Cilla

Season

2014

7.9

The life and career of British singer and entertainer Cilla Black.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Episode #1.1

Working-class typist by day, rock 'n' roll singer by night, 17-year-old Cilla White dreams of one day becoming a star.

S1 • E2

Episode #1.2

Cilla is despondent after failing her audition for Brian Epstein, but loyal Bobby persuades her to keep singing, driving her from club to club. At the Iron Door club she impresses Brian Epstein, who is now keen to manage her and take her to London to make a record. Bobby feels betrayed, but Cilla insists that he accompany her as her road manager. They stay in a hotel while Brian goes to an underground gay club and picks up a bit of rough who beats him up, though he lies to Cilla about his bruises. George Martin records her debut disc 'Love of the Loved', with a song by Bobby as the B-side. It fails to enter the Top 20, but her follow-up, a cover of the American song 'Anyone Who Had a Heart,' goes to #1 in the charts.

S1 • E3

Episode #1.3

In 1964 Cilla has her second #1 hit and gets to perform at the London Palladium. Feeling self-important she refuses to let Brian sign Bobby as a singer in his own right, claiming that she needs him to look after her. Cilla records the film theme "Alfie,"' though she is derogatory about the title, as a means to break into the American market, but a trip to New York to appear on Ed Sullivan's TV show with Brian--who still seeks young men to rough him up--and Bobby does not yield immediate success and an impatient Cilla demands that they return home. Throughout the 1960s Cilla will continue to have hit records before turning to television, and the loyal Bobby will always be with her. They are together when they hear of Brian's suicide in 1967, two years later they marry, and Bobby will be Cilla's manager until his death in 1999.