Cilla

'Cilla is no spring chicken, the grandmother of two, soon to be three kiddies.

Second Acts | The Stiletto Gang The Stiletto Gang 2008

"'Cilla" -- that is what he called me -- "thee remembers the night and thy promise, and the lightning all around us, and who took thee to shore from the wrecked packet on the Bulkhead Bar."

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876 Various

Her powerful delivery also spawned a copycat school of female belters such as Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield.

The Copycats 2010

That's why I think any show she fronted would be less like Cilla's 90s TV stuff (Blind Date, Surpise, Surprise) and more like her 60's TV stuff ( 'Cilla').

unknown title 2009

That's why I think any show she fronted would be less like Cilla's 90s TV stuff (Blind Date, Surpise, Surprise) and more like her 60's TV stuff ( 'Cilla').

unknown title 2009

Blind Date, 2002Veteran telly fixture Cilla Black is described as "the result of a unholy union between Ronald McDonald and a blow-dried guinea pig".

Charlie Brooker: 10 of the best Screen Burn columns Tim Lusher 2010

The dating show has had a makeover but Cilla Black hasn't changed – she still annoys the cogs off me

Charlie Brooker's Screen burn: Blind Date Charlie Brooker 2010

If this had happened on the BBC, O'Grady would have been suspended – and the director general under pressure from the press to resign – but the show would have been taped and de-fanged anyway: indeed, the BBC's latest guidelines cast doubt on most aspects of O'Grady's speech, including the mock sign of the cross with water and jokes about Cilla Black being incontinent.

Paul O'Grady's socialist fury rant was a rare live-TV shock Mark Lawson 2010

Hence the changes: OUT goes "Our Graham" (the announcer who always referred to Cilla as "Cilla Blaaaaaaaah"), IN comes "Ditch or Date", a new gimmick which allows contestants to change their mind once the partition goes back, thereby making a mockery of the title and robbing the show of whatever tension it once had.

Charlie Brooker's Screen burn: Blind Date Charlie Brooker 2010

One thing that hasn't changed, of course, is Cilla.

Charlie Brooker's Screen burn: Blind Date Charlie Brooker 2010