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HANNEL 5 abandoned singing (a Cilla- gram is somehow not serious singing). Now, many of the fans of her two tv shows will never have heard her hit singles, being either too old or too young and the young might even think that singing is a kind of running joke in Cilla's act, like the violin in Jack Benny's. Cilla was only a lit- tle ruffled when a recent par- ticipant on Surprise! Sur- prise! told her that he couldn't stand her singing, a comment that the audience applauded enthusiastically. Cilla always proclaimed that her ambition was to be an entertainer rather than a pop star, although this was not an ambition admired in Swinging London: the groove gouged out between London and LA did not take in Las Vegas, let alone Blackpool. In an age of high specialisa- tion Cilla assigned herself a lengthy retraining in thigh- slapping and that rhythmic strolling which when accom- panied by a troupe of enthu- siastic and strong young men, passes in some quarters of show business for danc- ing. An amazingly successful stint at the London Palladium with Frankie Vaughan, an Enduring into the eighties: Cilla Black hosting LWT's Surprise! Surprise! show artiste she admired greatly, was followed by cabaret, panto and summer season. During this period Cilla re- Cilla The Survivor vealed a talent for telling jokes and chatting to the au- Cilla Black was unfashion- vaguely comic walk was motherhood and designer dience. This drove her peri- able after the first few already there - not side- Buddhism, Cilla has aged lously to the naffest end of months of her career. This splittingly comic but just into glittery hostess frocks, the market but also under- did not harm her popularity. enough to know that this per- northern family life and has lined her closeness to her She was destined for much son was not entirely serious. retained her Catholicism. working class origins and to larger audiences than that It was this innate funniness The brief attempt to link the earlier, pre-telly, entertain- which clustered around the that led to her eclipse as a typing pool in Liverpool with ment. In this, only her fresh- telly on a Friday evening to pop star; she sang, after all, the cool world of Ready ness and absolute sincerity observe the rise of the youn- heavily emotional teen bal- Steady Go! mods ended have prevented her from ger and cooler to a nonce lads for which a wistful or quickly but lucratively. being a female version of stardom. Cilla came to us lacrimose beauty was A sudden change from a Jimmy Tarbuck. through this teen revolution needed. Cilla, while fashion- whisper to a scream made This class identification in television but she was not ably emaciated, was not wist- Cilla Black's voice infamous; could have been perceived as essentially a product of it; ful or lacrimose enough for it was an effective but un- demeaning in her early ven- she was identified with the those times. musical noise that belonged tures into comedy. Frankie Beatles yet she was quickly The advent of Sandie Shaw to no recognisable tradition Howard's pretentions to mid- left behind by them. She and Marianne Faithfull en- of vocalisation but it was per- dle-classness were offset by marked the end of a northern ded the pop-Cilla and ceived in those quaint days of Cilla: 'Common as muck!' renaissance rather than a be- announced the arrival of all- 1963 as being 'black' (and he'd exclaim as Cilla giggled ginning. round-entertainment-Cilla. hence the change of surname at his side. This self- Yet out of a few tv appear- It is now difficult to think of from White to Black which deprecation has gone and ances Cilla was able to de- Cilla and Sandie as belonging was suggested by Brian Ep- these days Cilla is self- velop a career. What is strik- to the same generation: while stein). Still, having two bad confident and comfortable; ing about seeing her on those Sandie has grown up in a voices does not compensate we feel comfortable with early Ready, Steady, Go! strictly southern world of de- for the lack of one good one her, sure that we will not be programmes is that the signer clothes and designer and Cilla has today almost patronised. 38 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1987 CHANNEL 5 She maintains a steady progress into the living rooms and hearts of the Brit- ish public in the way that few stars have done - Diana Dors has, Gary Glitter will; Gracie Fields did and she vetoed Cilla as a candidate to play her in a projected bio-pic. (Where 'Our Gracie' mimick- ed her class origins - doing a Cilla: sixties swinger 'turn' in a head scarf, Cilla seems content to present her audiences with an undis- torted self-portrait. Perhaps it is this which worried Gra- cie Fields: Cilla has no visible means of support in front of her audiences, no visible ta- lent to perfect or prop up.) Years of panto have given Cilla Black a cheeky way with innuendo that adds camp to her act and which gives her control over way- ward audiences ('I'll fix your wagon, chuck...'). Hers is an act at the height of its appeal, with a perfect sense of 'right- ness' about it: image, rap- port, comfort. Very few en- tertainers maintain this for long; comfort can be re- placed by discomfort, fas- cination by ennui. Television careers have faltered at this stage before now - Charlie Drake, Ken Dodd, Bruce For- sythe, Tony Hancock - and often a season in hell and a comeback are seen as the only ways that the British public will forgive success. Cilla's progress has been easy; long may it continue to be so! Still, perhaps she should fight off the funny phones and take a cabaret again. • Colin Cruise 39 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1987.

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