Sir Cliff Richard is "looking forward" to seeing Cilla Black again.

Sir Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard

The 74-year-old star made a touching tribute to the late 'Blind Date' and 'Surprise Surprise' host at her funeral in Liverpool this afternoon (20.08.15) and revealed he sees her untimely death as just a "hiccup" in their relationship.

He said: "I have a faith, and therefore I don't think anything happens by accident. I don't think the miracle that we are as human beings can be an accident, it has to be something else. I know all of our souls will be united together. Cilla, this is just a hiccup in our relationship and we'll see you again and I'm looking forward to that time."

Sir Cliff - who performed an emotional rendition of his song 'Faithful One' at the service at St. Mary's Church in Woolton - admitted he was still struggling to come to terms with the death of one of his closest friends.

He shared: "I'm not sure what to say because I have, I'm sure we all have, this last few weeks ... I cannot think of Cilla in the past tense. It just seems outrageous. There are certain people that you believe somehow will always be there and of course she's been taken from us but I think the way to get past all of this, I suppose, is to think of all the things that were fabulous about her."

The 'Devil Woman' singer insisted his memories of the 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' hitmaker - who died at her holiday home in Spain after falling and hitting her head - will be "very happy ones".

Remembering a time when he picked Cilla up to take her to a party in Barbados, he said: "Often we were being invited to the same parties and Cilla didn't drive so I said to her once, 'Shall I pick you up?' I got there at 7 o'clock, picked her up and the thing about it was ... I was one of the Dukes of Hazard [laughs], I had a Ford truck and she said, 'Chuck, how am I going to get into that?'

"Now the problem was coming out, she said, 'How am I going to get out of this?' I said, 'Just swing around and slide out', and she slid out and that's when I realised she did have beautiful legs, quite fantastic. So my memories of Cilla are going to be very happy ones."

Cliff also spoke of how "privileged" he feels to have been able to call the "fabulous pop singer" and Britain's "greatest TV presenter, probably of all time" his friend.

Explaining his admiration of her determination to become a star, he added: "I shall always remember that and again I can't remember Cilla without funny things happening. It was just part of her life, part of her personality. I remember we'd talk about age sometimes and I said to her, 'Cilla, I'm three years older than you', and she said, 'I know Chuck and it'll always be that way'."

Also in attendance at the service were Paul O'Grady, Christopher Biggins, Sir Tom Jones, JJimmy Tarbuck and Carol Vorderman.

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