For years I thought that My So Called Life was cancelled because the viewing figures were poor, but apparently it was mainly because she didn't want to do another series!

Met Benedict Cumberbatch at the stage door last night and he was lovely. And from someone who said from the start he wasn't doing stage door, he signed every programme in sight (even brought his own pen). My boyfriend said Benedict was fantastic in Hamlet and he looked up and said "I'm so glad you enjoyed it" - really genuine. He took a lot of time with the fans, talking and smiling, when he could (and by all expectations would) have just got straight in his car. Absolutely lovely. And this is from someone who thought he was a bit of a smug fella.

Don't know if I can really class her as a celeb , but I spoke to Julie Wilson Nimmo (Miss Hoolie from Balamory), in Edinburgh yesterday. She was really nice and friendly , but the problem is I can't get the stupid Balamory theme tune out of my head😒

Nor can I now, damn you!

I went to school with him - he was a prize pain in the arse then.

Must admit Ive got the policeman from 'Brum' as a Facebook friend.

(And he requested me & not the other way round!)

Well, to be fair, lots of people are pains at school but that doesn't mean they necessarily continue to be when they grow up.

Some less than affectionate reminiscences about Cilla. However I do find some of the expletive filled quotes eg: in the first two stories especially difficult to believe and using a disabled toilet is hardly a capital offence.

http://popbitch.com/home/2015/08/12/black-out/

Cilla Black.

Had an aunty meet her back in the 90's when she was having the Blind Date run and she informed me this week that she was absolutely vile. Wouldn't speak, kept tutting, minders spoke for her and were pushing the peasants away who were just curious.

Sick of this nonsense about "our Cilla". She was an absolutely vile character.

Loved the last one from the Patton Brothers.

Indeed. I know someone who works as cabin crew who had the misfortune to have her on a flight. Pretty much the same experience as reported by many others who had to deal with her.

It really is laughable the number of people who still seem to want to make out she was some sort of woman of the people, and stayed true to her "working class roots".

Same with that O'Grady making me nauseous all week with his constant blabbering about "our Cilla". She was absolutely despised by the vast majority of ITV workers. Why do people think she wasn't given any further shows to do? They keep bleeting on about her being this great entertainer. She was hated at ITV and her foul reputation followed her to other stations who wouldn't touch her with a barge pole.

A spiteful, petty, little bully who looked down her nose at everyone. "Our Cilla" my arse. It says a lot about the docile, fawning culture people have over nonsense "celebrities". People need to get their priorities right in life.

Wow! Although, i'm not sure how much of it I believe.

non disabled people using disabled toilets is one of my bugbears, as I have a rare medical condition that means I get pain if I hang on, even for a few minutes, and the longer I hang on the worse it gets. Not only that but hanging on actually makes my overall medical condition worse, So if I was prevented from using the loo by someone non disabled, I would be very angry.

I have heard the one about the flight attendant saying he knew she couldn't sing but there was no swearing in the versions I have heard on a number of different occasions.

There must be loads of times you need to 'hang on' not everywhere has a disabled toilet. Can you not use a bog standard one?

Back in the mid nineties I was seeing a bloke who had fitted windows at Cilla's home, he worked for a well known window company at the time. I remember one day asking him if he'd ever met anyone famous and he said he'd recently finished a job fitting windows at Cilla's home. He went on to say she was the most awful person he's ever met and him and his fellow fitters hated her. She refused to speak to them, never offered a drink and at one point erupted into expletives at them for no reason. I was actually shocked when he told me but did believe him as he had no reason to lie.

On the other hand I really don't believe all the stories of her refusing to set foot in Liverpool, I think he final resting place prove those nasty rumours to be false.

Cilla is gone - let her rest in peace.

I agree. I also have a real problem in working out the two extremes of Cilla Black from her public and private persona. Clearly so many people cannot all be wrong, but then there is no doubting she has her friends - mainly in the entertainment industry it has to be said. I suppose those type tend to stick together. At her funeral her sons seemed to be very well spoken and brought up so at least she did a good job there. The middle son, Ben was particularly notable I thought.

I have wondered if Cilla just had a certain sense of humour that might have been lost on many everyday people who met her? Her final picture with the girls at the airport she bumped into the night before he passing did not appear to show a surly offhand dismissive woman whatsoever, far from it infact. In this day and age you might have thought there would have been some evidence on video or photo of her alleged poor attitude, but as far as I am aware there is none doing the rounds.

People are perfectly capable of being nice to some and nasty to others. It's notable that most of the Cilla stories come from people who served her or worked alongside /under her.

What's O'Grady like in real life?

This maybe the case, perhaps Cilla thought she was above people who had not made it in showbiz and only mixed with those in the Entertainment Industry.

Amen to that.

Tbh in relation to the cabin crew stuff. Why should she not sit in 1a if she paid for it and also if she has an assistant why wouldn't she get her to interact with them.

I've heard plenty of pleasant stories about her. She was a tough woman but not the devil incarnate