for STRAIGHT TALK
Mum Liz Moseley scrolls through the internet fads and obsessions of 2024 from her sofa, and asks what on earth these people are doing…
There’s been something of a kerfuffle over the return of Gladiatorsto Saturday night telly. Who’d have predicted so many of us ‘norms’ would really quite enjoy ogling those shiny lycra-clad bods wielding their giant cotton buds on top of a big pole again?
Certainly not the serious cultural commentators, who have dashed to their podcast studios to proclaim, with some incredulity, that Light Entertainment – the kind we all watched in the Eighties and Nineties because there wasn’t any internet or Pop Idol yet – is back! Hurrah!
They should have seen it coming, because the undisputed Queen of Saturday Nights has been transmitting her Scouse siren call from the depths of the internet (and beyond the grave) for some years now. That’s right – Cilla Black, much loved, flame-haired, presenter of Blind Date and Surprise Surprise, who died in 2015, has been deemed officially ICONIQUE by The Internet. But why? Here’s our Graham with a quick reminder…
The algorithm first started serving me Cilla clips last Autumn and now barely a day goes by without another chance to hear her joyfully massacre a pop classic/obscure showtune whilst cavorting about in a tracksuit with bemused members of the public. If you’ve not had the pleasure, follow @showtunes2eurovision on Instagram for a smörgåsbord of Cilla treats. Her version of Billy Ocean’s When the Going Gets Tough, inexplicably filmed in a martial arts studio in Wales, or her mash up of Keep On Running, filmed outside Leatherhead Leisure Centre, are especially good. It’s incredibly camp, none of it makes any sense, but it’s properly brilliant telly. No wonder she’s joined the likes of Liza Minnelli in becoming agay icon, albeit posthumously. I’m half expecting her to crop up in hologram form at Eurovision in May.
It’s not just us nostalgic Brits who have re-
