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The first thought that occurs to me is that he never lost those distinctive slightly "camp"-sounding speech patterns which my father, coming from N London, always identified as in fact specific to that part of the metropolis.
Sad, indeed. I only saw him once as leading man in "Little Me", a Broadway musical, 1966, Cambridge Theatre, W1. As always, he was travelling light and only brought one performance with him, but a natural communicator with a substantial talent, evident on the touching 60 mins tribute to him just ended on BBC 1. RIP, Brucie,
The Generation Game was the best - the conveyer belt of not especially great prizes was the perfect sardonic comment on a society becoming too money orientated and broadly the show permitted acceptance in people of their own inadequacies while offering personal encouragement. Contrast with today's "strong and wrong" for which read flimsy in character.
The two words, though, that would sum up Bruce best as a representative of that era of light entertainment rather than one of the current era - "not spiteful". And that was actually why once the new ways had taken hold it took so long for him to be honoured. Just not nasty enough for the modern movers and shakers. But at least he was eventually honoured rightly.
The Generation Game was the best - the conveyer belt of not especially great prizes was the perfect sardonic comment on a society becoming too money orientated and broadly the show permitted acceptance in people of their own inadequacies while offering personal encouragement. Contrast with today's "strong and wrong" for which read flimsy in character.
The two words, though, that would sum up Bruce best as a representative of that era of light entertainment rather than one of the current era - "not spiteful". And that was actually why once the new ways had taken hold it took so long for him to be honoured. Just not nasty enough for the modern movers and shakers. But at least he was eventually honoured rightly.
The first thought that occurs to me is that he never lost those distinctive slightly "camp"-sounding speech patterns which my father, coming from N London, always identified as in fact specific to that part of the metropolis.
Have been mulling over this one, S-A, for 24 hours. You are right. There is what became seen as a slightly camp intonation in historical light entertainment from all parts of London and elsewhere. You can hear it in Max Miller (Brighton), Askey (Liverpool) and even into the 1980s with Delboy and Rodney. It runs close to modern ideas about corn and it also to some extent in the case of a Bruce reflects sound recording techniques in television during the 60s/70s. I would say my father has it - part Askey when younger albeit with classic good looks although mainly his role model by his own admission in his fifties was George Roper.
Always nasal, I can recall the key moments that saved me - the early insistence on improvement (you had that) and in our case to better "oursells", renditions of Wandrin' Star before my voice broke, the falling into a natural bass in Yorkshire - they all talk like that - and especially the heavy influence of mainly genuine radio presentation across the decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. Certainly I couldn't speak to a 1990s mockney and everyone in entertainment since 2000 is so nothingy to be entirely beyond the pale. I'm not sure why I (only slightly) bothered. I like the olduns best and in truth I always did. They had more style.
It was also "nice to see" a brief tribute from a young up-and-coming freshman of what can still perhaps be called the variety industry; I refer to that man of the minute, Nicholas Parsons...
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