Remembering Bruce Forsyth (1928-2017)

Bruce Forsyth with Liza Minnelli

An entertainer for more than 75 years, BRUCE FORSYTH came to embody the art of popularity in British showbusiness. 

A hard worker, touring in variety from the age of 11 as a singer, dancer, comedian, recording artist and all-round entertainer, he eventually found his greatest success to be in television, particularly working with the general public. 

Michael Darvell recalls the outstanding talent that was Bruce Forsyth…

Bruce Forsyth was virtually unknown to the public at large until he was chosen to host Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium on ITV from 1958.

He had covered the UK as a variety entertainer and, although his TV debut was in 1939 on a BBC talent show, it was to take him nearly 20 years to appear again on the home screen. His career then immediately took off and, as the replacement for Tommy Trinder, Forsyth was an overnight success.

At that time the all-round entertainer was a rare animal in Britain, so Forsyth made a refreshing change compared to, say, the likes of old-timer Tommy Trinder, as the new chap in charge was a complete revelation.

He could sing, dance, play piano (and other instruments), and could be funny without necessarily telling jokes. What appealed most of all was the way Forsyth engaged with the audience at home and in the theatre, remembering that in those days the Palladium show was live.

And it was then that the first of his many catchphrases was born – “I’m in charge!” Later on in other shows he added “Nice to see you – to see you nice!”, “Didn’t they do well!”, “Give us a twirl, Anthea” and “All right, my love?”

Sunday nights on ITV in the late 1950s comprised a US-filmed series such as I Love Lucy or Sea Hunt at 7.30pm, followed by Sunday Night at the London Palladium live at 8pm, and later Armchair Theatre (also live) at 9pm.

Still in its infancy then, and with only one BBC channel in competition, ITV managed to win audience ratings on Saturday and Sunday nights by offering pure entertainment in the form of variety shows, sitcoms and popular drama series.

Bruce Forsyth was born Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson in Edmonton, north London to John Thomas Forsyth-Johnson and Florence Ada Pocknell, a family who ran a local car repair firm.

Both parents were musical, being members of the Salvation Army where they sang and played brass instruments. Forsyth was interested in dancing after seeing Fred Astaire at the movies, so took dance classes and learned the accordion for an act he called Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom. After appearing on a BBC Television talent show in 1939 he toured during and after the Second World War until he was called up into the RAF.

Following his demob he continued working in variety theatres and on television including The Dickie Henderson Show where he was spotted and offered the role of host for Val Parnell’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1958.

He soon became synonymous with the show and it is difficult to remember now any of the other entertainers who came before and after Forsyth, his presence having firmly established him in the role. (Incidentally they included Tommy Trinder, Dickie Henderson, Alfred Marks, Bob Monkhouse, Robert Morley, Don Arrol, Norman Vaughan and Jimmy Tarbuck).

Beat the Clock, the gameshow section midway through the Sunday night show became just as popular as the performers on the bill and eventually led to Forsyth’s hosting of The Generation Game.

Forsyth continued touring his one-man show from the late 1950s right up to 2004. He also appeared in pantomime at the Palladium and joined Morecambe and Wise in their show Every Night at the Palladium in 1962.

The Travelling Music Show, a compilation of songs by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1978 before Forsyth toured the UK with it. He also appeared in New York in his own show, Bruce Forsyth on Broadway, in 1979 and as late as 2012 toured the UK for three years in Bruce Forsyth Entertains.

His only West End book show was in 1964 in Little Me, the musical by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh and Bob Fosse, based on the so-called autobiography of Belle Poitrine in which Forsyth played no less than seven different characters. It was at London’s Cambridge Theatre for 334 performances and Forsyth recorded some of the songs from the show, the most popular being ‘Real Live Girl’.

As an actor Forsyth appeared in several TV dramas and a handful of cinema films. In his first film, Robert Wise’s Star! (1968) he had the role of the father of Gertrude Lawrence, played by Julie Andrews.

A year later he was in Anthony Newley’s Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, a sort of musical autobiography with Newley and his then wife Joan Collins, Milton Berle, Stubby Kaye and Forsyth in possibly the only film musical to gain an X certificate: it flopped.

Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) was a more conventional children’s tale with songs by the Sherman Brothers and co-starred David Tomlinson and Angela Lansbury.

The same year saw Forsyth in the ‘Avarice’ segment of Graham Stark’s The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins in which he played a chauffeur ordered by his rich but penny-pinching boss to retrieve a lost 50p piece from a drain.As an actor on television Forsyth appeared in Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost (1965); Noël Coward’s Red Peppers (1969) with Dora Bryan and Edith Evans; The Mating Season (1976), a TV movie comedy; Pavlova: A Woman for All Time (1983), a series about the great dancer; Magnum, P.I. (1986), playing a lottery host; and Slinger’s Day (1987), a comedy series set in a supermarket.

The last cinema film Forsyth appeared in was House! (2000), a comedy about a bingo hall threatened with closure in which he played himself. Good as he was, Bruce Forsyth was actually better at playing Bruce Forsyth, which he mainly did throughout his television career.

Earlier TV appearances in which he was himself included Thank Your Lucky Stars, The Blackpool Show, The Good Old Days, The Golden Shot and guest spots on shows with Frankie Howerd, Morecambe and Wise, Cilla Black, Tom Jones, Val Doonican, the Muppets, Grace Kennedy, Cannon and Ball, Karen Kay, Des O’Connor and of course his own series including specials with Sammy Davis Jr and several Royal Variety Performances.

However, as much as Forsyth wished to be a song and dance man, he found he was equally at home on TV game shows and he will mainly be remembered for the success of The Generation Game (1971-1994), Play Your Cards Right (1980-2003), You Bet! (1988-90) and Bruce’s Price Is Right (1995-2001). Later on, with the ability to make most things work for him, Forsyth surprised the younger breed of comedians when he occasionally chaired Have I Got News for You, in the process outdoing them at their own game.

From 2004 he reinvented himself yet again by joining Strictly Come Dancing which, with his own talents as both a dancer and a comedian, he was able to fit in well as a co-host. Sadly, he was taken ill following a fall at home during the 2015 season, and he later received treatment for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which kept him out of the Christmas Special that year, apart from him contributing a video message. After that his health got worse and he never really fully recovered.

Forsyth was no stranger to awards. In his time he was the Variety Club Show Business Personality of the Year, BBC TV Personality of the Year, and he received a BAFTA Fellowship, the Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Television Awards’ Special Recognition Award. He was made an OBE in 1998, a CBE in 2006 and was knighted in 2011. He was married three times, first to Penny Calvert, then Anthea Redfern and finally Wilnelia Merced. He was the father of six children.

For most viewers of television in the UK, Bruce Forsyth had been a part of their lives, no matter how young or old they might be. To have worked for more than 75 years is a major achievement for anybody, but for someone with the talent of Bruce Forsyth it is surely a truly amazing feat.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2013 Bruce Forsyth was the male entertainer with the longest career in television. There’s no doubting the man’s longevity and the talent that went with it, and it’s unlikely that that record will ever be broken because they certainly don’t make them like Brucie any more.

Bruce Forsyth was born on 22 February 1928 and died on 18 August 2017, aged 89.

R.I.P.