TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Although Dusty Springfield had given the BBC two successive hit TV series, she was now off to ATV, leaving the stage empty. It's probable that Springfield's off-camera tantrums might have caused a sigh of relief for the staff at TV Centre when she announced her departure. So whoever followed couldn't have been any worse, right?

One of the last tasks Cilla Black's manager Brian Epstein would tackle before his tragic death in August 1967 was to agree terms for Cilla's own primetime BBC1 TV series in the new year.

Cilla's working class persona had proved popular with the public and had made dozens of TV appearances since her debut in September 1963, but only had a couple of specials to her name, Thank Your Lucky Stars Presents Cilla Black in January 1965 and Rediffusion's Cilla at The Savoy in July 1966. Seeing that Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield and other star singers had been given their own series it was inevitable that she would be offered a chance to host her own show. After Epstein's death Bernard Lee from NEMS would complete negotiations with the BBC's Bill Cotton Jnr.

The BBC1 shows hosted by singers tended to fall into two camps, Dusty, Sandie and Scott who made sure that the music would be forefront and wouldn't invite potentially incompatible guests, and the Lulu, Cliff camp which would have dancers, comedy sketches and features like the A Song For Europe qualifier. The Cilla show would very definitely fall into the second camp. Talking to Disc before the first show the BBC's Bill Cotton Jr said "I'm sure Cilla will prove she's an all-round entertainer - rather in the style of Gracie Fields." Cilla would do her own warm-up on the show by singing pub songs with the audience for about fifteen minutes.

Paul McCartney wrote her theme tune 'Step Inside Love' which would last until the early seventies, while fellow Beatle Ringo would star in the second show,  increasing the show's audience that week by two million to thirteen million. Ringo would make further appearances throughout the show's run. It was notable that sometimes she would sing "cares of the day" during the opening number, and sometimes "curs of the day" in broad Scouse.

Guest Cliff Richard performed the six short-listed Eurovision songs during the first series, leading to Congratulations being chosen. Strangely Cilla was never invited to do Eurovision herself. She was never as clothes conscious as someone like Lulu, but her wardrobe for the first series were designed for her by John Bates.

Initially announced at The Cilla Black Show, the show would follow pretty much the same course as any variety show before or after, but interviewing members of the public on the street would prove one of the more popular aspects and would later be copied by Esther Rantzen on That's Life in the seventies.

The first series was broadcast live on a Tuesday evening at 8.00 pm replacing This Is Petula Clark. Several shows featured Frankie Howerd with sketches written by Eric Sykes and Galton & Simpson.

The final show of the series proved memorable as she couldn't stop herself from bursting into tears on the final number, the show's theme. Talking to Melody Maker, a BBC spokesman said "We had thousands of letters asking for Cilla to come back. Some of them have been heart-breaking. People wrote things like 'Don't worry dear - we all love you'."

The second series would be broadcast Wednesday's and would now include a regular spot for birthday and anniversary requests, with voice-over legend John Benson visiting viewer's homes on their birthday, while Tim Brooke-Taylor, Greame Garden and Graham Chapman became the show's comedy troupe.

The third series starting November 1969 sees the show moved back to Tuesday.

1970 would prove awkward for the singer as despite winning the Top Female Personality in The Sun Television Awards 1970 she didn't have a series that year to back it up with. However she did get to host the annual Christmas Night with the Stars extravaganza.

It was evident as years and series went on that her confidence in front of an audience, either in the studio or at home, was increasing proportionately with her ambition. She wanted to be an actor as well as presenter and singer, but acknowledging her limitations and what the public were willing to accept was an unknown, to her at least. Her case was probably not helped by the odd cruciform pose she took at the end of each show. With increasing public involvement in the show it was becoming an uncomfortable weekly event.

She was back in January 1971 with a new season of shows, this time on a Saturday night and by the time of the next series starting in November the format was perfect. A new theme tune Something Tells Me was used but would become her last hit single. Her husband/manager Bobby Willis claimed in a Melody Maker interview in late 1971 "You have to remember in this business that you're only as good as you last hit record." Five of the shows were broadcast live as to accommodate a new gimmick. A camera team was sent off to a secret location, a street somewhere in Britain, which would then be revealed live on her show with people peeking out of their doorways only to find themselves on telly, pre-dating Noel Edmond's NTV by twenty years. A couple of shows from this season were filmed on location in Berlin and Stockholm, as co-productions with local broadcasters.

'Cilla' went missing from the schedules for most of 1972, finally turning up on the 30th December with one new show, and a new feature where members of the public would realise their unusual ambitions, a format that would re-appear later in 1973 with Jim'll Fix It. She also hosted the A Song For Europe qualifiers, again sung by Cliff Richard. The 3rd February 1973 show was notable as a good portion of the show was taken up with a situation comedy, starring Cilla. It was almost as though she was publicly auditioning for a comedy series, which was exactly what was happening. It was a poor decision and found no takers at the BBC.

Comic turns would appear each week, including a thankfully surviving encounter between Pete and Dud, possibly their last time together as those characters on British TV.

The show returned in January 1974, but her chart career was far behind her and to make things worse the Song For Europe spot would be given to another show. There were more time-filling sit-com sketches with guest stars, and more time-filling filmed vox pops. It was noticeable that major talent avoided the show now. She was reduced to singing opening medleys in duets with guests including sports reporters and comedy actors. The series would finish on 2nd March 1974, just before the birth of her baby, and bar a couple of bank holiday specials it looked like the end. She introduced a new theme song, Baby We Can't Go Wrong, which was not a hit, despite the weekly plug, while the show spiralled downwards into a light entertainment vacuum. It was just a matter of time, but the show inevitably descended into "prinking" an unsuspecting public, in pre-filmed clips. No-one knew what this show was meant to be anymore, music with comedy, a comedy show with songs, public pranks. Also her "do you know who I am" schtick in the vox pops was getting embarrassing. The show by this time was avoiding the JITCAR ratings top twenty. She had become the Liver Bird no-one wanted to watch. A couple of Top of the Pops appearances to plug her 1974 singles also were in vain.

All that was left would have been for her to perform all her sixties hits on the show and in the hope that EMI would release a hits album to co-inside, but it was not to be.

She made no appearances at all for the BBC in 1975 turning instead to ATV who gave her, perhaps unwisely, a series of six comedy shows 'Cilla's Comedy Six'. The aim was to probably turn one of them into a series at a later date like Ronnie Barker had done, but none of the shows were popular (or much cop) so the idea was dropped and she returned to the BBC the following year for her final series.

She was back in February 1976 with her final BBC series and another new theme, It's Now, also not a hit. The public were quite clear about that. They also made it quite clear they were going to keep avoiding the show at any cost, with no showing in the JITCAR top twenty for any of the shows. The first show in February was notable for the wrong reasons as her live camera crew turned up to surprise a family only to find that they had gone out for the evening. Not even they were watching Cilla anymore. The house visits idea was dropped a few weeks later. It was evident that she was now targeting an elderly audience with all the thirties movie spoofs and old songs. Maybe the vox-pops with the elderly was the only way to guarantee any kind of audience. In one show she re-assured her remaining audience "if you happened to be watching on your own, don't worry, because we've got some very friendly people to keep you company."

The show finally came to an end 17th April 1976, signing off with a version of Alfie, probably her crowning achievement in the sixties.

Cilla gave comedy acting another go with Cilla's World Of Comedy on ATV after the BBC shows came to an end, but like the previous adventure it was not a success.

For the next few years she would appear in Cadbury's chocolate commercials and be a guest on other people's shows. It wouldn't be until the mid-eighties that her revival at London Weekend would properly get underway. Her career had become something like an out of season seaside town, everyone had heard of it but didn't want to go there.

Due to the lack of availability of all her BBC shows it's not known if she sang any of her husband's songs that occupied so many B-sides during her hit-making years.

"'til Then, ta-ra!"

How would you like to appear on TV? If you have a birthday or anniversary on Wednesday, January 29, write to: Cilla, BBC Television, London, W.12.

CILLA

BBC1
30th January 1968 - 17th April 1976