Biggins by Christopher Biggins

Author:Christopher Biggins [Christopher Biggins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784188733
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2015-11-11T16:00:00+00:00

I was playing Babes in the Wood in Birmingham when Alan Boyd came to see me. He was a big-league London Weekend Television producer and I admit I was flattered by his attention. So many people were still laughing at me for staying loyal to my panto all those years. But it was always my primary shop window and most regular pay packet. It still is, funnily enough. ‘Look, I’m doing a series with Cilla Black,’ Alan told me amid the wigs and wild costumes of my stuffy little dressing room.

Cilla was in an interesting position in the early 1980s. She had been a huge star, of course. But after ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ and ‘Step Inside Love’ and all the other number ones, she had disappeared to raise her family – and all credit to her for that. She had stormed back into the public consciousness with a barnstorming performance as a guest on Wogan in 1983, proving that we can all have second chances.

After Wogan, everyone had been desperately trying to find her the right comeback vehicle. Boyd’s proposal was a huge, studio-based, audience-participation show to be called Surprise Surprise. He wanted me to be Cilla’s co-host. ‘What do you think?’ he asked when he had finished explaining the new show’s concept.

What did I think?

I was staggered. Practically floored. Yes, I had earned a lot of money in panto and on children’s television. Yes, I had been on major BBC dramas, long-running shows and major commercials. But this ITV production was clearly going to be huge. Surprise Surprise was set to be a massive, prime-time Saturday-night production. And, while even I forget it sometimes, the show’s full title was actually Surprise Surprise, with Cilla Black and Christopher Biggins. Beat that.

We were an instant hit with upwards of 15 million viewers. The show was hugely popular, wonderful antics. We did six live shows in one series, and there is nothing quite like live television. On one of them we needed a boat to go under Tower Bridge, which was due to be raised for the occasion. But for some reason it didn’t open, so our boat couldn’t sail and we moved on.

As usual, Cilla and I said our goodnights and then Cilla got her cue to do her final song, the way each show closed. As she sang Alan rushed up to me. ‘Biggins, we’re seven minutes under. You need to get Cilla back and keep it going.’

I thought this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Cilla is standing there, taking in the applause, and then I come on. She looks at me in horror. I will never forget her look as I approached. All the viewers would have seen was her usual lovely smile. But I could see the questions in her eyes. What’s going on? What’s gone wrong? What do we do?

What we did was talk – and fortunately neither of us is exactly backwards at that. Cilla and I talked and joked on for those long last minutes.

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