He was always there ... holding his Cilla's hand

LAST night people watched the TV show Bobby found for Cilla. She did it for him and he died. She wanted to do it for him to show he had picked another winner.

He was aware that Blind Date had been going on a long time and he wanted something new for Cilla but she was ambivalent.

The daily grind of TV, although she thrived on it and lived for it, was still intrusive into her life and time.

But Bobby had seen the Japanese game show, Happy Family Plan.

It was quite a savage programme. You either won or lost, there was no in between. But he thought it could be turned into a competitive, all- embracing family show.

Every member of the family with all the children will be able to take part, that was the pitch he put to ITV.

At the same time he very shrewdly quietly bought the rights to it. He always was a shrewd operator.

It became The Moment Of Truth, which was being screened last night when everyone in the country was learning of his death.

Bobby and Cilla together saw time not as an enemy, but as an opportunity to do something else.

Cilla Black was Bobby's world. He was everything to her. When they met in Liverpool he was an aspiring songwriter and had several success on the B sides.

He gave that up to quite literally hold Cilla's hand when he went down from Liverpool to London with Brian Epstein to sign her first recording contract which led to her first No.1 hit, Anyone Who Had a Heart.

He held her hand from then on. He made all the business decisions. He had his budgies that he looked after and Cilla - apart from the sons, that was it.

He went to all the recordings, checked the nail varnish, checked the hem of her skirt from the recording booth, every Surprise Surprise or Blind Date. If Cilla was on, Bobby was with her.

Crew were astonished that even after all the years they were still so close and so obviously a partnership.

I think having looked at their life, for my research, he had always encouraged her to go on and look forward and take the next opportunity.

She bounded back after the death of her mother. She has had some really big knocks in the last few years.

This was the man who had been with her for most of her adult life.

This was an absolute terrible thing, your legs are kicked away from you. Bobby came home to die to be with his family. She and he didn't want him to die with strangers, much better to be with the family, harrowing though it is with cancer.

He put up an incredible fight ... most people expected him to be dead a lot earlier than this, given what he was diagnosed with. Whatever he got from within himself and from Cilla and the family, he didn't want to go.

I think that is the character of the two of them.

The success of the marriage was they were both in the same business and both aspired to the same thing - for Cilla to be successful.

What can she do now? She has the children. She can do nothing but cope with it.

And the tradition is they have carried on and coped with everything.

Copyright 1999 MGN LTD
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