ON 22 FEBRUARY 2015 the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood hosted the eighty-seventh Oscar ceremony … which happened to be exactly the same day as my eighty-seventh birthday!
Why do I mention this, other than the extraordinary coincidence? Well, as I sat at home in Puerto Rico watching it on television I was struck by a thought. Although over the course of those eighty-seven years the Academy had consistently overlooked my contribution to the world of cinema (although surely I had come close with Heironymus Merkin!), I realized I could still hold my head high should I ever find myself in the company of double Oscar-winners such as Maggie Smith, Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman.
You see, I am also the recipient of two Oscars – two Bucket & Spade Oscars!
These were presented by the famous comic actor Leslie Henson, who in the forties and fifties toured the English coastal resorts to review the Summer Season shows, in order to choose the best performer each year. I was the delighted winner in 1955 and 1956 when appearing at Babbacombe.
THE TOP PHOTOGRAPH HERE is Leslie presenting me with one of my awards, alongside the wonderful Hedley Claxton, in the white tie, who is receiving his own Oscar as producer.
THE SECOND SHOT GIVES you a closer look at the award itself, which is really a rather clever design I think – a starfish playing a spade like a guitar, posed on top of an orange … yes, the famous English seaside orange! (Well, the awards were sponsored by Outspan.)
I remember when I won I thought I had really made it. This was the gateway to stardom, as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t entirely wrong, although it did take a few years before that gateway was fully opened.
I have been privileged to receive a number of awards and honours over the years and I cherish each one. It is a marvellous feeling to be recognized for the work you have done. I can’t possibly list them all here, or properly thank everyone who voted for me, nominated me or considered me, or pay adequate tribute to all the people behind the scenes who made the awards possible – now I do sound as though I’ve won an Academy Oscar! So I’d like now to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank-you to everyone involved. I’ve been extraordinarily lucky and I am very grateful.
Which ones to mention here? Well, two industry awards come to mind in particular.
THE FIRST IS THIS silver heart Variety Club Award presented to me in March 1960. There are two reasons I have included this. The first is that I received the award for ‘Independent Television Personality of the Year for 1959’ in recognition of my work on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. I hardly need to say again how much I owe to that one show.
I also love the photograph. It reminds me of those heady early days when my career was taking off and I was starting to mix with entertainers and personalities of this calibre. It was beyond my wildest dreams, it really was. We all look so young that I suspect you may not be able to identify everyone. Here’s the line-up.
Richard Dimbleby, Richard Todd, me, Peter O’Toole, Bernard Miles, Anthony Newley, Elizabeth Seal, Harry Secombe and Peter Finch. Quite a gathering. I also find it very sweet that I have my hand on Harry Secombe’s shoulder. We were such good friends, and I was thrilled for him that day as he had quite rightly won the big award: Show Business Personality of the Year.
THE SECOND INDUSTRY AWARD I would like to mention is the BAFTA Fellowship I received in 2008. This is the highest accolade in British show-business, and to be recognized in this way by my peers truly was an honour, made even more special by the fact that the ceremony took place at the Palladium. So much that is good in my professional life happened on that stage and to be able to add this to my memories, well, I couldn’t have been happier.
In fact, this was my second BAFTA: I’d received a Special Award four years earlier. They now sit very proudly at either end of my piano at home. Just goes to show I don’t get everything right – there is something in this game for a pair!
Now, while I am on the subject of the Palladium once again, if you’re ever there to see a show, please do come and say hello. I’ll be in the Cinderella Bar. I’m a permanent fixture there, you see.
THIS LOVELY BUST, UNVEILED in May 2005, was sculpted by my Julie’s husband, Dominic Grant. Julie and Dominic were both in the hugely successful pop group Guys ’n’ Dolls, who in 1975 had a smash hit with ‘There’s A Whole Lot of Loving’. They still perform as Grant & Forsyth, and in addition Dominic has carved out a second career as a highly regarded sculptor. He has a huge amount of talent, as this bust clearly demonstrates, and I’m thrilled at his success.
The official ceremony was conducted by Michael Grade, who was a perfect choice. Michael has been involved with my career for many years, probably more than he would like to remember. In 1966 he took over from his father, Leslie, at the Delfont Agency, sitting in the office next door to Billy Marsh. It was Billy who more or less showed Michael the ropes in the agency business and we subsequently worked a lot together, both through the agency and later when Michael joined LWT. I knew Michael long before then, however. As a schoolboy he was a regular visitor to Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Whenever one of the big pop bands of the day was on the bill, young Michael could be found sitting in the stalls, loving watching his idols perform.
IN 1998 I WAS surprised and delighted to receive notification that I had been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. The surprise was twofold. First, you never expect anything like that to happen to you, and second, surely I’d irreparably blotted my copybook many years previously.
It was a 1977 show in aid of the Prince’s Trust, at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. I was top of the bill, and during my performance I had been having great fun teasing a young engaged couple. At the end of the evening, when the then single Prince Charles came onstage to thank me and everyone else who had been involved, he referred back to my earlier banter in his show-stealing opening line: ‘Well, I must say, I am glad I’m not engaged! Although, according to some of the things I read – I am! To a different person each week!’
Prince Charles was a natural. He had a whole routine worked out, which was hilarious. He must have been onstage for ten minutes, very dignified, very professional and very funny indeed.
THIS CONTACT SHEET GIVES some idea of just how entertaining he was. But look closely at the start of the sequence. See the larger print in case you can’t quite make it out.
YES, I’M AFRAID I was so carried away I put my arm around the heir to the throne. Now that is something you are meant never to do.
I am glad to say that Prince Charles and his family seem to have forgiven me, but even so, I feel I really should take this opportunity to apologize formally for my breach of protocol. I am sorry, Your Royal Highness. And thank you for not sending me to the Tower!
ON THE DAY OF the investiture, Winnie, pictured here with JJ and Debbie in the quadrangle at Buckingham Palace, was in some distress. Weeks before she had slipped, falling heavily, and was still suffering considerable back pain.
I was greatly honoured to receive my OBE, but after a family lunch at the Dorchester to celebrate, I was more than happy to take Winnie home. By then she was in agony, so much so that we arranged for her to be admitted immediately to hospital where it was confirmed she required an operation. Poor Winnie was house-bound for eight weeks afterwards but has since made a full recovery, to my great relief.
As for me, well, you can see I had no trouble with my back that day.
IN MAY 2006 I was again honoured by Her Majesty, with a CBE. Just before the official announcement of my award, a rather strange thing happened. News ‘leaked’ in the press that I was to be awarded a knighthood. This resulted in various people calling up to congratulate me and I had to tell them that the rumours were untrue. This proved very awkward for them, as you can imagine. As for me, I was thrilled with my CBE.
Fortunately this time Winnie, pictured with my daughters Julie and Louisa, was fighting fit and able to enjoy the occasion. I, on the other hand, was very nervous. Even with years of theatrical experience, an event such as this has a profound effect on you. I realized how privileged I was to be there, and that was a feeling I couldn’t and didn’t want to shake off. It was too big a moment in my life.
IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING my CBE a momentum built up, generated by both the public and the press, that I should receive a knighthood. I was extremely touched by this ‘campaign’, but I can honestly say that I was not in the least worried about whether I would become a ‘Sir’ or not. I was honoured to be mentioned in such a context, of course I was, but as I said, whenever I was asked about it, ‘I’m in good company. If you think about it, Morecambe and Wise were never knighted, same for the Two Ronnies, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Eric Sykes, Frankie Howerd, Roy Castle … The list could go on and on. All marvellous entertainers and tireless supporters of charities, who were not recognized in their time with a knighthood.’
I have often wondered why that is. I think perhaps it’s because entertainers and comedians are not regarded as having a proper job, so why would they deserve such an honour? Some people seem to think it’s easy getting laughs. How little they know. The reality, especially for true comedians, is that it is one of the hardest jobs in the business.
COMEDIANS ARE NOT REGARDED AS HAVING A PROPER JOB
First of all, there is a huge amount of work involved in preparing material you hope is funny. Then, if it doesn’t go well for whatever reason, a performer whose sole professional existence relies on them getting laughs can go through hell. I am not affected in quite the same way as I can always go into a song and dance or impersonation or playing the piano. For comedians, though, they have to show such resilience and mental strength, to continue when things are tough and then pick themselves up and step back onstage for their next show. I have enormous admiration for those performers. So, as far as I was concerned, to remain part of a group that included, together with many others, the comedians and entertainers I mentioned above, was absolutely fine by me.
So when the letter actually arrived in 2011, I honestly thought it was a hoax. I assumed someone was playing a joke, and when I spoke to Ian Wilson about it, he thought the same. He even called up the Cabinet Office to confirm whether it was genuine or not.
A little later, I also had to put in a call to the Cabinet Office, after they sent me a form enquiring whether I wanted any publicity. I spoke to a very nice woman there.
‘I really don’t think I need any publicity,’ I explained to her. ‘There’s been enough said already.’
‘Hasn’t there just …’ she replied.
There had been such extensive coverage in the press about my possible knighthood, with the Cabinet Office no doubt receiving a huge amount of mail on the subject, that I suspect they were delighted to see the back of me!
STANDING IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE as Sir Bruce Forsyth, with my wife of twenty-eight years next to me, Lady Forsyth, I was as pleased for her as I was myself. I could scarcely believe it had actually happened. I couldn’t help thinking back on my life and career and all those people who meant so much to me and were no longer around. I saw my knighthood as honouring their lives, my parents, my brother and my sister, and also all the deserving performers who had not received the same recognition in their lifetimes. I like to think that those friends, with whom I had shared so much over the years, were looking down on me that day, as I stood proudly on their behalf, and smiling.
TO CELEBRATE, WE HELD a big reception with friends and family at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair. It was a perfect afternoon, and very moving. As I made my entrance down the stairs, I looked out on a sea of faces that meant the world to me. In my speech I made sure to go round everyone, table to table, to say why each person was there and why they were important. I wanted all of them to know how special they were in my life.
