CILLA on screen

Step inside Cilla Black’s long-lost home movies

- HANNAH DAVIES, IAN MACEWAN

When Cilla Black died at her home in Estepona, Spain, in 2015, the nation went into mourning for the much-loved pop star and TV personality.

Two years later, her family found a treasure trove of home movies and audiotapes dating back 50 years. As well as family memories, they included footage of Black in Austria with Beatles producer George Martin, in Scandinavia with childhood friend Ringo Starr, performing Big Spender with Dame Shirley Bassey and hanging out at Simon Cowell’s LA mansion.

Now the footage is being shown for the first time in ITV’s Cilla: The Lost Tapes. Here, Black’s eldest son Robert Willis explains what they reveal about his mother’s life…

How did you come across the home movies?