Getting our hopes up

The day after the final of Strictly Come Dancing, some of the papers are getting our hopes up that we could have seen the last of Bruce Forsyth.  The Mirror says that he’s considering whether to take another contract or whether he’s had enough. The extraordinary thing about the interview is the implicit assumption that everybody wants him to stay.

It’s been an odd sort of Strictly this year.  Attempts to pit judges against the GBP with joke contestants failed.  The first two went out in weeks one and two, and the third turned out to be able to dance.  Indeed, Lisa Riley did great things for us fat women.  The 4 best dancers ended up in the final, and the winner was not really in doubt.  So far so satisfactory.  But as always it was Forsyth who made it a chore to watch.  With increasing numbers of people owning the technology to silence him, there were fewer of us having to resort to the mute button.  The show achieved record viewing figures, apparently, surviving when the X Factor rubbish is struggling.  The producers appear to think that Forsyth is a part of this success.  He’s not.  On It Takes Two we were shown some clips from the foreign versions of the show.  None of them have chosen to have an octogenarian “entertainer” doing jokes and believing that he’s the star.  The evening when Forsyth wasn’t there – his week off, though it’s hardly a week’s work – was wonderful.  And he didn’t even stay the whole evening when he was there, leaving the results show recording to Tess and Claudia.  (And that’s another thing.  This Sunday show pretence is silly.  I found the result online every Saturday night.)

So, Mr Forsyth (I don’t recognise titles), don’t tease us with your uncertainty.  Retire.