We give it four years, tops. Maybe even just two.
That’s how long it’ll be before a major brace of films snap up Sheridan Smith and makes her this decade’s Kate Winslet or Helen Bonham Carter: in other words, the go-to Brit actress to give your project a bit of class.
Smith is remarkable in that she seems able to try her hand at pretty much everything, including an acclaimed Beatrice opposite David Walliams in Much Ado About Nothing last year. Whilst everything and everyone else in Cilla has the feel of picture postcard nostalgia, Smith’s nuanced performance as Priscilla White gives the whole project extra sheen.
We’ve said before that Cilla is essentially light entertainment about a light entertainer, and let’s be clear that that’s faintly damning with a great deal of praise. This is a confection, but it’s difficult to pull such a thing off successfully – it’s not the song, but the way it’s sung.
Essentially, we know that everything turns out well, and so any moments of almost-drama are played softly and without tension. After all, this isn’t a BBC Four biopic or even a tabloid article about Sheridan Smith herself, attempting to drag up some element of misery where there is none.
Just because the edges of the drama are softened somewhat, doesn’t mean there can’t be moments of teasing the audience, when certain moments are held back and shown out of sequence – we’re not allowed to see Cilla record her career-forming hit ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ until the episode ends, where it serves as a rousing, moving coda to the start of Cilla Black’s career.
There’s also a lovely sequence just before that, managing to sidestep cliché in spite of all warm familiarity: the hopeful young starlet putting the phone down, blank expression, before blurting out that they’ve just received some very good news.
As was the case with last week’s episode, there are many moments that don’t directly feature Cilla herself – such as Brian Epstein having bad judgement when it comes to selecting a partner for the night.
When Smith is onscreen, she manages to wrangle great charisma in scenes that anybody interested enough in Cilla to be watching her story in the first place are going to be familiar with: her dad relenting to her name change (to Black), getting to number one, and crucially, keeping Bobby on as her ‘road manager’.
In each of these sequences, Smith brings home the same quality that she the singing that she performs herself: capturing fragility and grit in the same few syllables.
Aired at 9pm on Monday 22 September 2014 on ITV.
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