Media Diary; Cilla

ITV: Cilla

Cilla is a brand new three part drama about the beloved Cilla Black and her rise to fame, which is being aired on ITV at 9PM on Monday evenings. The series follows Cilla (Sheridan Smith) as she queues outside the Cavern on her lunch hour to watch The Beatles and dive on stage any chance she gets. This is followed by her being spotted by the famous Brian Epstein, and getting signed, achieving her first number one single. Throughout the three episodes, Cilla discovers her talent, leaves her day job to pursue her dream, and falls in love and deep adoration with Bobby Wills, her beloved partner of 30 years. 

I found out about this through advertisement on TV, and the public also seen Sheridan Smith make various television appearances on shows (of course, ITV shows!) such as Good Morning Britain and This Morning. As a huge 60s fan, I am in love with the idea of anything which gives me any sort of enlightenment or a closer look as to what the era was actually like, so for me, Cilla was just a must on my list of things to watch. Also, a vital signified fact when you think of Cilla Black, Liverpool, music and The Cavern would of course be The a Beatles... and who isn't a huge Beatles enthusiast? 

I think that there is more than one target audience for this programme. I would say this appeals to 'innovators' and also 'utopians', through the idea of positivity and the fact that both these groups have it in common that they want to make things better and want to make a mark on the world. This links in with the fact that of course the 60s was a key time in our history and some would say what happened on the Liverpool music scene at that time, really did change the world. I think these types of people would enjoy this because of the admiration and envy some of them might have for those involved in the revolution that was 'rock and roll'.

In my opinion this programme appeals to more than one age group. For example, although this generation was long before my time, I have enjoyed watching it, for the history and how in some cases it has repeated itself, the fashion, seeing how times have changed etc, but for those who watched this happen with their own eyes, Cilla has a completely different meaning. I would imagine for someone who lived through this time, the programme would hold a large amount of nostalgia and bring back a lot of happy memories. For the people in the middle of these two groups, I believe they would enjoy this too, because some of the things the series touches on would have still been happening when they were younger. For example, Cilla's hit show Blind Date didn't start until 1985, therefore the middle aged people would still remember Cilla Black being on the television scene, as well as The Cavern being knocked down in 1982. Because of this, I would say that this programme appeals to anyone who is interested in the connotations that come with the words 'Cilla Black', who is aged between 14-65+.

For the past two episodes of this text, I have been impressed. I feel Cilla has a duty to do Liverpool proud as a city and as a community. I think this would have been harder for the actors because they are all from different cities, with just one Liverpudlian actor present. Coming from Liverpool myself, I was satisfied deeply with the outcome of the text, and felt that the actors have did an extremely good job at making the series legit and believable. Filming in various local areas, using convincing Liverpool accents and 'scouse' dialogue helped drastically with this, and in my opinion, it has worked really well. Watching this has helped me gain a deeper understanding of how Cilla become famous, as I was unaware she was friends with The Beatles, or was even signed by the same person. 

Despite my opinion of the programme, other people have been known to react differently. Many have taken to Facebook to slate the series and say how poor the acting and accent were, some even saying it was 'so bad they had to turn it off'. For the people who lived through the time, they might feel it created a fake image of what it was really like. 

Overall, I think that Cilla is a great drama and I look forward to seeing the final episode next week. Cilla Trailer