Well, what a week for quitters. First David Letterman, 66, announces that he is retiring from The Late Show and then Bruce Forsyth, 86, announces that he is leaving Strictly Come Dancing. It is not clear what Forsyth is going to do next. Maybe he has an eye on the imminent Letterman vacancy. After all, hosting a chat show is about the only thing he hasn’t done in his positively biblical 250 years in showbusiness.
Age catches up with all of us in the end I guess, but Forsyth is certainly in pretty good nick for his age. I saw him do a gig at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago when he was a mere stripling of 84. I was dreading it and expected a cringe-fest with lashings of syrup – and I'm not talking wigs – but, whatever it is, he still had it. Whether it was gently abusing the audience or doing a soft shoe shuffle or trotting out a well-polished anecdote about working with Sammy Davies Junior, for every cringe there were about five laughs, which is not a bad batting average at all.
But I guess nobody can go on forever. Not even Brucie. The other week Ronnie Corbett, 83, had what the tabloids like to call a health scare. There were stories that he had now retired from performing only for his wife Anne to chip in that this was not the case at all. "This report makes him sound like he has died, that his career is over, which is absolutely not the case. I am ****ing furious,” she is reported to have said. He is apparently working with Rob Brydon. If it was radio, of course, Brydon could do his Ronnie impression and play both parts.
Talking of radio, that’s where grey hairs, or grey wigs, don't really matter. Humphrey Lyttelton hosted I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue until he was 86. And Nicholas Parsons is still going strong on Just A Minute at the truly ripe old age of 90. If he isn’t as sharp as he was he is certainly sharper than the average nonagenarian, though i do wonder sometimes if they have replaced him with an automated Parsonsbot and he will be the first host to go on forever.
So who will replace Bruce Forsyth? Julian Clary might be pretty good - he has game show experience and dance show experience. Others are suggesting Graham Norton. Nobody could fill Bruce’s tap shoes, but maybe there is someone out there who already has his chin, the voice, the hair of mysterious origins and is about to test the primetime waters with his own BBC game show. How about the aforementioned Rob Brydon?
