Cilla Black has said she can't bring herself to watch the TV story of her life.

The new ITV drama stars Sheridan Smith as the former singer and Blind Date host.

Despite Cilla's son Robert producing the three-part series, Cilla, 71, said she could not bear to watch the preview.

"It is coming out in the autumn. I have had the rough tapes for 10 days and I am not able to watch them," she told the Daily Mirror.

"It is a bit like deja vu. They only normally make this kind of thing when you are dead and I am still alive."

Cilla added: "I just can't watch myself. Even though Sheridan has done a good job and my son Robert has been one of the producers, I just can't watch it.

"I have been told by Paul O'Grady: 'You better watch it kid because if you don't it will go to air'. And then it will be in my face."

The biopic focuses on Cilla's rise to fame in 1960s Liverpool and also stars The White Queen's Aneurin Barnard as her husband Bobby.

Cilla was due to star in a sitcom, Led Astray, with Paul but she told the Daily Mirror that it was too much.

"I thought why get up so early. It was a long day... I said 'I am too old'," she said.