Brucie is back on the Beeb after looking like his TV days were over when he fell out with ITV bosses over Play Your Cards Right. The multi-talented Forsyth is to host a new-look Come Dancing at the age of 76, but he's likely to be the most light-footed of the celebrities on show. Steve Pratt reports.

AS One long-running Saturday fixture quits the BBC for ITV, another is making his comeback. The two passed briefly when Parkinson interviewed entertainer Bruce Forsyth on his last talk show for the Beeb last weekend.

On Saturday Forsyth sets out to reclaim his title of King of Saturday Night TV with an updated revival of one of TV's longest-running show, Come Dancing.

He puts on his dancing shoes to host Strictly Come Dancing, which both he and the BBC hope will prove as big a success as The Generation Game.

"It will be great fun," he says. "I haven't been on television on Saturday nights for a long, long time. It's what I'm used to - in the old days The Generation Game was always on Saturday nights - and I've always felt that Saturday nights is more my audience, probably because they're drunk.

"And it's on early on Saturday night which is better because a lot of people go out, and also the children get to see it. We'll make sure it's suitable for the family because I don't think there's many family shows on at the moment."

The original Come Dancing ran on TV from 1950 to 1996. Conceived as a showcase for events from regional ballrooms, with professional dancers giving advice to viewers at home, it later became a straightforward dance contest.

The sequinned costumes and athletic bodies of the mostly amateur dancers became the show's signature as different regions in the UK were pitted against each other. Forsyth confesses that he's always loved the show.

"On television you never see any dancing now. You see Top Of The Pops and there's some group behind a singer doing all this," he says, waving his arms around.

"But I think it will come back as something quite new. There's loads of children will look at Strictly Come Dancing and think, 'What planet are these people from?' because of all the get up. I think it will be wonderful." Those who loved the show before may not recognise it this time. It's been given a make-over with celebrities recruited as dancing partners

Eight familiar faces, including Bargain Hunt's David Dickinson, Claire Sweeney, EastEnders' Spencer Moon (actor Chris Parker), rugby player Martin Offiah and newsreader Natasha Kaplinksy being put through their paces by professional ballroom dancers.

Co-presenter Tess Daly will go behind the scenes and follow their progress before viewers see them compete against each other on the live show. The public then vote off the celebrity they were least impressed with.

It may sound like a variation on the I'm A Celebrity style format but Forsyth insists it's an entertainment show not a celebrity reality show. "There's a lot of difference between what we'll be doing and taking all those people into the jungle and eating insects," he says.

The sprightly 76-year-old isn't going to miss this new opportunity to show off his talents on the ballroom dance floor. "I'll dance a little bit," he says.

"But in the first couple of shows I won't get much of a chance because the focus will be on all the contestants. After they start to be exterminated, sorry, eliminated then there'll be a bit more time for me to do something. But you know I always get a couple of steps in, even when I walk on."

There's always the chance that he'll add another catchphrase to his collection. "I'll probably get a couple of them in," he says. "I'll slip one in if it fits the situation. But what I like about these kind of shows is that you can find catchphrases, they just happen.

"If something happens at rehearsal or during one of the shows then OK we'll use them. There's always room for another catchphrase. I've got about nine but I'm dying to make it ten."

Strictly Come Dancing marks the latest stage in the comeback of Forsyth himself, as well as that of the show. Until recently he'd been away from prime time television for some time, after an acrimonious departure from ITV four years ago due to disagreements over the scheduling of Play Your Cards Right.

For a while it looked as if he'd retired to his six-bedroom mansion on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey with his wife Wilnelia and their son JJ, who's now 17. Then he was invited to be a guest presenter on Have I Got News For You and things started to turnaround for him. The show was one of the highest-rated episodes of the series. Before long he was back with the BBC permanently and at the beginning of the year he made a tentative return with the brand new quiz show Didn't They Do Well, named after one of his catchphrases.

Now he's back on Saturday nights. "I'm very grateful I was asked to do this show," he says. "When things weren't all that marvellous and I was having a lot of trouble with ITV, Jane Lush, controller of entertainment commissioning at the BBC, wrote me a very nice letter.

"I was so thrilled that she showed some interest and when Have I Got News For You happened I became another comeback, shall we say, that's why she came up with this and another show, and I'm so pleased she did."

* Strictly Come Dancing begins on Saturday on BBC1 at 6.30pm and BBC3 at 7.30pm

Published: 13/05/2004