developing a new appreciation for Cilla's talents. I see her now first and foremost as a true artist, whereas before it was as presenter of crap evening UK TV.