Fans and mourners have lined the streets of Woolton, Liverpool, to pay their respects to Cilla Black at her star-studded funeral.
The bells of St Mary’s church rang as coaches of mourners arrived for the service, where Sir Cliff Richard opened the tributes, calling Black a “fabulous popstar”.
The Catholic service is in the same church where Black married her late husband, Bobby Willis, in 1969, and is being officiated by the Rt Rev Thomas Williams, auxiliary bishop of Liverpool.
Black’s coffin was carried into the church to the sound of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The service opened with mourners standing to sing the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful at the start of the Requiem Mass.
In his opening remarks before he sang his song Faithful One, Richard described Black as “the greatest TV presenter of all time”.
“I’m not sure what to say because I can’t think of Cilla in a past tense,” he said. “Being driven here was a fantastic experience, you forget how much people loved her.”
Describing their first meeting, an emotional Richard continued: “The one thing that hit me originally was this is a woman of commitment and dedication. She had the determination and of course, above all, she had the gift.
“I have a faith, I don’t think anything happens by accident. I know there is something else, I know all of our souls will be united again, and Cilla, this is just a hiccup in our relationship.”
Guests inside the church included presenter Carol Vorderman, Gerry and the Pacemakers singer Gerry Marsden, former BBC director-general Lord Birt, television producer Nigel Lythgoe, actor Lorraine Chase, comedian Ted Robbins and former newsreader Gordon Burns.
Speaking outside St Mary’s before the service, comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, who knew Black since he was 15, said: “She was Liverpool’s Cinderella, if you wrote that story, that’s Cilla Black’s life. Unfortunately she’s left us too early, it’s dreadful. If you met Cilla you liked her, that’s nice to know, she was a delightful girl.”
Sir Tom Jones waved to fans as he arrived, before chatting to Vorderman and Sir Paul McCartney’s brother Mike.
He told Sky News that Black never forgot her working-class roots. “She was always happy and she always had the common touch, which I feel I’ve got as well,” he said. “We come from working-class people and she never forgot it, she was always the same.”
Fans clapped and cheered as the funeral cortege passed through the streets en route to the church, with several people throwing single roses onto the car bonnets.
Well-wishers had begun lining the streets of Woolton more than two hours before the funeral was due to start, and many of them had a Cilla story. Suzanne Daly, a teaching assistant in her mid-40s, said she was standing there for her late mother as well as Black.
“My mum’s not with us any more, but if she was, she’d be here too. I always remember her talking about growing up around Waterloo and Cilla’s mum coming knocking on the doors asking ‘have you got any clothes for our Cilla?’ They had a market stall where they would sell them, you see.”
Her musician daughter Lauren, 19, was too young to have lived through Black’s heyday but felt a connection after playing Liverpool’s Cavern club recently. “When she died I heard she’d played there too and was like: ‘we’re fam!’”
Val Fawcett, 71, had taken a break from her job at Tesco for the occasion. She had joined her daughter, Angela Bennett, 52, on a grassy verge on Blackwood Avenue, hoping to catch a glimpse of the coffin.
“It feels like the end of an era,” said Fawcett. “I grew up listening to Cilla. My grandchildren used to love watching her on TV. We met her in 2008.
“We went to see her in panto at the Empire, 20 of us from the family. Front row seats. Afterwards we waited outside for her and shewas so lovely. Her chauffeur was there, saying ‘come on!’ but she said ‘no’ and made time for us. Angela even gave her a kiss.”
Sitting next to the mother and daughter was Irene Burke, 66, who summed up Black’s appeal. “She had no airs and graces.”
Carol Stanley, 58, a child minder, had caught a taxi from Birkenhead. “It just feels right to be here,” she said. “Cilla was one of us. Fame didn’t change her.”
She planned to stand as the funeral cortège passed. “I’m going to blow her a kiss.”
Tony Biggs had come all the way from Stoke on his Suzuki Intruder motorbike. “I’m 71 - the same as Cill. I grew up with her, the Beatles, the Stones. She was a bloody icon, wasn’t she? She was one of the boys, I’ve always thought.”
In the order of service, Black’s family thanked well-wishers for the “many messages of sympathy received at this sad time” and said they were comforted by the support and prayers. They requested any donations be given to either Alder Hey Children’s Charity, Liverpool, or Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity, London.
The 72-year-old entertainer died on 2 August after hitting her head at her home in Estepona near Marbella in Spain. Postmortem examination details released by Spanish authorities found that she died from a stroke caused by the fall. The City of Liverpool coroner, Andre Rebello, last week recorded a verdict of accidental death.
