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Bruce Forsyth Exclusive: I Thought I'D Reached My Sell-By Date When I Got to 76..Now I'M so Busy I Don't Even Have Time to Play Golf!

Posted on: Thursday, 21 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

YOU'D think, since he's now pushing 80, that Bruce Forsyth might be ready to spend a little more time with his golf clubs.

In fact they're gathering dust in a corner.

A leisurely life might be par for the course for most showbiz veterans, but you're more likely to find Brucie swinging a dance partner than a five iron.

"I've hardly played at all this year," he says, gazing out beyond his vast garden on to Wentworth golf course. "I just haven't had the time. Not that I'm complaining."

Nor should he.

The man who started his career as Boy Bruce the Mighty Atom is about to explode back on to the box next week to present a second series of Strictly Come Dancing, the show which defied the conventional view that the days of family entertainment on TV were long gone.

This year it became the biggest Saturday-night hit in decades. No one could quite believe that sequins, sambas and a 76-year-old host could do it for the BBC and even Bruce is still pinching himself.

"I honestly believed that when I got past 75 I was entering the end of those twilight years in my career," he says. "Reality TV came along and I thought I'd reached my sell-by date."

Despite his success, the implication from some quarters was that he had. Call it mischief or old-fashioned envy, but there were those who suggested his age was telling on a fast-paced show such as Strictly Come Dancing.

HE couldn't, they claimed, stand the pressure, cope with the hectic schedule, read the autocue or deal with live telly.

Sitting in an armchair in his Surrey home, looking immaculate and sipping tea, he bristles at the thought. When his time comes to bow out he won't tiptoe quietly into the wings.

"They'll have to drag me off with my heels drumming the boards. Of course I can read the autocue. Yes, it was tough for the first series - we were feeling our way. There was a lot of work to get it right and a lot of dashing about.

"This time round we know the score and life will be a bit easier, though I'll be doing more singing and dancing slots.

"Those rumours about me packing it all in because I was exhausted were absolute rubbish. When you do a big live show like that it's bound to be tiring, but you keep going on the sheer excitement. There was never a moment when I felt so exhausted I thought I couldn't carry on.

"I tell you, when I walk on to the studio floor I feel 37, not 77. Something takes over. I've felt like that for the past 40 years, although I must admit sometimes in the morning I do feel my age."

The consummate professional, he ensures that by the time he makes his entrance with a quickstep he's on sparkling form. There will be no outward sign of any creaks.

"I lead a safe life," he says. "I'm not a drinker. The most I'll have i s one or two a week. And I don't overeat, but I make sure I have plenty of fruit and vegetables.

"I also make sure I get plenty of rest. If I've had a hard day I'll come in, lie down for a couple of hours, then get up for dinner. We always eat early, so my meal is digested properly.

"It's a performer's discipline, but it seems to pay off because people do marvel at me. I correct myself all the time, checking my posture when I'm driving or sitting down to eat or at a desk."

The ordered lifestyle and restraint apart, what makes Bruce such an extraordinary man for his years is his enthusiasm. He's still, arguably, every bit as ambitious as the Bruce Joseph Forsyth Johnson born in 1928 who grew up in Edmonton, North London, where he started his career tap dancing for friends on the roof of his dad's garage.

"If there's a third series of Strictly Come Dancing and we're successful - touch wood - I'd love to do it," he says. "And the ones after that. I've always considered myself lucky I've got such a wide audience. I've always done family shows and each generation has grown up with me."

Sunday Night At The London Palladium, The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, You Bet and The Price is Right made him a national institution. But it was a guest appearance on Have I Got News For You that resurrected him. He admits he owes them big-time.

"It was that one show that changed the course of my career and I'm so grateful," he says. "Something ama-zing happened, and from being shut out of television the doors opened and stayed open.

"I was sitting at home watching Have I Got News For You with my wife Winnie when she said: 'You know, you could do that.' I had been thinking the same thing, so I rang Paul Merton, who I knew a bit.

"He said he'd put my name forward, and to cut a long story short they jumped at it and wrote the whole show around me with a game show theme. They got a Christmas special out of it. At the BBC, suddenly a light went on and they thought: 'Oh, he can still do something.'"

In truth Bruce wasn't sure if he even belonged on TV any more, so resistant is he to reality telly.

"I won't watch it," he says. "It's mindless. I do take exception to the swearing I see on television. I'll be watching something and just cringe.

"No one minds a dirty joke, but not in my home, thank you. The trouble is, no one says: 'That's a bit strong - it might offend people.'

"Well, I'm offended constantly. I don't particularly want to watch Gordon Ramsay swearing in the kitchen. I think I do connect with young people without having to resort to four-letter words.

LISTEN, I may be 77 but I can still be hip. I do manage to make my son, who'll be 18 in November, laugh occasionally."

Jonathan Joseph, known as JJ, is Bruce's youngest child and only son by his third wife Wilnelia, a Puerto Rican beauty he met when he was 53.

"He's 6ft 3ins and broad," says Bruce. "I'm quite scared of him - he towers over me. I used to worry that having a son when I was in my 60s would mean I wouldn't be the kind of dad who could romp with him and chuck him over my shoulder.

"But I've always been here for him. And he's my yardstick. If I can come out with something that makes him laugh I know I've got it right."

His mentor, though, is Wilnelia, the 1975 Miss World he married 22 years ago. He is devoted to her.

"We're our own soap opera," he says of his vast family. He has five daughters - Debbie, Julie and Laura by his first wife Penny Calvert and Charlotte and Louisa by Anthea Redfern, his co-host from The Generation Game.

"It's Winnie who keeps us all together," he says. "She is the most wonderful woman. Clever, inspirational and extremely hard- working. The reason2 it's lasted longer with Winnie than my previous marriages is simple - I'm with the right woman."

And the BBC are convinced they're with the right man to get the nation dancing again.

"Did you know," Bruce says, "doing a quickstep for three minutes is the equivalent of running a four-minute mile? Or that a whole evening dancing is the equivalent of a workout?"

It's possible, I suppose, that with a concerted effort on the dance floor some of us might conceivably match Brucie's remarkable stamina. But somehow I doubt it.

Source: Daily Mirror

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