his former co—presenter tess daly said today she was heartbroken to hear of his death and called him gentleman and a true legend. our correspondent david sillito looks back on his life. live from london, this is strictly come dancing. please welcome your hosts... bruce forsyth! when it comes to tv history, bruce forsyth was simply the face of saturday night. strictly come dancing, the last hurrah in a career that went back more than 70 years. the boy bruce, the mighty atom wasjust the beginning of a life of song, dance and comedy. # that's why the lady is a tramp! business, that's exactly what he had. there are things he could call on, he could handle it. and when things went wrong, he could step in and put them right. of course, those shows were live. that's when he was in his pomp, live. sunday night at the london palladium in the ‘60s was his big break. beat the clock showed that he could make a game show must—watch tv and turn members of the public into prime—time entertainment. that's it! you've won! nice to see you, to see you... nice! and nowhere showcased the talent better th

his former co—presenter tess daly said today that she was heartbroken to hear of his death, and called a friend, a gentleman, and a true legend. our correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. live from london, this is strictly come dancing. please welcome your hosts... bruce forsyth! when it comes to tv history, bruce forsyth was simply the face of saturday night. strictly come dancing the last hurrah, in a career that went back more than 70 years. the boy bruce, the mighty atom wasjust the beginning of a life of song, dance and comedy. # that's why the lady is a tramp! it only took 16 years of struggle to become an overnight star of sunday nights at the london palladium. a fellow veteran of the show had nothing but admiration for this all—round talent. # i'm so awfully shy...# he was great, he was one of our greatest entertainers ever. perhaps the greatest we've ever had. he could do everything. lovely piano player, nice tap dancer. not a gag man, but made people roar laughing. and class, he had a lot of class. and he was, without doubt, a national treasure. he deserved his k

to that end, let's tell you what tess daly has said in a statement in the last few minutes. says there are no words to describe how heartbroken i am to be told the saddest news. from the moment we met bruce and i did nothing but laugh our way through a decade of working together on strictly come dancing. i will never forget his generosity, his brilliant sense of humour, and his drive to entertain the audience is. he's been there for me as a co—host, a mentor, and most importantly as a friend. i and most importantly as a friend. i an extremely fortunate to have worked alongside the man who defined the saturday night entertainment for so many decades. let's talk about strictly because i'm joined by mark lindsay, who is the director of bbc studios, which makes strictly come dancing, and mark lindsay, you were controller of entertainment commissioning as well, so you are absolutely at the heart of what has become a staple of saturday nights in the united kingdom. explained to us, who had the idea in fact for getting sir bruce forsyth on—board? how did that come about? i think br

tess daly described him as: the prime minister theresa may described him as a national treasure, whohen fry tweaking a popular brucey catchphrase. he tweeted: after 8am this morning, we'll be speaking tojimmy tarbuck, who was a close friend of sir bruce. here are the rest of the main stories today: the physicist professor stephen hawking has accused the health secretary, jeremy hunt, of "cherry—picking" evidence to support his policies. he has praised the nhs, but attacked the provision of private healthcare in england. mr hunt has described the scientist's claims as wrong. here's our health correspondent, jane dreaper. he is one of the world's best—known scientists. professor stephen hawking was diagnosed with motoneuron disease at the age of 21. he turned 75 at the start of this year. a milestone celebrated at a scientific conference last month. professor hawking says he wouldn't be alive without the large amount of high—quality nhs treatment he has received. but he is concerned about the future of the health service in england, defending it as the most efficient and cost—effective

sir bruce's strictly come dancing co—host, tess daly, said she was "heartbroken".linor groom, curator of tv at the national science and media museum in bradford. thank you very much for being with us. i suppose, from the museum's perspective, sir bruce forsyth must hold his place as one of the tv greats? yes, he is such a touch tone of the visitor experience, i think her audiences are so many generations, people have been falling over themselves to talk about bruce forsythe and his impact on television. why do you think he was so iconic? i think part of it is just to do with endurance. when people have talked about his guinness world record for longest serving television personality, and it is because he and faxed acted as a nine—year—old boy, before the war even, tap dancing on television. and so he had all these generations of followers. he reinvented his career time after time. it always seemed he managed to bag that prime—time slot. definitely. he had that ability to both made with the times and yet retain as essential character, and his personality. and i thin

his former co—presenter, tess daly, said today she was heartbroken to hear of his death and called himgentleman and a true legend. our correspondent david sillito looks back on his life. live from london, this is strictly come dancing. please welcome your hosts... bruce forsyth! when it comes to tv history, bruce forsyth was simply the face of saturday night. strictly come dancing, the last hurrah in a career that went back more than 70 years. the boy bruce, the mighty atom was just the beginning of a life of song, dance and comedy. # that's why the lady is a tramp! there are things he could call on, he could handle it. and when things we nt he could handle it. and when things went wrong, he could step in and put them right. of course, those shows we re them right. of course, those shows were alive. that is where he was at his pomp, live. sunday night at the london palladium in the 60s was his big break. beat the clock showed that he could make a game show must watch tv and ten members of the public into prime—time entertainment. that it! you've won! nice to see you, to see you... nice

his former co—presenter tess daly said today that she was heartbroken to hear of his death and called gentleman and a true legend. our correspondent, david sillito, looks back on his life. live from london, this is strictly come dancing. please welcome your hosts... bruce forsyth! when it comes to tv history, bruce forsyth was simply the face of saturday night. strictly come dancing, the last hurrah in a career that went back more than 70 years. the boy bruce, the mighty atom wasjust the beginning of a life of song, dance and comedy. # that's why the lady is a tramp! it only took 16 years of struggle to become an overnight star of sunday nights at the london palladium. a fellow veteran of the show had nothing but admiration for this all—round talent. # i'm so awfully shy... he was great, he was one of our greatest entertainers ever. perhaps the greatest we've ever had. he could do everything. lovely piano player, nice tap dancer. not a gag man, but made people roar laughing. and class, he had a lot of class. and he was, without doubt, a national treasure. he deserved his knighthood. 5

sir bruce's strictly come dancing co—host, tess daly, said she was "heartbroken".out sir bruce who told me how he first met him when he was a student at university more than 50 years ago. he was appearing in the pantomime, i know when to interview him for the student magazine. the first thing that surprised me was he told me how much he hated pantomime. you'd think he was a natural pantomime entertainer. he didn't like having to stick to the plot. he wanted to be free to do what he wanted to do with his audience. he also told me that you have to face facts as an entertainer. half the audience won't like you. you except that and play to the half that does. you keep going. he certainly kept going. he was known as a mighty atom. it was all to do with energy. he made his first television appearance at ten yea rs first television appearance at ten years old. a bbc trial programme before the second world war. bruce thought, i am going to go, and at the beginning he was one of the first people to appeared on bbc television, and he sustained at over 70 years. and this is i

there he is with tess daly. the show is such a huge success.have got the show made if they had not had a big name like bruce forsyth there. it seems strange at the time. i remember talking to the man who came up remember talking to the man who came up with the idea, turning dancing into a reality contest. lots of people wondered if it would work. many tv formulas come and go, some look great on paper, and it is only actually when they appear on screen and whether or not people warmed to it. the slightly cornyjokes, the old school feel about it, it felt utterly safe and he felt for everybody. it had the same magic of the generation game, seeing people out of their comfort zone doing something and you wanted them to do well. they were surrounded by people who would laugh at the right moments and they would join in just like the generation game. it would be hard to imagine anyone quite like bruce forsyth who could have helped make it the success it was from day one. we saw a shot of him a few moments ago holding the olympic torch. he was running w

sir bruce's strictly co—star tess daly said she would never forget his drive, generosity or sense of fourth member of the president's inner circle to leave in the last month. the right—wing nationalist was a key adviser to mr trump and helped shape the america first message during his presidential election campaign. mr bannon has returned to a senior role at the ultra—conservative website, breitbart news. two people have been killed and at least six wounded in stabbings in the south—west finnish city of turku. police shot the suspect, before arresting him. overnight, authorities raided a flat and made a number of further arrests, but say it's too early to determine whether the incident was terrorism. police in spain that be now believe the driver of a van that ploughed into pedestrians in barcelona, killing 13 people, could still be at large. he is 22 and lived in a town north of the city. early reports suggested the main suspect was one of the men shot dead by police, following a second attack in cambrils. those are the main stories this morning. but happening in the sport? let's ta