Entertainment For Lively Minds
Bruce Forsyth - what was the point?
Posted by Steve Turner on 14 November 2011 - 6:44pm.
I would love to know why Word decided to review his latest release in this months issue. Was it a deliberate attempt to subvert the readers into believing he is a cutting-edge artist worthy of our attention?
Failed with me if that was the case. FWIW I find him to be intolerably smug and his attempt at humour is embarassing. Apart from the ability to tap dance can someone please explain what he has ever done to warrant his status as one of the countrys leading entertainers? Amazing.
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Don't be
so glum, chum
I see that a good night's sleep
hasn't eased your general grumpiness towards our finest living all-round entertainer!
I quite like him.
In the 1970s he attempted to emulate his hero
Sammy Davis Jnr by constructing a 'One Man Show' and taking it to New York to try to make it on Broadway. Of course he's no Sammy. Never could be. As the New York Times were only too happy to point out. Their withering review concluded 'this guy would be a hoot at your wedding'.
Why did he get his knighthood? Live long enough in Britain and every honour eventually comes your way. If you want it.
I'd rather see his one-man-show
than sit through 99% of current 'entertainers'.
I used to find him tolerable
Then he presented HIGNFY and just came off as nothing but absolutely bloody thick. I still cringe hard enough to crush a vertebra just thinking about it, so he's forever ruined in my mind.
Funnily enough...
...on HIGNFY I thought he showed himself to be a HUGE star, able to take over and transform an established and reliably excellent programme by using his catchphrases and old game-show ideas to great effect within the confines of the show's format without ruining it.
Compare him to Brian Blessed who tried to force his schtick onto the format and was an unfunny, irritating tw*t.
Blessed
God, that was weird. Really funny for the first minute. Cripplingly unwatchable from then on. He was a total bellend on Stephen "Tedious Ubiquity" Fry's language programme too. Childish tool.
Funny how we came away from the Brucie HIGNFY with such different impressions. I found it painful. He read the autocue like it was a Topsy and Tim book, and seemed to me as if he didn't understand the jokes.
I don't begrudge him his old variety glory days, but he should've retired 20 years ago IMO.
Seconded
I was on Hislops side on that night.
Hated Brucie in 76 and can't stand him now. Venerated for living long.
Which brings to
mind Alan Bennett's great comment that if you live to 90 in the UK and can still boil an egg they give you a knighthood. Don't watch Brucie now but did quite like the whole generation game shtick with Anthea back in the 1970's but then I was quite young and innocent at the time. I don't think he's ever taken himself too seriously which is a plus point in his favour.
I thought...
...it was an odd choice, considering so few records are reviewed in the magazine these days. I don't particularly mind Brucie, but I have childhood memories of my father swearing every time he came on the tv or radio (see also Wogan).
My Dad
used to shout "It's that....IDIOT...get him off" and scrabble for the remote. I sort of quite like him in a weird way for what he is, (see VV's post) but equally I can't watch him. Makes me cringe.
Remote?
You had a remote control telly back then? Are you a Jetson?
My grandparents TV
had a remote back in the 70s. It was some sound-based device, about the size of a good blackjack. Unfortunately, they also owned other essential piece of '70s gear - an electric carving knife - and its operation would cause an orgy of channel changing and volume...
I thought...
Oops. Double post.
(A cuddly toy and a fondue set for the first person who makes the "You get nothing for a pair. Not in this game" gag)
(Your Dad) You bloody selfish child!
You think you can come round here and post things TWICE? You little sod, bloody well behave yourself.
Ah, come on.
Brucie is, for many of us, the last link to Thursday being TOTP day, Benny Hill's manic closing sequence, Angela Rippoff's pronunciation of "Guerilla" and Doctor Who driving a car called Bessie. Lay off the guy, he's a walking Proustian moment. We don't need to like his singing, dancing or joshing, we just need to see that chin and we're right back at the Generation Game conveyor belt moment, waiting for the cuddly toy to slide past, and our Mum's have just given us a big jammy slice of cake.
I agree...
... he was brilliant on GG.
What he said
have an up arrow, alright my love?
He's not for everybody
but like Savile, I find him compelling.
No idea
but here's a leaked photo of next year's Strictly contestants:
Glorified meat salesman
He's like one of those meat salesman at markets who auction chops - he's loud, got a bit of patter and the old ladies love him. He's an an average singer, dancer and comedian who seems to be getting excruciatingly needy for laughs on Strictly.
All I know is that the bloke
who sells chops from the back of a truck at Eastville Market (as was) would have kacked himself if asked to do this:
That is
Splendid. Nice one Brucie indeed.
Brucie is
a trooper... that is splendid, and VV , also your other post above is spot on.
Long live Sir Bruce!
Ace
.
What a trooper...
and what an atmosphere.
Particularly like the look being rocked by the chap in the anorak with the yellow stripe at 1.38. Classy.
Woah! that's taken me back
to a seven year old me sitting on the floor in front of the TV wearing the full Newcastle replica kit (a rare thing in those days, I was the only kid in our school who had the full strip), complete with "lucky" Stylo football boots, and a warm glass of lemonade for sustenance.
....I was in tears before half time, spilt the lemonade on myself when Liverpool scored their first and was sent to bed at full time for arguing with my stupid sister who kept insisting that it was "only a silly game"
Excellent - thanks for posting
If he did EXACTLY the same thing at this year's FA Cup Final, he'd get the same reaction from the crowd and would make the FA Cup Final front page news again.
He'd probably also
give himself a heart attack with all that running about
If he's anything..
..he's a link with a past characterised by three tv channels, closedown at midnight, the three day week, candles under the sink for the power cuts and tinned peaches being considered a luxury item. Fortunately none of that other stuff has survived whilst - inexplicably - Brucie has.
That's my youth you're disparaging.
Give him his due; he's a trooper. It's not inexplicable at all, it's called continuity, familiarity and shared experience, and there's a lot to be said for it. If you're afraid of the tribal comfort of all that popular culture that isn't of the moment, fine, go off somewhere and innovate. Otherwise, stop carping about the comfort of reminiscence. God help us all if we are obliged to move with the times, all of the time.
My youth too..
..and I don't want it back. At least not the bits I've listed above, (I reminisce about a lot of the good stuff of yore, but tinned peaches and Brucie weren't any good).
I love tinned peaches.
Some things are just right in tins.
If you could still buy..
..Ideal condensed milk in tins then I might be prepared to give them a go.
Beans
and thats about all. I suppose he did give us 'Brucie Bonus' as part of our everyday language so he can't be all bad eh?
Seemed a strange cd to review - I just had the feeling they were being obtuse.
Higher! Lower!
Brucie bonus!
Give us a twirl!
Nice to see you... to see you NICE!
Good game, good game.
What's not to like?
Let's have a look at the old scoreboard...
.
and
'Didn't He Do Well?"
"How abaart that!"
**waving hand vertically to the crowd**
I've got very fond memories
of the family all gathered to watch him on a saturday night. I don't watch him these days but the ritual of "The Generation Game" is always a happy childhood memory. As cheezy as it was, he was always a cut above most game-show hosts. If he's still hosting huge saturday night shows at his age, he must have something going for him.
Brucie
I like him. He may be 200 years old, have a corny sense of humor, and occasionally misjudge the moment, but his handling of live TV is masterful. That's years of experience in variety. He is brilliant on Strictly - he plays up to the 'old git we all love to hate' image brilliantly, and plays up to the idea that he's having to work hard for laughs.
If you're shouting abuse at the old git, that's part of his act.
The point?
Prizes.
(Because that's what they make)
That Channel 4 documentary
earlier this year attempted to make him appear as a weird old geezer but only suceeded in showing a hardworking man still with bags of energy who lives well amd isn't obsessed with misery and death.
Knows how to do live telly better than those a 1\4 of his age and is a little bit of the old skool entertainment.
Hmmm ... I saw 'Living With Brucie'
... what was all that business about his socks? It seems to be that most of our venerated 'light entertainers' are pretty barmy. Either prissier than Liberace's personal valet, fixated by their mothers or totally lacking in the personal hygiene department.
He's not as weird as Cliff.
I'll give you that. Anybody see him on Norton? 'See you in the DVD charts', 'I've sold 250 million plus'.
Oh give us a break you sad man.
Can't stand the man
Can't dance, can't sing, isn't funny - he's made a little go a very long way. I found him insufferable even when I was a kid watching the Generation Game and I haven't had reason to revise my opinion thirty years later. And a meeting with the man made me realise that he takes himself extremely seriously indeed.
There was an archetypal Brucie moment on a show a few years back when, having been presented a spurious award by Liza Minelli, he used the opportunity to corner her into agreeing to doing a live stage show at the Palladium with him. The look on Minelli's face was priceless as she was left with no option but to agree (needless to say, it never happened).