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
Cilla Battersby-Brown would reprise the role of Cilla for a short stint. She returned for three weeks from 22 October to 14 November 2014. Cilla was introduced as a love interest for established character Les Battersby (Bruce Jones), after his marriage to Janice ended after nearly ten years. Cilla was also the mother of Chesney (Sam Aston), Fiz (Jennie McAlpine) and Billy Brown (Jay Martin). During her time on the show, Cilla pulled several scams and was disliked by most of her neighbours. She was diagnosed with skin cancer and later used her condition to get revenge on Les after he had