Happy To Be Cilla

Paul O’Grady on why Cilla Black’s son told him to host Blind Date and how it felt taking on his late friend’s show

- Emma Bullimore

 

It’s difficult to imagine iconic Saturday-night entertainment hit Blind Date without its effervescent host, the late Cilla Black. Fronting the ITV series for nearly 20 years, she – and ‘our Graham’, her voiceover friend – became a staple part of most people’s weekends.

So perhaps the only person who could take Cilla’s place for C5’s revival is her best mate Paul O’Grady – also the subject of a C5 documentary, The Paul O’Grady Story, this Friday at 9.00pm.

Paul was intially reluctant to take on Blind Date, despite getting a ringing endorsement from Cilla’s family. However, he’s now proud to be looking after her legacy.

Here, Paul, 62, pays tribute to his friend, talks memories of the original series and reveals why he had to wrestle the job off his alter ego, Lily Savage…

How does it feel to be stepping into Cilla’s shoes?

It was odd to start with – I found myself morphing into her and telling the audience we’d have ‘a lorra, lorra fun!’ I expected Cilla to appear and say,

‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Once I’d settled down, though, it felt right. I turned them down at first, but Cilla’s son, Robert, said I was the only person she would have wanted to host it. Cilla was like family to me, and I miss her terribly because we spoke every day.

Is the revamp similar to the orignal show?