Lots of secrets to Cher

By Fiona Rae

She's the oldest woman to have had a No 1 hit in the United States. She also has the longest span between No 1 hits - 1965 to 1999 - of any pop artist. For a comeback, it's a pretty good one.

But despite having been a performer for more than three decades, Cher's career is almost a series of happy accidents.

She reportedly didn't even want to do the dance album Believe and had to be coerced into the studio. But the album and the singles - Believe and Strong Enough - are the biggest hits she has had.

That story is not told in Wednesday night's VH1 Behind the Scenes: Cher (TV3, 8.30). This is a history, not an analysis. VH1, the American cable music channel which sprang from MTV in 1985, does not like to delve too deeply.

But then Cher has history to burn, and even if VH1 had wanted to go into Sonny Bono's well-documented arrogance they would not have had the time.

It was Sonny, with all his faults, who made a large part of Cher's history happen. He roped 16-year-old Cherilyn Sarkasian into backing vocals at Phil Spector's studio, where he worked. And Sonny wrote songs for her.

But it was another accident that he ended up on stage. Cher was so petrified of performing that she wouldn't go on without him.

When they toured England on the strength of I Got You Babe, they were thrown out of the Hilton Hotel in London for being too scruffy. Naturally, this made them doubly famous.

But by 1967 their pop music was square. Sonny tried to springboard Cher into movies by financing a film called Chastity ("She's not a girl, she's an experience," ran the slogan).

It bombed and they were forced on to the nightclub circuit - where the head of CBS programming saw them and offered them a TV show.

The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour was a huge success. But it was during the show that the relationship began to break down. Sonny is described as "very tough" by their former road manager.

"They were all terrified of him," says Cher's sister, Georganne.

When Cher finally left Sonny and the show was cancelled she discovered that she had been merely an employee of the Sonny and Cher empire.

But she was a survivor, and her own show, complete with the most outrageous gowns known to television, was a smash.

Meanwhile, Sonny's show bombed.

Then there was marriage to heroin-addicted Gregg Allman, a son, failed records and the start of her acting career.

People laughed when they saw her name next to Meryl Streep's in Silkwood. They weren't laughing when she won an Oscar for Moonstruck.

The rock chick of the 80s wearing that famous all-over fishnet bears little resemblance to the actress who is soon to be seen alongside Dame Judi Dench in Tea With Mussolini.

It's a remarkable career of highs and lows, and Cher is candid throughout the documentary.

She's open about her reaction to the announcement of daughter Chastity's sexuality (yes, she was named after the film) and now wonders why she didn't get over it sooner.

She says she was shocked at how devastating she found Sonny Bono's death in 1998 in a skiing accident. The bond that was there was never broken, says sister Georganne.

But the beat goes on, from 60s pop to gay disco.

"I'm part of history," she says, "whether people like it or not."