Sir Bruce Forsyth

Image captionHe made his stage debut aged just 14 as Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom

Veteran entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth had a career spanning eight decades, in which he went from struggling variety performer to Saturday night TV stardom.

On the way, he became one of the most recognisable entertainers in the business, driven by what appeared to be inexhaustible energy.

He became synonymous with the plethora of game shows that seemed to dominate television light entertainment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, although he often felt he had become typecast as the genial quizmaster.

And at an age when most performers would have put their feet up, his career enjoyed a huge revival with the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.

Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was born in Edmonton, north London, on 22 February 1928.

His father owned a local garage and both his parents were Salvation Army members who sang and played music at home.

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Image captionBeat the Clock was just one of many games he hosted

The young Bruce was a direct descendant of William Forsyth, a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society, whose name was given to the plant forsythia.

His interest in showbusiness was kindled at the age of eight and he was reportedly found tap-dancing on the flat roof after watching his first Fred Astaire film.

"As soon as I got home from school," he recalled, "I'd take up the carpet, because there was lino underneath, and start tapping away."

He made his stage debut at the age of 14 as Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom, appearing bottom of the bill at the Theatre Royal, Bilston.

Live entertainment was a way of escaping the pressures and dangers of wartime Britain, and there was a huge demand for acts, no matter how bad they were.

Many years later he explained his motivation on a BBC chat show. "I wanted to be famous and buy my mum a fur coat."

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Famous Forsyth catchphrases

• "I'm in charge."
• "All right, my loves?"
• "Good game, good game!"
• "Nice to see you, to see you nice."
• "Give us a twirl!"
• "Cuddly toy, cuddly toy!"
• "OK, dollies do your dealing."
• "You get nothing for a pair!"
• "What do points make?"
• "Didn't he/she do well?"
• "You're my favourite."
• "Keeeeep dancing!"

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But there was to be no fast track to success. For the next 16 years he performed in church halls and theatres across the country, sleeping in train luggage racks and waiting for the big break.

It came in 1958, at a time when he had been unemployed for more than three months and was seriously considering giving up on showbusiness.

He was asked to present Sunday Night at the London Palladium, a televised variety show, made by Lord Grade's ATV company for the ITV network.

He'd finally found the fame he had always craved, appearing not in front of a couple of hundred people in a theatre, but the more than 10 million who regularly tuned in to the show.

"The pubs would empty when it came on," he told an interviewer. "We would get calls saying: 'Can't you start it later?'"

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionAt one point, he was Britain's highest-paid entertainer

Originally booked for two weeks, he stayed five years, by which time he was Britain's highest-paid entertainer, earning £1,000 a week (£18,700 in today's money).

But he continued touring with his variety show and the strain of combining this with his Palladium appearances took a toll on his private life.

He divorced his first wife, Penny Calvert, a dancer he'd met in the theatre, and she wrote an account of her husband's perpetual absence, called Darling, Your Dinner's in the Dustbin.

A popular element in his Palladium show was a feature called Beat the Clock, in which contestants, egged on by Forsyth, had to complete quirky tasks as a huge clock ticked down.

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The segment gave a hint of his future television role and he went on to host some of the most popular television game shows of the 1970s and 80s.

With his catchphrases of "Nice to see you, to see you nice" and "Didn't he do well?" he reigned supreme at the helm of the BBC's Generation Game for six years from 1971, and again at the beginning of the 1990s.

At its peak, the programme attracted 20 million viewers, who tuned in to watch Forsyth seemingly having more fun than the competitors, enthusing over the mundane prizes on the conveyor belt.

The presenter argued with his BBC managers about the show's early evening timeslot but he eventually accepted his role as the "warm-up man" for Saturday night television.

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Image captionThe Beatles were among the stars he introduced at the London Palladium

His co-host on the show, Anthea Redfern, was each week encouraged to "give us a twirl". The couple married in 1973 but divorced six years later.

It was on the Generation Game that he introduced his famous "thinker" pose, appearing in silhouette at the beginning of each show.

The idea came from the classic circus strongman pose, something he'd perfected during his days in variety.

He repeated his success on ITV's Play Your Cards Right, where the audience joined in the cries of "higher" or "lower" as the contestants tried to guess the value of a series of playing cards.

Changing tastes

Michael Grade said of him: "He knows how to get laughs out of people but it's never cruel and he leaves their dignity intact."

In 1995, a year after his final Generation Game appearance, he received a lifetime achievement award for variety at the British Comedy Awards and began hosting ITV's The Price is Right.

The entertainer was, by this time, a Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire and married since 1983 to Wilnelia Merced, a former Miss World.

He later claimed that he regretted becoming so associated with game shows and wished he'd done more variety work on TV.

Image captionForsyth with Anthea Redfern on the Generation Game

Play Your Cards Right was axed in 1999 and, with changing tastes in entertainment, his TV career began to slide.

He returned to the theatre - but experienced an unexpected revival after his wife watched an edition of the satirical quiz, Have I Got News For You, and suggested he could present the programme.

After calling show regular Paul Merton, he landed the gig and offered to be "a little bit deadpan".

"But the team said, 'No, be Bruce Forsyth,'" he said.

He used the occasion to parody some of his old game shows, much to the ill-disguised disgust of team captain Ian Hislop.

But the appearance led to Forsyth, an accomplished tap dancer, being offered the job of hosting Strictly Come Dancing, which began a year later.

Viewed with scepticism when it launched, the celebrity dance show became one of the most-watched programmes on TV by the time it reached its fifth series in 2007.

He brought his own brand of avuncular good humour to the proceedings - reassuring many of the contestants with the phrase "you're my favourites".

Image captionHe parodied some of his old game shows on Have I Got News For You

"His particular character and personality went a long way to making the show what it is," said former contestant Ann Widdecombe.

But the presenter once revealed that Strictly "was never the show that I thought it would be".

"I thought it'd be a comedy show - me getting among the contestants and showing them how to dance, and them all falling over," he told ITV's This Morning. "It was a different show."

After missing a handful of episodes because of illness, he decided to "step down from the rigours" of presenting Strictly in 2014.

Golfing passion

"But I'm not retiring," he insisted. "That's the last thing in the world I want to do. This isn't Brucie walking into the sunset."

He continued to host the Christmas and charity editions of Strictly until 2014 - all of which were taped, as opposed to live broadcasts.

Away from entertainment, Forsyth's biggest passion was golf and he took part in many pro-celebrity tournaments.

His house was next to the course at Wentworth, where he played with many of the world's best players, practising in the bunker in his own back garden.

Image captionHe presented Strictly Come Dancing with Tess Daly

During his career, Forsyth's multiple talents and years of application sparked an enduring appeal.

In 2011 he was knighted after years of campaigning by his fans and a parliamentary Early Day Motion signed by 73 MPs.

But he suffered from ill health towards the end of his life, and in 2016 his wife revealed he still had "a bit of a problem moving", following major surgery a year earlier.

Sir Bruce was one of the last entertainers from the tradition of music hall to be working on British television.

In many ways his act barely changed. The same corny gags, the same toothy smile and, above all, the same manic enthusiasm.

"On stage I think I'm 35," he once said. "Working takes over my whole body and I become a younger man - that's why I won't stop."

He will be particularly remembered for his ability to transform run-of-the-mill party games into glorious moments of mayhem that enthralled contestants and audiences alike.

Rodney Bewes

Rodney Bewes, who has died aged 79, found fame as the aspirational Bob in the BBC sitcom The Likely Lads.

Teaming Bewes with James Bolam, it regularly drew audiences of more than 20 million.

Despite the success of a sequel, the two fell out in spectacular style - effectively ending the chance of the series being continued.

It turned out to be the peak of Bewes's career and he later found himself reduced to playing a series of less distinguished roles.

Rodney Bewes was born in Bingley, Yorkshire, on 27 November 1937.

His family later moved to Luton in Bedfordshire where his schooling was often interrupted by ill-health.

He answered a newspaper letter from a BBC producer asking for children to appear in the corporation's Children's Hour.

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Image captionHe appeared alongside his friend Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar

By the age of 14 he had appeared in a number of BBC TV productions including a role as Joe in a 1952 adaptation of The Pickwick Papers. He also secured a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's preparatory school.

"All the kids were posh and they were the children of actors in the West End of London and I'm just this boy from Bingley, near Bradford, and broad Yorkshire," he later recalled.

After completing his National Service in the RAF he returned to Rada.

He financed his studies by washing up in hotels at night, something that caused him to fall asleep during the day which culminated in him being asked to leave the academy.

He managed to secure some small stage roles, as well as parts in TV productions including Dixon of Dock Green, Emergency Ward 10 and Z-Cars.

New wave

He made his film debut in 1962 in Prize of Arms, a yarn about a gang that attempts to rob an army payroll convoy. The film is notable for early performances by a number of later well-known actors including Tom Bell, Jack May and Fulton Mackay.

A year later he secured the role of Arthur Crabtree in Billy Liar, alongside his friend Tom Courtenay.

It was the age of British cinema's so-called new wave, when film-makers were turning their attention to gritty working-class dramas and desperate for actors with regional accents.

Image captionThere was a brief spell as straight man for Basil Brush

Despite Bewes hailing from Yorkshire, rather than Tyneside, he was cast as Bob Ferris in The Likely Lads, a sitcom conceived by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

His aspirational character was in direct contrast to that of his friend, Terry Collier, the workshy, cynical figure played by James Bolam. Much of the comedy revolved around Bob's attempts to become middle-class in the face of constant derision from Terry.

The final series ended in 1966 and Bewes played a number of TV parts and was also in films including Man in a Suitcase, Spring and Port Wine and a star-studded musical version of Alice in Wonderland in which he played the Knave of Hearts.

He spent a year as Mr Rodney, who was one of a series of stooges for the puppet Basil Brush, before creating and starring in the ITV sitcom Dear Mother... Love Albert. It showcased his skills as a scriptwriter and proved to be popular with audiences.

Incensed

In 1973 he teamed up with James Bolam again for Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, a sequel to the original series.

The series saw Bolam's character Terry return from his time away in the Army to discover that Bewes's Bob has bought his own house, secured a managerial job and is engaged to the boss's daughter.

Off stage the pair enjoyed a warm relationship.

"We were great friends," said Bewes.

"When my babies were born, his was the first house I went to."

In 1975 there was a film spin-off which proved to be the last time the pair worked together. Bolam was famous for guarding his privacy and was furious when Bewes let slip to a newspaper that Bolam's wife, the actress Susan Jameson, was pregnant.

Image captionWhatever Happened to the Likely Lads was even more successful than the original series

After a fraught phone call the two did not speak to each other again. Bolam was so incensed that he refused to appear on an edition of This Is Your Life, which featured his former acting partner.

"It's this actor's ego thing - he thinks he is important," Bewes once said.

"Actors aren't important. I'm not important; I have fun. I think Jimmy takes himself very seriously as an actor."

Bewes's acting career never again scaled the heights of Likely Lads. There were bit parts in the films Jabberwocky and The Wildcats of St Trinians and he was able to use his abilities as a serious actor in a 1980 TV adaptation of the Restoration play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.

One-man shows

Earlier in his career he had appeared in productions of She Stoops to Conquer and there was a role in a 1984 production of George Gascoigne's play Big in Brazil at the Old Vic Theatre in London, with Prunella Scales and Timothy West.

In the same year he also appeared in a Doctor Who story entitled Resurrection of the Daleks. It was one of his last significant appearances on the small screen.

He had some stage success with his one-man shows, Three Men in a Boat and Diary of a Nobody, which he toured for more than a decade. He won a Stella Artois Prize for the former at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival.

Image captionHis role in Resurrection of the Daleks was one of his last TV appearances

His wife, the designer Daphne Black, whom he married in 1973, acted as his helper, setting up the stage and the props for his various performances.

Bewes never gave up on the idea of a revival of The Likely Lads, feeling that the characters were still relevant 40 years on.

"Instead of being the Likely Lads, we'd have been the Unlikeliest Granddads," he said.

"We would have been sitting on a park bench in a pair of grubby grey anoraks, feeding the pigeons and grumping about youngsters."

Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister, who has died at the age of 88, was the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.

Sir Roger, who was knighted in 1975, had been suffering from Parkinson's disease since 2011.

The record time in Oxford established him as one of the great names of British athletics.

In an age of the gentleman amateur, Bannister saw his running as something to be done in his spare time.

He once wrote that the ideal athlete was one who enjoyed a few drinks and even the odd cigarette.

Roger Gilbert Bannister was born on 23 March 1929 in Harrow, Middlesex.

After leaving University College School in London, he went to Oxford to read medicine before going on to St Mary's Hospital Medical School.

Bannister used his medical knowledge to devise his own training regime and investigate the mechanical aspects of running.

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Image captionBannister (2nd right) warming up for his record-breaking run

He had taken up athletics while at Oxford but his studies meant he could snatch only about 30 minutes a day to practise his technique on the track.

Unlike the lucrative profession it has become today, athletics was always only one aspect of Bannister's student life.

"As soon as I ceased to be a student," he said, "I always knew I would stop being an athlete."

Nevertheless, after just three sessions, he was running a mile in 4:24, which was enough to see him considered as a possible for the 1948 Olympics in London.

Unfavourable weather

Four years later he was selected for the British Olympic team to compete in Helsinki.

Despite being concerned at a lack of fitness, he finished fourth in the 1500m final, setting a new British record.

By the spring of 1954, Bannister was continuing his training preparations for the Commonwealth Games, with one eye on the world record and the other on his arch-rival, Australian John Landy.

Image captionBannister holding his BBC Sportsman of the Year trophy with Sportswoman winner Pat Smythe

Bannister took to the track at Iffley Road, Oxford, on 6 May, a day beset by unfavourable weather.

The race was almost cancelled but eventually the starting gun went off.

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Helped by his pacemakers Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, Bannister broke the tape in a time of 3:59.4 and history was made.

When timekeeper Norris McWhirter tried to announce the time of "Three...", the rest of his words were drowned out by cheers.

Only when he read the newspapers the following day, did Bannister fully appreciate the scale of his success.

Insignificance

"It had become rather like Everest, a challenge for the human spirit," Bannister reflected on the significance of his own achievement.

His record lasted just 46 days. John Landy ran 3:57.4 in Finland to set up a much-anticipated clash between the two men in the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.

In a race billed as The Miracle Mile, Landy led until the final bend when he made the mistake of looking back for his rival. Bannister burst through to breast the tape in 3:58.8.

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Image captionBannister presents the 2012 Sports Personality of the Year team award to Victoria Pendleton

However, the achievements on the track paled into insignificance for him when he finally fulfilled his ambition and qualified as a doctor.

"You don't have to make the rest of your life boring to be a good runner," he said.

Within 10 years, he was established in his profession as a consultant physician, going on to become a leading neurologist, and later the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Although a motoring accident later caused a broken ankle that put paid to Bannister's leisure running, he forever associated himself with the sport.

He became the first chairman of the Sports Council in 1971 and, during his tenure, he led a crusade on drug-testing in athletics. He was knighted in 1975 and made a Companion of Honour in the 2017 New Year's Honours.

For Bannister, the challenge of the four-minute mile was only ever a psychological barrier, not a physical one and he always maintained that his achievements as a neurologist far outshone his time on the track.

But for most, the image of Bannister will forever be the long-limbed athlete, with his head thrown back, breaking the tape on a blustery May evening in 1954.