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Bruce is not ready to quit just yet
 | | Bruce Forsyth with Strictly Come Dancing co-host Tess Daly |
STRICTLY Come Dancing is back. And once again the show will be locking horns with ITV1's The X Factor in a battle for the hearts and minds of the great British public.
"They don't frighten us any more," laughs veteran entertainer Bruce Forsyth, referring to the rival series which his programme trounced in the ratings last year. If there's a secret as to why our show is so popular," he continues, "it's because it's for the whole family."
From its introduction last year, Strictly Come Dancing proved to be a smash hit for the Beeb.
"I had great faith in it," the 77-year-old Edmonton-born presenter says. "When the idea first came up, I thought, 'This sounds wonderful'. It seemed like something the public needed.
"They've been starved of this sort of entertainment. You know, nowadays you've got mum in the kitchen probably watching all the soap operas, dad's in front of the football in another room, the son's upstairs with Top Of The Pops or whatever on and the daughter's up there too probably watching films with her favourite stars in them. So, I think the family has been separated by television.
"With all the channels you've got now, there's such a choice. You have to have a show like Strictly Come Dancing to get them all back into the living room."
Despite the series' popularity, when it was first mooted most commentators were cynical about its chances for success.
"There are about five different elements to the show," explains Bruce, "and if you were to look at it on paper in the early months of 2004, you'd think to yourself, 'How can all that get together and make a show?' But it does, and that's what you don't know about a format until you put it on its feet.
"OK, so there were a lot of sceptics, but they lost their scepticism when they saw the result. They realised how easy on the eye it is and that the viewers have a chance to join in, which is wonderful. It makes everyone feel a part of the show."
It's arguable that this year's line-up of contestants is the strongest yet, boasting names such as Zoe Ball, cricketer Darren Gough, Gloria Hunniford, celebrity chef James Martin, Fiona Philips and Patsy Palmer. No wonder Bruce is itching to get back onto the dance floor.
"I think another thing that's missing on TV at the moment is there's not enough live television," he continues. "Live programmes are great, they're good for the audience and good for the performer."
Throughout his career, Bruce has nearly always picked the right shows, although, as he reveals, there was one particular programme that just managed to slip through his fingers in the late 1970s.
"I was in America, and I was trying to get the rights to a game show they called Family Feud. I was having breakfast in this hotel I was staying at with a guy called Paul Talbot who ran the company who sold all the programme formats to the English channels.
"I said to him, 'I'd love to get the rights to Family Feud,' to which he replied, 'Oh, I'm sorry. Bob Monkhouse has just got it, only a couple of days ago'. That was such a shame."
Although he missed out on that series - which was renamed Family Fortunes for UK audiences - he didn't come away from the trip empty-handed. "I'd already seen this show, Play Your Cards Right, and I said, 'What about that?' Paul replied, 'That's available'.
Despite turning Play Your Cards Right into a hit, he is arguably best known for his stints at the helm of The Generation Game, first in the 1970s and then again in the 1990s. With rumours flying around that Graham Norton has recorded a new pilot for the show, Bruce's feelings on its possible return raise eyebrows.
"I don't know if it should come back," he says. "I stopped doing it because I thought we'd run out of games and we just started to repeat them. At that point I decided, 'Well, it's time to go now'. I've always tried to get out of shows when they're at the top and still doing well."
As for his own career, the septuagenarian isn't quite ready to give up yet. "I've said this for many years, I think I will know when it's time to pack it in. One day I'll wake up and say, 'I don't want to do this any more'. And if I don't know, then I've said to my darling wife, my family, my agent and my manager, 'If you ever think I'm going on too long, then that will be it'. But I think, overall, I'll know myself.
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