Miss S.Smith does a nice impression of Cilla Black and in fact sings rather better than the original in a competent enough if not inspired series celebrating Miss Black's fifty years as an entertainer. Starting out as a raunchy R & B singer she joined Svengali Brian Epstein's stable and changed to an anodyne M.O.R. artiste and ultimately a family TV favourite - the classic path followed by such as Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard before her and many others since. In later years she has become a bit of a cliché figure with her scouse accent broadening to the point of self - parody,but she gave every song her all and was a celebrity before the word became a curse. The mis - en - scene is familiar to anybody who has watched TV or seen a British kitchen sink drama over the last 60 years,oop north,outside privies,mums in aprons,dads in sleeveless pullies,back to back housing.. .....this very familiarity is now a comfort and Miss Black so much a part of our culture that it almost writes itself. The first episode is a bit glum and ends on a down note that might have broken a lesser woman but Cilla has guts and,at least in her case,talent - as they say - will out. She never seems particularly happy and I wondered at the end whether she might have preferred to have remained a pecunious but artistically fulfilled R&B singer rather than having to churn out "Anyone who had a heart" for fifty years - but I'll guess we'll never know.
Review of Cilla
