his dream was to be fred astaire, that's what started him.e cinema and saw fred astaire in a top hat and persuaded his mum and dad in edmonton in north london to ta ke dad in edmonton in north london to take tap dancing lessons. eventually he found he could get laughs. he was doing his routines and he would have sort of pianists who couldn't keep temper and he would keep taking the mickey out of the pianists and getting laughs and it took off from there. so many generations will remember him for so many different things. you talk about sunday night at the palladium, for me it was watching him on the generation game. he transcended the decades, didn't he? no entertainer in entertainment history in america or the uk, i don't think, has managed to be a star for three, maybe four different generations and never go out of fashion. show business is about fashion. show business is about fashion. you go in and out of fashion, some go in and out of fashion, some go in and out of fashion quickly, others take a bit longer but they all go out of fashion.

he loved fred astaire, absolutely love sammy davis junior, and loved fred astaire, absolutely love sammyght, with the best. if you had to pick one favourite memory, what would it be? he was an old mona on the golf course. i'm sorry to bring golf up. we were on the first tee, and i said, no moaning today. and he hit a shot to the green, and there was a ra ke shot to the green, and there was a rake stood up on the green like this, and the ball hit the rake and bounced off, and we all thought, here we go. he didn't moan. and he said, ididn't here we go. he didn't moan. and he said, i didn't moan, not at all. because i could have. and we were all on the floor laughing. he was just good fun. thank you so much for speaking to us this morning and sharing your stories with us. i'm sorry it's under such circumstances, but god bless him. we will be sharing more bruce memories this morning. so many decades on the telly. we'll talk about that a little more a little later. let's find out what's happening with the weather. sunshine and showers today. this low pressure to the north—east is causing the

i danced with fred astaire and all that kind of thing. dancing, i use the word loosely.times i had with him, and the wonderful times he gave to the world. sir michael parkinson, very, very good of you to talk to us, thank you very much indeed and thank you for sharing those memories and i'm glad we had an opportunity to see that footage again. absolutely worth it. you are very cruel, jane! not at all! thank you, very much. so michael parkinson talking to us about sir bruce forsyth. if you are just about sir bruce forsyth. if you arejustjoining us on bbc news tonight, the news that has sadly come to us in the last hour, the death of bruce forsyth at the age of 89. he died peacefully at home this afternoon surrounded by his family. we are reflecting and enjoying a really, really remarkable career. let's talk to someone else, in fact, who has had, now i think of it, a career of considerable longevity himself, the remarkable nicholas parsons, who still entertains us every week on radio 4 onjust a minute, thank you for your time. your thoughts about the sad news of the death

well, his dream was to be fred astaire. that's what started him off.ersuaded his mum and dad in edmonton in north london to take tap dancing lessons and eventually he found he could get laughs. he was doing his routines and he would have sort of very difficult pianists who couldn't keep the tempo and he would start taking the mickey out of the pianists and getting laughs. it took off from there. so many generations will remember him for very different things. you talk about sunday night at the london palladium, for me it was watching him on the generation game. he transcended the decades, didn't he? no entertainer in entertainment history in america or in the uk, i don't think, has managed to be a star for three, may be four different generations and never go out of fashion. showbiz is about fashion, you go in and out of fashion, some go in and out of fashion, some go in and out of fashion quickly, others take a bit longer but they all go out of fashion eventually. bruce never went out of fashion. why? how did he manage to be so current no matter which

he loved fred astaire, a bsolutely love sammy davis junior, and they got on great. one favourite memory, what would it be? he was an old moaner on the golf course. i'm sorry to bring golf up. we were on the first tee, and i said, no moaning today. and he hit a shot to the green, and there was a rake stood up on the green like this, and the ball hit the rake and bounced off, and we all thought, here we go. he didn't moan. and he said, i didn't moan, not at all. he said, because i could have. and we were all on the floor laughing. he was just good fun. ijust want i just want to show you some of the front pages, because it does dominate, many making use of some of his most famous catchphrases. lots of the papers are running special editions with pull—outs inside, paying tribute to sir bruce. didn't he do well? that's the front of the son. and then those two stints on the generation game, in the 1970s and the 1990s. after that, of course, on itv shows, the price is right, play your cards right. james on facebook says: rip sir bruce forsyth. thank you for entertaining ou

just as fred astaire dance that is rarely expressed his mastery so natural that it seems effortless. how did you get him to write this? there you go. it's available for just $10. $6 on kindle. jason may not get rich with this book that hopefully he will open a few minds. please join me in welcoming the fearless jason riley. [applause] >> thank you for that very kind interaction larry and i'm glad you told a few jokes. i was going to start with a joke about c-span where i appeared recently and then i found out c-span was going to be covering this event and my wife advised me. this will be a joke for a presentation because that's really all i have. thank you, larry. false black power, what am i talking about? in a nutshell what i'm saying is that barack obama needed black voters far more than the voters needed barack obama and that's not a personal attack on the former president. you could substitute in the name of any black politician in the statement would still hold true. that's what i'm trying to get out in this book. started out as a column and it grew into a longer essay and even

i used to go and see the fred astaire films, or any film that had dancing in it.and i'd come home and dance away for sometimes hours, in a room all by myself. i wanted to, if i didn't make it, get out. maybe go more into the musical side of the business. then i got into the palladium, which turned everything around. welcome to the generation game. it's nice to see you, to see you... audience shouts back: nice! the first thing about audience participation is you've got to enjoy it. are you interested in history? 0h, love history! old things. oh, yes. i see yourjokes are a bit like that, aren't they? i've always loved it. i've loved it because you never know what's going to happen. go on, i'm dying for a night off! i love getting out of the situation. if somebody says something, i like to come back at them. or if they do something, i love to pounce on it. after i did that radio show with you, i did have i got news for you? that was the big turning point, wasn't it? here you go, here's bruce, 7a, 75 years old, invited to go on have i got news for you? you blew away a

. >> the unsold items include works by james dean, fred astaire, phyllis diller, and kurt vonnegut, whicht, is a pretty good start to a invite list for yet another cosmic-art happening baird and hoop are surely planning wherever they are. >> it will be a long time before we see anything like them. they were both really unusual people. together they were fantastic. >> so much that's hip in one generation is totally uncool to the next. old uncle hoop once drove his niece, hugh's daughter, to school in one of his hoop mobiles. the teen was mortified. after that, all hugh had to say to keep her in line was, "watch out, young lady, or uncle hoop will be driving you again tomorrow." i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> abracadabra! >> oh, my god, it's my card! >> 400 years of magic secrets... >> did he ever tell you how he did any of those tricks? >> as many times as i asked, he'd never tell me. >> ...hidden in these dusty volumes. >> a lot of them were seen as occult books, and people were a little scared of them. >> the col

he essentially wanted to be fred astaire. that is what he had seen in the 1930s.ctly, the first thing he wanted to do was make a programme about sammy davis junior, his hero, and it all came together with strictly come dancing. i remember the laughter when they wa nted i remember the laughter when they wanted to come up with the idea, reinventing dancing, it was ajoke. suddenly it all made sense 0n reinventing dancing, it was ajoke. suddenly it all made sense on a saturday night these audience are a result of the formula that only he could do. #in # in other words, please be true. # in other words, please be true. #in # in other words, please be true. # in other words, please be true. # in other words, please be true. # in otherwords, i # in other words, please be true. # in other words, i love you. you can see how much he lived and breathed that. of course in recent yea rs we breathed that. of course in recent years we had unfortunately stories about his ill health which had prevented him in 2015 from hosting the christmas special and then a series of other illne

and of course he is associated so much with the musicals and hollywood stars that he loved, like fred astaireould recall going down to the radial olympia exhibition in london and going on what was probably one of the first talent shows when you could be televised on bbc. in those early days of television, there was a lot of crossover. stars from the stage becoming stars from the screen. at the house that enduring legacy and to be able to change with the times and always be relevant, bring the humour up—to—date, hejust did that. in the 1970s there was a point, after he was done with sunday night at the london palladium, and when he brought on the generation game, that's the point where he really started to define really what variety on television meant and he really had such a steering role in defining what comedy, light entertainment was the most people at home. a lot of people probably don't know that he didn't come from the showbiz background, did he? no, he came from a solid working—class background, from edmonton. in fact, apparently his father was one of the very early adopters of the te