DEBORAH’S MUST-WATCH TV CLASSICS

Cilla (2014)

The three-part biopic tracing Cilla Black’s early pop career seemed an unlikely candidate for drama because: 1) There may not be sufficient interest in the early career of Cilla Black, or even the late career of Cilla Black or even Cilla Black, mid-career, and 2) Where is the drama? Where are the breakdowns, the drugs, the drink, the sex, the rehab, the overdoses, the divorces? God love Cilla but she was no Judy Garland. She never even slept with anyone apart from her beloved Bobby.

Yet it was fabulously, compulsively entertaining, and perfectly demonstrates how an intelligent script, heavenly period details and an astonishing lead actress (Sheridan Smith, above) can take you where you had no idea you wanted to go.

This was written by Jeff Pope (Lucan, Mrs

Biggs and Philomena). It was the love story of Cilla and Bobby (Aneurin Barnard providing a sensitive performance while wearing Boris Johnson’s hair). Everything else – Cilla’s progression from typist, The Beatles, Brian Epstein, the music – fed into that.

Theirs was not a complicated love story. They were not complicated people. She wanted to be looked after, he wanted to do the looking after.

You don’t need melodrama to create something dramatic. If you understand your material and your characters, and treat them affectionately, as if they are worth caring about, then an audience will care too.

Some say that Smith was woefully miscast because she can really sing, but that’s just wicked, and I wouldn’t put my name to that.

True as it might be…