''Bruce Forsyth's Big Night'' is a TV show screened on ITV on Saturday nights in late 1978. It starred

Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was an English entertainer and television presenter whose career spanned more than 75 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the Associated Te ...

. 12 episodes were broadcast between 7 October and 31 December 1978 with guests including Elton John, Lena Zavaroni, Dolly Parton and Karen Carpenter. 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, actor, comedian, dancer, and musician. At age two, Davis began his career in Vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which tou ...

, 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 (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

. 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 me ...

'', 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 The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. However, it was poorly received and was broadly unsuccessful, with Forsyth's former big hit ''The Generation Game'' (hosted then by Larry Grayson) 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 format was later rebooted as one-off specials in 1980. The show featured some mini-games, like "Beat The Goalie" (a phone-in game with similarities to '' The Golden Shot'') and little games with the studio audience – it also featured mini-comedies, such as a revival of 1960s series '' The Worker'', with Charlie Drake as The Worker and Henry McGee (one of

Benny Hill Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 18 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor and scriptwriter. He is best remembered for his television programme, ''The Benny Hill Show'', a comedy-variety show whose amalgam of slapstick, bu ...

's stooges) as the man at the

labour exchange A public employment service is a government's organization which matches employers to employees. History One of the oldest references to a public employment agency was in 1650, when Henry Robinson proposed an "Office of Addresses and Encounters" ...

, 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 Nig ...

'', a TV adaptation of short sketches from the radio series '' Take It From Here'', with Jimmy Edwards reprising his role he immortalised on radio as Mr Glum,

Ian Lavender Arthur Ian Lavender (16 February 1946 – 2 February 2024) was an English stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Private Pike in ''Dad's Army'', a BBC sitcom set during World War II, of which he was the last survivi ...

(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 Kennedy (25 June 1942 – 28 May 2022), better known by her stage name Patricia Brake, was an English actress. She was best known for her role as Ingrid Fletcher, eldest daughter of Norman Stanley Fletcher, in the BBC sitcom ''P ...

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. Whitfield's big break was a lead in the radio comedy '' Take It from Here'', which aired on the BBC Light Programme ...

. Recognising that a lot of the programme's content was very popular, ITV continued many of the items in a different format as separate programmes instead of being part of a running show. Both The Worker and The Glums were made into a full standalone series. 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. Cannon and Ball were also given their own series. 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 () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

''. This show later also became a standalone programme on ITV, with Jones remaining as host. Forsyth himself continued on ITV by hosting the successful gameshow Play Your Cards Right. One of the regular features on the show was Bruce (and sometimes his wife Anthea) taking questions from the audience. This was usually humorous but not so much on week 10. Forsyth was asked about the press comments made about the show. He gave a long and passionate reply criticising the press for several lies they had written about the show. This included saying it was being taken off the air which was totally false. He also revealed how one paper had been planning to write a story saying he had throat cancer, again false. Forsyth said that although he has friends in the press, the only part of a newspaper that can be totally believed is the date that they publish.

References

External links

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