At Christmas she was just Mum, cooking a turkey, having family down from Liverpool.. she loved it

CILLA BLACK'S SON ON 'ORDINARY' SHOWBIZ ICON

- MATT ROPER

She captured the heart of the nation in the early 1960s, a pop star who became almost as big as the Beatles, then later a TV favourite loved for her down-to-earth charm and "lorra laughs".

Yet when the cameras had stopped, and she was back with her family, Cilla preferred to be "Mrs Willis", wife, mother and Sunday roast cook, according to her son Robert Willis, 53.

That included Christmas Day, when Cilla would invite family from Liverpool, cook a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and make sure someone found 50p in the Christmas pudding.

"She loved this time of the year and always tried to make Christmas special," he says. "Shed always make sure we put out a mince pie and glass of champagne for Father Christmas, and a carrot for Rudolph. Our Nan and Great Auntie Nelly would come down from Liverpool.

"We were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve, then we'd have to wait until after lunch to open the rest. Then we'd watch the Queen's speech, we had a little portable telly we would bring into the dining room.

"Nothing got thrown out, we'd have turkey sandwiches and Mum would make an amazing turkey curry.

At the height of her fame, Cilla Black commanded audience figures above 20 million. But she and husband manager Bobby Willis went out of their way to bring none of the trappings of fame home back to their young children, he says.

"She liked to have privacy when she was at home, remembers Robert. "She did an incredible roast. She was always Cilla, but Mum liked to do the things ordinary mums would do.

Liverpool lass Cilla, who died in 2015 aged 72, burst onto the scene 60 years ago next month, when her first hit single, a cover of Dionne Warwick's Anyone Who Had a Heart, went straight to No1 in 1964.