Cilla Black special edition of "Coronation Street". In 2014, Black was the subject of a three-part television drama series, "Cilla", focusing especially on her rise to fame in 1960s Liverpool and her relationship with Bobby Willis. ITV aired the first instalment on 15 September 2014, starring BAFTA award-winning actress Sheridan Smith. Black was married to her manager, Bobby Willis, for 30 years from 1969 until he died from lung cancer on 23 October 1999. They had three sons: Robert (born 1970, who became her manager), Ben (born 1974) and Jack (born 1980). Their daughter, Ellen (born 1975), was born prematurely and suffered
Cilla Battersby-Brown with Janice. Cilla is hurt at what Les has done, and starts wearing basic clothes and no make-up. When Les says he will crawl across the cobbles in order to win Cilla over, Cilla can not let Les go through with it, and they reconcile. Cilla tells Fiz that she has skin cancer. On finding out that Les has had an affair with her best friend, Yana Lumb; Cilla decides to get revenge. She tells everyone that her cancer is terminal, leading the Street's residents to make a collection to send Cilla to Florida, so she can swim with dolphins.