BBC Two is dedicating an entire evening to Cher

If she really could turn back time, what would Cher do?

Now there’s a question to conjure with, after all, pretty much everything she’s touched has turned to gold.

Born Cherilyn Sarkasian in 1946, she still looks like a million dollars, as those who saw her on a recent edition of The Graham Norton Show will agree. Some reports claim that’s how much she’s paid a plastic surgeon over the years. But the Californian-born actress-singer always maintains that the only parts of her to go under the knife were her nose, teeth and breasts (the latter were lifted, rather than enlarged.)

The rest of her is a testament to diet, exercise and healthy living. “I’d rather look fit and feel good than have extra brownies,” she claims. It’s a philosophy that works.

Cher first burst onto the scene as a teenager, as part of the singing duo Sonny and Cher. Successful singles such as I Got You Babe and The Beat Goes On, coupled with TV series such as The Sonny & Cher Show, turned them into household names.

After 11 years of marriage, Sonny and Cher divorced in 1975. She wed another musician and singer-songwriter, Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, that same year; they divorced three years later.

While some may have struggled with such personal issues, Cher – by then a single mother with a child from each of her unions – bounced back with a highly successful solo career. She also had a lucrative residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, earning around $300k a week, but didn’t find it fulfilling. When the hits began to dry up, she decided to reinvent herself as an actress, moving to New York to study before landing a role on Broadway.

“It was the best thing I could have done,” she says. “Finally the money didn’t mean anything to me because I was doing what I wanted to do.”

Box office hits, including Mermaids, The Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck, which won her an Oscar, followed

But then it all went quiet, with both the movies and the music seeming to fade to the background, a move Cher now says was deliberate.

“I’d made three successful films in two years. At 42 I had just finished the last one and then went on to do the publicity tour after the movies came out. I was just fed up,” she explains.

“Then I got interested in other things such as designing houses. Later it’s very difficult to get back in once you have been out. New talent is coming along all the time and at my age in this business it is difficult to get the same jobs as before.”

Nevertheless, she’s continued to manage it. She’s currently publicising her new Christmas album, and now BBC Two is dedicating an entire evening to her talent, with an interview, musical performances and a re-run of the aforementioned The Witches of Eastwick.

Age is, however, one subject she’s admitted to finding difficult – so maybe turning back time would suit her needs. Even in her fifties (she’s now 77), she wasn’t happy about the advancing years, and certainly has no intention of ever acting her age.

“You can go on until you’re 100. If you keep reminding people you can, then you can,” she explains – and we believe her.