To American music fans of an advancing age, the name Cilla Black may ring a faint bell as a minor player in the 1960s British Invasion.
Black was a considerably more significant musical figure in Britain, however, and her story is told in a three-part British biopic simply called Cilla, which makes its U.S. debut Monday through Acorn TV.
Although she had only one modest hit in the U.S., “You’re My World,” she was the best-selling female artist of the 1960s in Britain.
She did the first version of “Alfie,” two years before Dionne Warwick scored a U.S. hit, and it was Black’s version that became the standard in the U.K. Black also had a No. 1 U.K. hit with “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” another tune popularized on the west side of the pond by Warwick.
As a Liverpool lass, Black was closely tied to the Beatles, who were instrumental in her first record deal and with whom she shared the management of Brian Epstein.
She recorded several Lennon-McCartney songs, including the obscure early compositions “Love of the Loved” and “It’s for You.”
Accordingly, the Beatles play a supporting role in Cilla, sometimes in charmingly awkward pre-fame situations.
George Harrison (Michael Hawkins) pops up as an eager teen puppy buying a girl a soda on a date. Ringo Starr (Tom Dunlea) is a cool character who tries in vain to convince Cilla’s father John (John Henshaw) that he should let his teenage daughter accompany Ringo’s band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, for an extended run in Germany.
Sheridan Smith plays Black, quite winningly. She creates a smooth, credible transition from a wide-eyed teenage fan of Merseybeat bands to a star who has learned how to make demands of her own.
Her relationship with Epstein (Ed Stoppard, above) creates one of the central themes of the show. While he helped make her a star, she felt he sometimes neglected her because of the attention he paid to the Beatles.
Epstein’s story takes a suddenly dark turn in episode three, as he slides toward the personal implosion that very likely led to his death in August 1967.
Cilla gives Black an intimate and disturbing, though innocent, role in Epstein’s fall.
Black’s recording career remained successful through the early 1970s, by which time she had already launched a second career phase that would make her even more of a household name in Britain.
To a large extent through Epstein’s initiatives, she became a TV star, first with a variety show and later as a host. Those gigs continued into the 21st century.
Because Cilla wraps up as her first variety show debuts, this series focuses almost exclusively on her recording years.
It first aired in the U.K. in 2014, a year before Black died from complications of a fall she suffered in Spain.
Perhaps because she was more a U.K. than an international personality, Cilla will probably strike most American viewers as pleasant and interesting rather than, say, electrifying.
It hints that Black could have stretched her fame across the pond had she overcome her homesickness and put in some time touring.
That’s arguably true, and that may be a loss for American music fans. In the end, though, Cilla has a lot of triumph and no real tragedy.