Brucie carries Olympic torch at original site

Brucie carries Olympic torch at original site
Brucie carries Olympic torch at original site (Image credit: PA)

Sir Bruce Forsyth made Olympic history as took over the torch relay at the finishing line of the first ever London Games. The Strictly Come Dancing host took the torch outside the BBC's White City buildings in west London, which stand on the site of the White City Stadium that hosted the Olympics in 1908. He was handed the flame at the point where the stadium's finishing line stood all those years ago by Antoine de Navacelle de Coubertin, a great-grandnephew of the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin. There was an outpouring of love from BBC staff and curious onlookers as Sir Bruce, 84, walked with the torch and called out his famous catchphrase: "Nice to see you, to see you, nice." Speaking afterwards, the veteran TV star said: "I have been waiting for this for 84 years and I have finally done it, I have carried the Olympic torch. "Today I did 300 metres, but I could have done 1500 metres at a real good pace." Asked if he remembered the second time London hosted the Olympics in 1948, he said: "I was 20 years old then, I was probably out of work and trying to get work as a song and dance man. "I used to watch the Games in black and white, I used to love seeing the Olympics. "I remember it well because even then I loved sport and I'm looking forward to every minute of everything that's going to happen in the next three weeks."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.