Elton, Shirley, the Palladium ... Brucie would’ve loved it!
The way veteran comedian Barry Cryer tells it, back in the Fifties he was walking one day in London’s West end when he bumped into a pal, a fellow comic from the nudes-and-gags era of the Windmill Theatre.
This poor bloke was on his uppers — wife and kids, no work, fed up to the back teeth. ‘I feel like chucking it all in,’ he said, ‘and opening a tobacconist’s.’
But he stuck it out a bit longer...and six weeks later got the gig of his lifetime, hosting ITV’s variety smash Sunday Night At The London Palladium. Bruce Forsyth never looked back.
The Palladium was the fitting venue for a full-blown, spanglesand-banners, star-encrusted tribute to the original song-anddance man, in Sir Bruce: A Celebration (BBC1).
And like Brucie’s career, it got off to a slow start, before winning us over. The tap routine that opened the show was neatly choreographed, but it hardly began the night with a bang — more of a clicketty-click.
The first tributes were a bit feeble too. Spare us Michael Grade telling jokes. Why Michael Ball and Alfie Boe chose to duet on Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York was also a mystery, since Brucie never worked with Ol’ Blue eyes nor made his name in America.
Proceedings warmed up when elton John called him ‘our finest all-round entertainer of all time’, and earned a cheer from the audience as he declared Bruce had been made to wait far too long for the knighthood he so deserved.
Shirley Bassey looked and sounded fabulous — but it was soul singer Alexandra Burke who captured the spirit of the night, with a soft jazz number that sounded so Seventies, you could almost smell the Campari and soda.
The famous faces popping up to pay homage were unmistakeable by now . . . all except one. Alongside Joannie Collins, Parky and Lenny henry, there was a bald man with a flat head and a Dublin accent. he turned out to be Brendan O’Carroll, alias Mrs Brown — unrecognisable without his bosoms.
‘he’s left a gap that nobody’s going to be able to fill,’ said Brendan. ‘Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’
It’s a good job Brucie never opened that tobacconist’s. The question of who will fill the gap left by hangdog DCI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) was left ominously open, as Cowley nick was closed down and its coppers scattered to the winds, in the finale of Endeavour (ITV).
Constable Trewlove (Dakota Blue Richards) departed for Scotland Yard, unable to make Morse (Shaun evans) aware of her affections. even when she boldly invited him to share her bed, during an undercover op, he preferred to sleep in the bath.
DC George Fancy stopped three bullets from an unknown assailant: that sets up a strong plotline for the next series, as Morse and friends vowed to find the killer. But though Thursday can’t retire, since being robbed of his life savings, it looks like the old partnership has been broken up.
Morse and his mentor, it appears, will be sent to different police stations. Perhaps the moment is close when a certain young bobby called Lewis will appear — though he won’t be a sergeant for a few years yet.
The murder mystery, this time set at a boy’s public school, was incidental. This episode was an elegy, a farewell to the Sixties and to Morse’s formative days. It capped the best series of endeavour yet, and promises better still to come.
SCHLOCK OF THE WEEKEND: Danish crime drama is renowned for dark, complex stories, but Below The Surface (BBC4) is more straightforward than usual. It’s a hostage thriller, with police racing to free the innocents. Uncomplicated, yet gripping.