Bruce Forsyth's Big Night
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''Bruce Forsyth's Big Night'' is a TV show screened on
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
on Saturday nights in late 1978. It starred
Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series '' Sunday Nig ...
. 12 episodes were broadcast between 7 October and 31 December 1978. Two further one-off specials were shown on 4 April 1980 and 21 September 1980 where Forsyth got the chance to perform an hour long show with idol and long-time friend
Sammy Davis Jr Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
, who had been a guest on an earlier show, which Forsyth later said was the best show he'd ever been associated with. The show was made by
London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...
. Following the huge success enjoyed by ''
The Generation Game ''The Generation Game'' is a British game show produced by the BBC in which four teams of two people from the same family, but different generations, compete to win prizes. The game There are eight competitors, hence the catchphrase "Let's m ...
'', Forsyth was poached from the BBC for a reported £15,000 a show () with each show having a budget of £250,000 (). The idea was that the show would provide Bruce with a vehicle for his many and various talents. The show was designed to take up an entire Saturday evening on ITV and win the ratings battle with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. However, it was poorly received and was broadly unsuccessful, with Forsyth's former big hit ''The Generation Game'' (hosted then by
Larry Grayson Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer * Larry Boon ...
) winning higher audiences. The first episode topped the UK television ratings, but episode two didn't feature in the top 20, causing several attempts to revamp the format. Eventually, the show was cut to just 90 minutes in length, including advertisement breaks, and moved to a much earlier Saturday-night slot, but still ratings did not improve. Forsyth claimed in many subsequent on-screen interviews that the retooling did result in an increase in ratings, but this was not borne out by contemporary data. The show featured some mini-games, like "Beat The Goalie" (a phone-in game with similarities to ''
The Golden Shot ''The Golden Shot'' is a British television game show produced by ATV for ITV between 1 July 1967 and 13 April 1975, based on the German TV show '' Der goldene Schuß''. It is most commonly associated with host Bob Monkhouse, but three other ...
'') and little games with the studio audience – it also featured mini-comedies, such as a revival of 1960s series '' The Worker'', with
Charlie Drake Charles Edward Springall (19 June 1925 – 23 December 2006), known professionally as Charlie Drake, was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer. With his small stature (5' 1"/155 cm tall), curly red hair and liking for slapstick, h ...
as The Worker and
Henry McGee ''For the American businessman and academic, see Henry W. McGee.'' Henry James Marris-McGee (14 May 1929 – 28 January 2006) was a British actor, best known as straight man to Benny Hill for many years. McGee was also often the announce ...
(one of
Benny Hill Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor, singer and writer. He is remembered for his television programme ''The Benny Hill Show'', an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double ente ...
's stooges) as the man at the
labour exchange An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...
, and also ''
The Glums ''The Glums'' is a British television sitcom which first aired on ITV in 1979. It had its origins in a segment of the 1950s radio show ''Take It from Here''.Morgan-Russell p.3 The characters were revived as part of '' Bruce Forsyth's Big Night' ...
'', a TV adaptation of short sketches from the radio series ''
Take It From Here ''Take It from Here'' (often referred to as ''TIFH'', pronounced – and sometimes humorously spelt – "TIFE") is a British radio comedy programme broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audie ...
'', with
Jimmy Edwards James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in ''Take It from Here'' and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in ''Whack-O!''. Early lif ...
reprising his role he immortalised on radio as Mr Glum,
Ian Lavender Arthur Ian Lavender (born 16 February 1946) is an English stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Private Pike in the BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army'', and is the last surviving major cast member of the series following the ...
(Private Pike from ''
Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
'') playing the role of Ron (played by
Dick Bentley Charles Walter "Dick" Bentley (14 May 1907 – 27 August 1995) was an Australian-born comedian and actor of radio, stage and screen. He starred with Jimmy Edwards in '' Take It From Here'' for BBC Radio. He was a staple of and pioneer of radio, ...
in the radio series) and
Patricia Brake Patricia Ann Brake (25 June 1942 – 28 May 2022) was an English actress. From the age of 16, Brake trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, before joining the Salisbury Playhouse. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where (among ...
as Eth, the role played on radio by
June Whitfield Dame June Rosemary Whitfield (11 November 1925 – 29 December 2018) was an English radio, television, and film actress. Her big break was a lead in the radio comedy ''Take It from Here'', which aired on the BBC Light Programme in 1953. ...
. Both those series were eventually made into a full series in their own right, but they were short-lived. The show also featured Cannon and Ball doing their own sketches, but the producer decided to axe their part from the show every single week, as they believed more Bruce was the answer to the problems to the show. Each show also featured a game of ''The £1,000 Pyramid'', hosted by Steve Jones, which was the first UK adaption of the American game show ''
Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
''. This show later became a standalone programme on ITV, with Jones remaining as host. In addition, Jones would become one of the hosts of the UK adaptation of ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
''


References


External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0264962, title=Bruce Forsyth's Big Night British variety television shows 1978 British television series debuts 1980 British television series endings 1970s British television series 1980s British television series London Weekend Television shows Television series by ITV Studios English-language television shows