361 Bruce Forsyth's Big Night

First  viewed : 7  October  1978

The  biggest  TV  news  of  1978  was  undoubtedly  ITV's  poaching  of  one  of  the  BBC's  biggest  stars  Bruce  Forsyth. It  turned  into  one  of  the  great  TV  disasters ,  a  prime  example  of  hubris  over-riding  good  judgement.

Bruce  Forsyth's  Big  Night  was  announced  with  much  fanfare. He  got  himself  a  new  toupee  and  dyed  his  moustache  and  sideburns  to  match  and  appeared  on  the  cover  of  TV  Times "bringing  an  exciting  new  look  to  Saturdays". Bruce  was  given  the  whole  evening  from  6.55  pm  onwards  with  even  returning  new  series  of  Mind  Your  Language  and  The  Professionals  brought  into  his  big  tent. Bruce  would  hob-nob  with  international  guest  stars  , bounce  off  regular  comedians  including  the  execrable  Cannon  and  Ball  and  run  game  show  features  like  Beat  The  Goalie  and  Teletennis  ( a  TV  version  of  the legendary  Pong  video  game ).  Bruce  was  given  way  too  much  head,  with  the  50  year  old  entertainer  allowed  to  revive  old  shows  from  his  youth  like  Charlie  Drake's  The  Worker  and  radio  favourite  The  Glums 

It  didn't  hang  together  at  all . The  Beeb  acted  very  calmly , appointed  Larry  Grayson  to  take  his  place  on  The  Generation  Game  , scheduled  that  and  the  new  series  of  ratings  winner  All  Creatures  Great  And  Small  against  BFBN   and  caned  him. Audiences  stuck  with  the  show  not  the  man. I think  we  checked  out  the  early  part  of  the  first  episode - I  remember  Chelsea  veteran  Peter  Bonetti  doing  Beat  The  Goalie  - then  turned  over  for  the  adventures  of   Seigfried  , Tristan  and  co  and  never  returned.

ITV  were  not  slow  to  realise  their  mistake. First  they  abandoned  the  umbrella  concept,  turning  it  into  a  straight  90  minute  variety  show  then  scrapped  it  altogether  after  Christmas. Some  of  the  elements  were  recycled  as  standalone  shows. Bruce  himself  was  given  a  shite  game  show  Play  Your  Cards  Right  which  was  a  ratings  winner  but  the   failure  of  Big  Night   clung  to  him  for  the  next  decade.

The  show  has  a  little  footnote  in  pop  history  for  hosting  the  last  UK  TV  appearance  on  Chistmas  Eve   of  an  unhealthy-looking  Karen  Carpenter  performing  Please  Mr  Postman  and  making  excuses  for  Richard's  absence - he  was  about  to  go  into  rehab  for  his  Quaaludes  addiction.