TV Review: Cilla, episode one, ITV
The time was 1960, the place was Mathew Street – and the world, led by Liverpool, was on the brink of a musical and social revolution.
Cilla Black, then Cilla White, was just 17 (you know what I mean?) but the girl from Scotland Road was no mere fortunate bystander, as she got to go on stage and play with the big boys.
If the first episode of the eagerly-awaited and much-hyped three-part biopic Cilla didn’t make people wish they were there right at the sweaty and exciting heart, and start, of things, it would have failed.
The time was 1960, the place was Mathew Street – and the world, led by Liverpool, was on the brink of a musical and social revolution.
Cilla Black, then Cilla White, was just 17 (you know what I mean?) but the girl from Scotland Road was no mere fortunate bystander, as she got to go on stage and play with the big boys.
If the first episode of the eagerly-awaited and much-hyped three-part biopic Cilla didn’t make people wish they were there right at the sweaty and exciting heart, and start, of things, it would have failed.
It didn’t fail. The fast-paced and, at times, funny first hour got off to a rousing start, recreating a performance by The Big Three, with Cilla rocking along in the audience but wishing she was on stage.
Sheridan Smith is 33-years-old and from Lincolnshire but, within seconds, my mind appeared to have forgotten all that. I saw and heard a woman who looked and sounded the part of a teenage Cilla. Now that’s good acting.
And she was by no means alone. Regarding playing the part of Bobby Willis, the singer’s manager, pre and post-Brian Epstein, and future husband, the normally dark-haired Aneurin Barnard (first language Welsh, not Scouse) had told his agent: “I can’t be doing this. The script is great, but they’re never going to cast a boy from the Valleys as a blond, blue-eyed Liverpudlian.” But they did – and they were right to.
Cilla Black, the Queen of Showbiz, has already given Barnard her royal seal of approval for his “magnificent” performance – and millions of viewers can now see why. Does Aneurin Barnard look and, perhaps most importantly, sound the part? Too right, la. Or lad.
And make no mistake, no drama about Cilla’s life can be taken seriously unless Bobby, the power behind the throne, plays a leading part in it – because he played such a central role in Cilla’s professional, as well as personal, life.
This wasn’t just about the red head and her big dreams. This was about the red head and blondie – a dream team that, after Cilla’s initial chart success as a singer under the guidance of The Beatles’ manager, would go on to become a powerful force in the world of light entertainment, with Cilla a regular Saturday night fixture on millions of TV screens.
Watching Bobby and Cilla’s relationship start – and then falter – was touching, and it constantly made you look back and realise she was never truly a solo act.
The first episode, meanwhile, raced along and evoked all the excitement of early 1960s Liverpool, centred on clubs like The Cavern and The Iron Door and the birth of The Beatles and Merseybeat.
Bobby had a humble job in the Woolworth’s Bakery, but, while humble typist Cilla had a fine singing voice, he was a great talker – though perhaps a little too fond of telling tall tales. He boasted to Cilla he worked in a recording studio and also added a few years to his age to try and impress her – and it worked, until she found out.
Undaunted, Bobby insisted he was the man to manage her because, “I’ve already proved I’m good at lying, haven’t I?”
Jeff Pope’s script contained plenty of humour – in evidence again as an initially-hapless Bobby began to feel his way in the management game, somehow negotiating a pay cut for Cilla before quickly learning the ropes. Then there was the time the Mersey Beat newspaper inadvertently renamed Cilla White “Cilla Black”.
Bobby told her: “It won’t happen again.”
There was fine support from John Henshaw and Melanie Hill, as Cilla’s parents John and “Big Cilla”, and Andrew Schofield, as Bobby’s dad, Robert, while the lads playing the Four Lads, The Big Three, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and Kingsize Taylor and The Dominoes were all star turns.
And with the help of nicely-interwoven computer-generated imagery, Liverpool reverted to the city it was more than 50 years ago (the El Kabala coffee bar in Bold Street was obviously one of the places to hang out) – while it was good to see Ringo Starr (Tom Dunlea) reading the ECHO!
Cilla has got off to a fine and fast start, but can it keep up the quality and pace over the next two episodes – or will there be a ‘lorra lorra’ disappointments along the way?