For anyone who was a prisoner of terrestrial television between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, Cilla basically *was* light entertainment.

Unless you wanted to turn over and watch Noel Edmonds, which I think says enough about the dilemmas many of us were facing in those days.

She was a lady from a genuine working class, dirt poor background. Growing up in poverty stricken post-war Liverpool, but getting her big break when legendary rock manager Brian Epstein spotted her talent in the early 1960s. A number of popular hits followed.

And like, from that moment on, and to a certain demographic, she's always been 'our Cilla'.

And that's the reputation she tried to convey, and which most media outlets have focused on in the event of her death. Lovely Cilla, with a heart of gold, and the common touch.

But . . . the internet is full of anecdotes, from long before she died, and from people working in the service industries, of how much of a nightmare she was.

You work in a restaurant, and her gravy was the wrong temperature when her meal arrived? She'll demand you be sacked.

You work on the trans-atlantic passenger jets, and try and talk to her without the mediation of her personal assistants? She'll just blank you, or snidely dismiss you.

That's the image of Cilla that is bubbling away on social media.

Me, I think the truth is maybe . . . I mean, I don't know.

Look at this interview with her from 1967. The scouse accent is apparent, but it's clear she is trying to conceal it with a contrived, home counties twang. Her social conservatism, rooted in 'Be a good girl and you'll do well' type thinking, is also apparent.

It is clearly a picture of a young lady who wanted to better or herself, and who, perhaps reflecting the spirit of the age, associated doing better with a 'nice' accent, a big house, and just the surroundings of general wealth.

But she was born and grew up in dirt poor post-war Liverpool. And she did make it very, very big.

Apparently she was also a bit of a Tory. I personally don't see much a contradiction between that, and her class background.

As far as she was concerned, she was born into poverty, grew up in poverty, but via a combination of hard work and her own talent, she made it big. She doesn't owe anything anything, hence her resent at the taxes she'll have been paying at the peak of her career.

I don't agree with that reasoning, but so many people who grew up working class/poor, and then became rich, seem to advocate it.

They're the 1 a million types, like saying 'I was once poor, but then I won thew lottery, so I don't know why anyone can't win the lottery if they work hard enough'.

So maybe for that reason, the 'our Cilla' epithets are phony and self-serving.

But by birth and upbringing, she was a working-class girl, and an unusual success.

R.I.P. Priscilla 'Cilla Black' White