Brucie

Bruce Forsyth's career spanned an astonishing eight decades - from the old music halls to primetime television on a Saturday night. This is the story of one of Britain's greatest national treasures and a true showman, whose type we'll never see again. Born in 1928 in north London, Bruce's dream from boyhood was to go into show business. However, it was to take years before his dreams began to become a reality - as he and dancing in variety shows on piers and stages up and down the country - until his big break came hosting Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1958. And so it was that Bruce Forsyth became part of our lives, beamed into living rooms just as TV viewing began to become a national pastime. He went on to become one of our most versatile and popular TV personalities, fronting game shows, talent competitions and variety shows such as The Generation Game, Strike it Lucky and Play Your Cards Right, creating catchphrases that will continue to live on. As Strictly Come Dancing marked his TV comeback in 2004, he once again captured the nation's heart as one of the last entertainers of his kind. In this authoritative and fully up-to-date biography (with a new chapter detailing the tributes paid to Bruce across the entertainment world and his final years), author Jules Stenson looks back at the career of one of our most legendary entertainers and a life lived to the very full.