Sir Bruce Forsyth: I couldn't be the 'real Bruce' on Strictly

(Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Ex Strictly Come Dancing host Sir Bruce Forsyth says he found the show restricted his talents as an entertainer and did not allow him to be himself.

The entertainer, who fronted the show for a decade, also admitted he had 'very mixed emotions' about leaving the dance series and would miss the team.

In an interview with Hello! magazine, he said he was enjoying his freedom following his departure from the show and said: "The world is my oyster."

Interviewed during a trip to Montenegro with wife Wilnelia, the 86-year-old said working on Strictly didn't allow him to give full rein to his talents.

Sir Bruce said: "On the Generation Game, for example, I could have fun - I was allowed to be 'Loose Bruce'. I could do whatever I liked and interact with whomever. That's the real me. A presenter on Strictly isn't the real Bruce."

He announced he was leaving earlier this year and Strictly's now being co-hosted by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. Sir Bruce made a guest appearance on a warm-up show for the new series in which the celebrity dancers were paired off their professional partners.

He told Hello!: "Part of me has to be sad because, when you work on something in television for 10 years, you become a family and when you say goodbye to that family there is always a tear in the eye. So it's hard to say goodbye, of course it is.

"But I'm leaving because, although I could hang on, I felt it was right not only for me but for the show.

He went on: "Now I have the relief that I don't have to do it any more. I would have hated to have carried on and then had to stop because I wasn't feeling well enough."

 

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.