Toasting a living legend
THE last four years have been pretty challenging for Sir Cliff Richard. Reminding us why is tonight’s documentary SIR CLIFF RICHARD: 60 YEARS IN PUBLIC AND IN PRIVATE (ITV, 9pm), much of which reflects on what he’s been through since August 2014.
That was when South Yorkshire Police, responding to a historical sexual abuse allegation, carried out a raid on the veteran singer’s Berkshire home, coverage of which was controversially broadcast live on the BBC.
Never subsequently charged or even arrested, Sir Cliff (who’d been at his base in Portugal when the raid took place) announced soon after that he’d be suing both the police and the BBC for invasion of privacy, the latter court case finally coming to a successful conclusion for him during this documentary’s filming.
So, yes, a challenging time indeed for the 78-year-old star. “It shook me rigid,” he tells the programme. “I can’t explain how bad it felt.”
Nor can it have been easy for his fans, you’d imagine. But then, as we’re reminded here, Cliff’s are a cheerily resilient bunch. In fact, on this evidence I wonder if there are any fans in the whole of popdom (yes, I do know there’s no such word) who can match them for sustained loyalty.
Let’s face it, Cliff Richard hasn’t been on even the fringes of fashionability for almost 40 years now – even back then he firmly divided opinion – yet still his loyal followers flock to see him.
At his Portuguese winery we witness him putting on a special acoustic performance for some of the most dedicated, whose adoration is unabated. Most, as you’d expect, seem roughly his age (“I’ve followed him since I was 15 – and I’m not telling you how old I am now!”) but a few appear significantly younger.
“We got married on Friday and this is our honeymoon,” boasts one 30-ish-looking couple (who for some reason appear to be still in their wedding gear).
Being a Cliff Richard fan in 2018 must surely make you almost the living embodiment of anti-cool and for that I take my hat off to these fine people. So does Cliff. Or he would if he were wearing one.
“My fans have grown up with me, they’ve stuck with me, and that’s very special,” he says.
“It means a great deal, particularly with what I’ve been through.”
Of course, it’s easy to poke fun at Sir Cliff Richard. If it’s not the unfashionable music it’s the curious dress sense or those peculiar Cliff-type shapes he still insists on throwing when he performs.
Neither, you might argue, seem terribly dignified for a chap nearing 80 but then they come as part of what I guess you’d call the Cliff Richard package, proudly immune to the vagaries of time. Neither he nor those fans see any reason to change that. Elsewhere tonight, NADIYA’S ASIAN ODYSSEY (BBC1, 9pm) takes us to an abbey near Kathmandu. Nadiya is there to meet the local kung-fu nuns, who sound like an Eighties children’s cartoon but are actually a real-life Buddhist sect.