Sir Bruce Forsyth

Versatile and venerated British entertainer of the old school – singer, dancer and comedian, musician and national treasure

Sir Bruce Forsyth, TV light entertainment legend. Born: 22 February, 1928 in Edmonton, London. Died: 18 August, 2017, aged 89

Sir Bruce Forsyth was one of the most talented, versatile and popular TV entertainers of his generation.

He was knighted in the Birthday Honours of 2011 after his supporters, including many MPS, had campaigned for several years for him to be awarded this honour.

With his witty asides, his cheeky smile and his displays of mock outrage, Sir Bruce topped the bill wherever he went for well over half a century. He was still performing with as much zest as ever right into his 80s.

Indeed, as a sprightly, lithe 80-year-old, with the slogan “keep on dancing”, he was hosting the huge BBC TV hit, Strictly Come Dancing. He demonstrated that, even at that age, and beyond, he could still sing with gusto and dance with professional verve.

In that show, which became a national Saturday-night institution, he regularly drew attention to his age, modifying one of his already famous catch-phrases to “I’m not doddery – doddery I am not…” inciting the audience to join in.

His principal claim to fame before that was probably his hosting of the long-running and highly-successful TV series The Generation Game. But he was no less popular in Play Your Cards Right and in Bruce’s Price is Right.

His energy was as phenomenal as his catch-words were infectious. Nearly every performance began with the greeting: “Nice to see you… to see you nice!” Or when a contestant in one of his many game shows excelled himself, Sir Bruce would chant: “Didn’t he do well?” He was no less renowned for his poses as a man of muscle.

TV companies had no fears about their ratings when Sir Bruce was on the screen. He excelled as a singer, a dancer and a comedian and was also – although this was not widely known – an accomplished jazz pianist, often appearing with Sammy Davis Jr.

Even into his 70s and 80s, he danced with as much vigour as a man half his age and although he good-naturedly teased his contestants on the game shows with his rapid- fire wit, he was always careful never to humiliate them.

Bruce Joseph Forsyth-johnson was born into a Salvation Army family in Edmonton, north London on 22 February, 1928. He attended the Higher Latimer School, Edmonton, but his heart, even as a small boy, was in show business.

At the age of 14, he left the family home and was touring Britain as The Boy Bruce – The Mighty Atom. He made his broadcasting debut in 1942 and was an instant hit. He told one BBC interviewer: “I want to be famous and buy my mum a fur coat.”

He played the ukulele, the accordion and the banjo with equal prowess and spent some 20 years performing in church halls, sleeping in luggage racks and waiting for the big break. He did a two-year spell at London’s Windmill Theatre – “We never close” – and appeared in several double acts.

When he received the call in 1958 to host Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Sir Bruce was on the verge of leaving showbusiness. He was booked for two weeks, but stayed for five years, by which time he was Britain’s highest-paid entertainer, earning £1,000 a week.

One of his Palladium roles, refereeing the Beat the Clock feature, gave a hint of Sir Bruce’s future TV career: he went on to host some of the most popular TV game shows of the entire 1970s and 1980s.

He appeared with many top names, including Tommy Cooper, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe and Frankie Howerd. This last partnership developed into a series known as Frankie and Bruce. Sir Bruce also regularly appeared in sketches with sports stars, including boxer Henry Cooper, jockey Scobie Breasley, swimmeranitalonsborough, former tennis champion Fred Perry and snooker player Joe Davis.

Subsequently, he was to reign supreme at the helm of the BBC flagship show, The Generation Game, from 1971 to 1977 and again at the beginning of the 1990s. At its peak, the show attracted more than 20 million viewers.

And although his television appearances were prolific, Sir Bruce also appeared in several successful films, including Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Star! (1968).

His ITV series Play Your Cards Right was a huge success, although it ended with an uncharacteristic sour note, when he accused his bosses of taking the show off without telling him, even though it was drawing audiences of around the 14 million mark.

But Sir Bruce had never been more popular. And in 1995, the year after his final Generation Gameappearance,hereceived a Lifetime Achievement Award for Variety and three years later he was awarded an OBE. He was to be awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 2005.

One of his most surprising appearances was hosting an editionofthetvhitshowhave I Got News For You in 2003. The show was built round him and included a very politically incorrect item called The Iraqi Play Your Cards Right. Ian Hislop, one of the regulars on this programme, said later that only Sir Bruce could have got away with this – and successfully.