When celebrities die, newspapers and TV wheel out other celebrities and talking heads, some of whom never met the subject in question.

I knew Cilla Black. I thought she was fab.

Wirral Globe: Cilla Black's Blind Date show was axed six years ago

When the call came from BBC Birmingham at 12.30pm to talk about her legacy I said without hesitation...yes.

It hadn't sunk in she had died. Why was I so shocked?

I once interviewed Frankie Howerd. He said: "You sound like Cilla. She's common as muck like you."

I told her and she cried laughing.

Cilla loved laughing.

It was the fact she had an ability to light up any room she entered. A gift. Like fellow Merseysiders Gerry Marsden, Ken Dodd and Paul McCartney.

Cilla, who died at her Spanish home on Sunday aged 72, was a woman of rare talents matched by a phenomenal capacity for hard work. She remained in the public eye and at the highest level for approaching half a century.

To me, she felt like family. I have now spent nearly 40 years working as a journalist and Cilla was always a friend to the press.

I have never forgotten her professionalism. I interviewed Cilla when she was a pop star, TV presenter and all-round personality.

She never changed.

Cilla enjoyed life and relished her celebrity status.

I didn't agree with her politics but she was not ,as she happily told me , iinterested in it.She had no airs or graces.

She worked hard. The Beatles loved her and Brian Epstein knew the cloakroom girl from the Cavern had the X-factor even back in the early-1960s.

She once told me if it wasn't for John Lennon she would have been working in a biscuit factory.

When I worked in London she was always there with that toothy smile and a hug.

She had a huge personality. She missed hearing the Mersey accent.

For those who say she sold-out or was a plastic Scouser, then write to me and I will show you people who turned their back on Merseyside-  but she never did.

I swear she really did speak like that. No surprise surprise to me.

I once spent a whole afternoon with her drinking champagne and eating salmon sarnies.

It was her taste of success.

I was writing a feature on her and we talked about Liverpool, Birkenhead, the Tower Ballroom, The Beatles and her home.

She was working on Blind Date and as we walked out of the building her photos adorned the walls of London Weekend Television.

Wirral Globe: Presenter Cilla Black was dressed in Yves St Laurent

Why will I miss Cilla?

I am from the Scottie Road area of Liverpool and so was she.

She went on to go from humble working-class roots to mega-stardom and she always said "if I can do it so can anyone."

Cilla taught me how to open a bottle of champers using a tea towel.

The last time I saw her with her beloved Bobby she said "one drink for the road?"

And then she added "give me love to the Mersey."

Yeah, wheel out the people who say she was a national treasure.

Bring out the closet complainers who wished they could have made telly presenting look so effortless.

I knew her.

And I will miss her.

Peter Grant