New Blind Date presenter Paul O'Grady has said that the family of Cilla Black urged him to host the show when he had doubts about taking over from his late friend.
Black, who died suddenly in August 2015, hosted the iconic ITV series from 1985 until 2003, and now close friend O'Grady is the face of the reboot on Channel 5 - after some soul-searching along the way.
"It was a shock at first when I heard the music, and they said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host, Paul O'Grady'," he told the Radio Times.
"I thought, 'This isn't right, it's so synonymous with Cilla. She should be here, not me'. I felt like I shouldn't be doing it. It was her show.
"But then I spoke to her sons and lots of people who knew her and they said, 'You have to do it, because she'd want you to do it for everyone'."
Paying tribute to the work of his late friend, O'Grady said there is a "definite skill" to hosting Blind Date.
"Because you're not interviewing celebrities, like I used to," he explained.
"You're interviewing the public, so they're not as confident. You have to be easy on them.
"I don't send them up because they're sitting there on the stool, and the last thing they need is for me to devour them.
"So I'm very avuncular with them, I'm very kind. I'm like a brothel madam, really."
Blind Date begins on Channel 5 on Saturday June 17 at 7pm. An Irish version, with comedian Al Porter as host, begins on TV3 later this year.
