Advent Calendar 2021 Day 20: Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game, 1994

The Gen Game is the quintessential family-friendly all-action show that should fit Christmas Day 6pm like a glove, and indeed did (give or take the hour) for twelve straight years in its initial incarnation and the first three of its revival. In 1993 it edged back to Christmas Eve, where this one also landed, and the special shows in Jim Davidson's tenure were positively allergic to crackers and tinsel, not only never being broadcast on the 25th but one year being deposited on the 19th. The importance of specifying all this up front is this was Brucie's last show and when he announced in March 1994 that the next series would be his last, he stated the date change was the final straw in a declining relationship with management - though it's possible LWT's million pound deal may have been a filip too, and his complaints about the Corporation not valuing variety don't really square with him being stuck on Bruce's Price Is Right and Play Your Cards Right with none of the promised specials until returning ten years later. None of said bitterness is fortunately on show, which features - as well as brief Rolf Harris - traditional Alpine dancing, Christmas cake decoration and a set-piece involving Rosemarie Ford doing a ballet routine when Bruce walks out in tights at which Ford and everybody else loses it, as a precusor to a game of suggestive balloon manoevuring between the couples judged by, of course, Susan George. The final game is as usual a pantomime, Dick Whittington, with Willie Rushton wonderfully adjudicating. Bruce sees us off by, as often on these occasions, accompanying himself on jazz piano for White Christmas before a heartfelt farewell speech. Rosemarie Ford is now appearing at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton.