Cilla (miniseries) Cilla (miniseries) Cilla is a British drama television miniseries about the early career of Cilla Black. It was broadcast in three parts on ITV, and began on 15 September 2014 with Sheridan Smith playing the starring role. Smith was highly praised for her performance. Following Cilla Black's death in August 2015, the series was broadcast again on ITV between 4–6 August 2015, as well as repeats on ITV Encore. The series is based around Black's hometown of Liverpool and follows her rise to fame from 1960 amateur appearances in clubs, her relationships with Bobby Willis and Brian Epstein to the
ITV Encore shows original drama, commissioned for the channel. This move was to attract new viewers to the channel, and to the Sky TV platform. ITV Encore ITV Encore was a British drama television channel in the United Kingdom that was owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was exclusive to Sky's digital satellite platform, Sky Go, Now TV, and Sky Store. The channel closed on 1 May 2018, becoming an on-demand only service available on other platforms as well as Sky. ITV Encore launched at 7 pm on 9 June 2014. The first programme to