Cilla

Not the sort of programme I would usually watch kitty but it had good reviews and I think Sheridan Smith is so talented that I though I would give it a go and am so glad that I did. Sheridan Smith is absolutely terrific - she sings like Cilla but is much better. I think the rest of the cast is brilliant and the styling and sets are so evocative of the time. Brings back so many memories.

I am enjoying it too, and agree about Sheridan. I wonder what the real Cilla thinks of it.

I read, in the gossip pages of one of the papers so who knows, Cilla couldn't watch because she misses Bobby so much. She thought the young actor who played him got it just right.

I always knew Brian Epstein died young but I had always thought late 30's, early 40's.

I think Brian was 33 when he died

I am enjoying this programme. It takes me back to my youth when I visited The Cavern (yes, I saw The Beatles there) and The Iron Door. The live music was fantastic and we all had a great time. I didn't see any drugs and there was very little alcohol involved but we didn't need it.

My memories of the original Cavern were of walking down the stairs and the walls were wet.

I'm enjoying the programme, mostly because of the era - dare I say that as a " baby boomer"?
Sheridan Smith is an excellent actress and no doubt will become a "National Treasure" in years to come.

I noticed something in Epstein's flat that was not of era, can't remember what. I'll have a scan of I player and see what it was.
Looking forward to next Monday. X

It's a great series and I'm enjoying the music. Sheridan Smith is portraying Cilla in a very positive way. In the 60s, my friends and I always thought she had a voice like a foghorn

Yes, I agree. Sheridan Smith's voice doesn't have that hard nasal edge to it that Cilla's had - it's much more tuneful!

I read a review in the Telegraph that suggested that Sheridan's voice was better than Cilla's, who I remember as having two voices, wasn't so keen on the shrill high one.

I think Sheridan Smith is very talented and has the potential to be a really big star.

Not normally into ITV drama....hate all the interruptions...its spoils the mood but as I like Sheridan Smith (she was great fun on her 'Who do you think you are') I watched it and its been a real treat.

I never thought Cilla could sing very well. I liked her at the time though, as she was part of the whole 'scene'. If rumours are true, she has got very much above herself now. I think Sheridan is fantastic but I believe she has now become a bit of a victim of the 'let's bring them down a peg or two' press. Pity, she seems such a nice girl.

Just love the series. So evocative.

Sheridan Smith is a real 'actor'. So many actors appear be re-vamping previous roles... Martin Shaw for example... good tho' he is always seems to be doing variations on Judge John Deed/ George Gently. Ms Smith can turn her hand to any role. She could be termed as ubiquitous , but in a good way for an actor. How on earth could anyone be so brilliant as the ditsy sister of 'Smiffy' in Gavin and Stacey, and a short time later play Mrs Biggs, the long-suffering wife of the ghastly Ronnie Biggs. The 'rap' sequence with James Cordon in one of the G&S episodes was nothing short of perfection.

I'm sorry to say such is the way of the media these days KatyK.... they take great delight in knocking someone down especially when they have built them up... James Cordon himself, for example. And the greatest example of the last twenty years..... Princess Diana.

I am enjoying watching this series and think Sheridan Smith is a fantastic actress in all the parts she plays,she was excellent playing Mrs Biggs a big difference to when she first started in Two Pints of Lager & a Packet of Crisps where her humour shone through.
When I used to go to the Cavern in my dinner hour and after work we got to know all the local groups,many of them played near where I lived in New Brighton at the Tower Ballroom such good times who would think 50+ years later these names would still be famous ?

glammanana....brilliant memories for you....to be part of the birth of pop really.

Yes HildaW we did have a ball though to this day my mum & dad always thought I was working overtime at the telephone exchange on the nights I was getting home late or the Ferries where running late

I was never really a Cilla fan but this drama is bringing back some wonderful memories of those musically exciting times when British groups, mainly from the north, dominated the charts and gave the Americans a run for their money.

'Alfie' was a great song mainly because the film was cutting edge like so many things about the sixties.

We used to say that Cilla had three voices - high. low and overdrive...

I remember her coming back from a publicity shoot, with Bobby, and telling us that she' been bitten by a camel - I'll bet that isn't in the drama!

The Cavern was a ghastly hole... sweatiest place I ever played in. Only time I've ever known suits, when taken off to hit the floor with a splosh!

I never cared much for Cilla either but Sheridan has a nice voice. DH noticed a 1966 car reg when it was supposed to be 1963, trust a man to notice things like that.

Did you ever play on Eel Pie Island feetle ? that was about the dampest place I ever frequented!

I've been loving Cilla, they seem to have got it spot on. I like the fact that they've got the clothes right and haven't put them all in the mini skirts that came later. Most of Cilla's clothes have looked just like what my friend and I were wearing (always checking first to make sure we looked the same!)

I'd never realised that she and Bobby would have problems with religion, I suppose we were a bit more relaxed about it in London. And I'd forgotten things like having to hang around a public phone box waiting for an important call. Still, heaven knows what we'd have been getting up to if we'd had access to mobiles

I keep seeing my hairstyles, clothes (even one or two dresses with a pattern on them that I actually had) my retro radio in Cilla's parlour (my is repro)
I love it, the music and atmosphere. Great acting by Sherridan

I wanted to go to Eel Pie Island with friends from school when I was about 15 Deedaa and was told very firmly by my father that I was't going to "that disgusting place".
I didn't find out till years after that at the same age DH had gone there about the same time. He went because he'd read in the News of the World that there was sex happening behind every bush. He was disappointed.

My parents weren't happy about me going there when I was 18 dustyangel but even as a bunch of art students we were such innocents compared with today