A fitting tribute to the king of entertainment
Didn’t he do well? And didn’t everyone? Sir Bruce: a Celebration (BBC One, Sunday) waved off the muchmissed Bruce Forsyth, who died last August, with a special tribute, recorded on the eve of what would have been his 90th birthday. It could have come off as cloyingly sentimental. Instead it struck the perfect balance of warm humour, damp-eyed emotion and razzle-dazzle entertainment.
Before a star-studded audience at the London Palladium, the venue where Forsyth made his name, Tess Daly – oft under-appreciated but the glue that sticks Strictly Come Dancing’s success together – traced her former co-host’s unparalleled 75-year career, from The Mighty Atom to Sir Bruce, the showbiz institution. The main man loomed large over proceedings – not just physically, courtesy of the giant photographs flanking the stage, but in the show’s spirit of variety. This was a night as traditional as Bruce himself.
Musically, it was dominated by the four Bs: Bassey, Burke, Ball and Boe. Dame Shirley Bassey belted out Almost Like Being in Love, Alexandra Burke gave her a run for her lung-busting money, and Michael Ball and Alfie Boe crooned a swinging Sinatra medley. There was dance too, of course, with a sparkling Fred Astaire number from the Strictly professionals and tap from West End star Adam Garcia.
Friends spoke eloquently of the old stager, with endless anecdotes. Paul Merton hilariously recalled Forsyth’s career-reviving turn on Have I Got News For You – cue a clip of “Play Your Iraqi Cards Right”. Russ Abbot and Jimmy Tarbuck twinkled fondly as they remembered their golfing pal, while Ant and a tearful Dec admitted that “it takes two of us to do what Bruce did”.
This was also a family affair. His widow Lady Forsyth (Wilnelia, “the Miss World who became his world”) gave an emotional speech and daughter Julie sang one of her father’s favourites, Look at that Face.
We heard how Wilnelia was more famous in her native Puerto Rico, where Bruce was known as “Señor Mundo” (Mr World). There was affectionate talk of his beloved sport (including his inability to get out of bunkers) and the whole show was peppered with some of his greatest catchphrases. One dance routine wove in the Generation Game prize conveyor belt – culminating in, yes, a cuddly toy.
It frequently felt like a farewell not just to one man but an entire era. As Mrs Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O’carroll said: “He’s left a gap nobody will ever be able to fill. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Last week’s penultimate Call the Midwife (BBC One, Sunday) saw viewers in bits after Nurse Barbara (Charlotte Ritchie) lost her battle with sepsis – a devastating storyline made all the more poignant by the fact that writer Heidi Thomas almost died from the same illness.
Now it was Barbara’s funeral – except her grieving husband Reverend Tom Hereward (Jack Ashton) wasn’t ready. The scene where avuncular handyman Fred Buckle (Cliff Parisi) gave the shell-shocked curate a shave, cradling Tom’s head on his chest, was unexpectedly tender. When Barbara’s best friend Nurse Phyllis Crane (the brilliantly Hilda Ogden-esque Linda Bassett) did a reading of Mary Lee Hall’s Turn Again to Life, I was in pieces all over again.
Yet there was no time for the nurses to wallow, as the closure of a nearby maternity home brought an influx of expectant mothers to Nonnatus House. These included Olive Mawson (Scarlett Alice Johnson), whose father Stanley (David Bamber) had a secret that he could no longer keep: he was in love with neighbour Donald (David Calder), who had developed pre-senile dementia. Not many mainstream dramas can weave a series finale out of gay OAP romance but Call the Midwife is something special. Their cardigan-clad companionship was affectingly subtle and the two Davids played it beautifully.
In a rousing climax, the Nonnatus heroines rallied to throw a birthday party for Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt). With the help of kindly projectionist Stanley, they secretly spliced together a cine film of her eventful life, which also served as an amble down memory lane for viewers.
Call the Midwife is a triumph: a series created by, starring and largely about women which has quietly become the BBC’S biggest drama. Fittingly, it’s now a nine-month wait until the Christmas special – but it’s bound to bring joy when it arrives.
Sir Bruce: a Celebration ★★★★★
Call the Midwife ★★★★