Sir Bruce Forsyth - The King of the Catchphrase Quiz

Answer: The Mighty Atom

Bruce Forsyth, or Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson to give him his full name, was born on the 22nd of February 1928, in the town of Edmonton in Middlesex, now a suburb of north London. His parents were both brass instrumentalists for their local branch of the Salvation Army and the young Bruce was immersed in music from a very early age. Forsyth's great-grandfather, Joseph, was a landscape gardener of some repute and another relative was one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society and gave his name to the plant genus Forsythia.

In 1942 at the age of fourteen and billed as 'Boy Bruce - The Mighty Atom, Forsyth made his debut performance as a singer, dancer and accordion player at the Theatre Royal, Bilston in the city of Wolverhampton, although he had appeared some three years earlier in 1939 on the BBC television talent show 'Come and be Televised'. This was one of the earliest shows ever broadcast by the BBC and mere days after Bruce's performance the Second World War broke out forcing BBC television to close down for the duration of the conflict. The series of shows at Bilston in which Forsyth had appeared lasted just a single week; Forsyth himself always joked that such a short run was down to his poor performance and that he had only earned a total of thirteen shillings and four pence for his efforts.

Answer: Sunday Night at the London Palladium

After completing his term of National Service with the Royal Air Force, it was in 1958 that Forsyth was offered the post of compére for the popular variety show, 'Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the Palladium' to give it its full title. He hosted the show for two periods - the first between 1958 and 1960 and the second between 1961 and 1964 before his punishing schedule forced him to leave the show, By this time Bruce had become a well-known and popular performer.

Answer: Swinburne

Forsyth played the role of Swinburne, a 'spiv' and the enforcer for the mysterious criminal known as 'The Bookman'. He first appeared overhearing Eglantine, Professor Browne and the children talking about searching for the second half of the magic book, the 'Spells of Astoroth' on the Portobello Road market.

The term 'spiv' was a derogatory name used in the United Kingdom during the war years to describe flashy individuals or petty criminals, particularly those involved in making money on the black market whilst their peers were serving in the armed forces. There are a number of sources for the origin of the word according to the Oxford English Dictionary which include a derivation of the word 'spiffy' which meant smartly dressed or from the word 'spiff' which was used to describe a 'bonus' earned by an unscrupulous sales person.

Answer: The Generation Game

If there is a single show with which Bruce Forsyth is inextricably linked, it must be the BBC's 'The Generation Game', a game show involving members of different generations of the same family competing against others in the hope of winning a number of prizes.

The prizes would pass in front of the winning contestant on a conveyor belt in the show's closing stages, which gave rise to the oft used term 'Cuddly Toy'. Developed as an offshoot of a Dutch television show first aired in 1969, 'Een van de acht' or 'One of the Eight', the show also owed itself in part to a game played as part of 'Sunday Night at the Palladium' called 'Beat the Clock'. Of Bruce Forsyth's most memorable catchphrases, the vast majority stem from his stint as the presenter of 'The Generation Game'; these catchphrases include "Give us a twirl", a request to his female hostess to show off her gown to the audience at the beginning of the show, "Good game, good game" and "What's on the doors Miss Ford?" During the opening of many of the shows in which Forsyth appeared, he would adopt a pose based on the sculpture 'The Thinker' by Auguste Rodin.

At the peak of the show's popularity it would, weekly, attract viewing audiences of upwards of twenty million people.

Answer: Anthea Redfern

Anthea Redfern, who was born and raised in Newton Abbot in Devon, was co-presenter and hostess of 'The Generation Game' with Bruce Forsyth during the show's first incarnation between 1971 and 1977. Forsyth and Redfern had embarked on an affair whilst working together which led, ultimately, to his divorce from his first wife, Penny Calvert. Forsyth and Redfern, who married in 1973, had two children together, daughters Charlotte and Louisa, before divorcing in 1977.

In her later years, Redfern resided in Marbella, Spain ,and rarely, if ever, appeared on television.

Answer: Play Your Cards Right

The BBC television game show 'Play Your Cards Right', also known as 'Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right' ran for a total of sixteen series between February 1980 and June 2003; Forsyth hosted between 1980 and 1987. The show, broadcast on the British ITV network, was based on the US television game show 'Card Shark', with the premise behind the game being to win cash prizes by answering quiz questions and predicting whether a playing card was higher or lower than the one that preceded it.

The catchphrase was announced when any card turned over by attractive young women known as 'Dolly Dealers', was of the same value as the one that preceded it.

Answer: Hot Streak

'Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak', to give it its full title, was broadcast in the US on the ABC network between January and April 1986 with a total of just 65 shows being aired. The show originated with a pilot in 1983 with the title 'Party Line' and was to be presented by Gene Rayburn but he was replaced by Forsyth when the show was picked up by ABC.

In the word association show, two teams of five players passed a keyword to each other without actually giving it away and, if successfully reaching the end of the line, winning cash prizes.

The team progressing to the bonus round stood to win a potential prize of ten thousand dollars. 'Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak' is significant in that it is the only occasion in which he hosted a show outside of the United Kingdom.

Answer: Tess Daly

Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly co-presented the BBC smash hit celebrity ballroom dancing competition, 'Strictly Come Dancing' between for nearly ten years between 2004 and 2013 until his failing health forced his retirement from the show. During this period Bruce and Tess Daly became great friends; in the days immediately after his passing she posted a number of emotional tributes to her friend on social media and in which she could clearly be seen to be devastated by the news.

Helen Elizabeth Daly was born in Stockport, Cheshire on the 27th of April 1969. Daly was recruited by a modelling agency just six weeks after her eighteenth birthday and spent ten years based in Paris and New York. Moving into television journalism, Daly was employed by British television company Channel Four as a presenter for their flagship early morning magazine programme 'The Big Breakfast'. Daly was married to radio DJ and presenter Vernon Kaye in 2003; the couple have two daughters and, at the time of writing, live in the county of Buckinghamshire. In 2013 Tess Daly became the new face for cosmetics giants, L'Oreal.

Answer: Slingers Day

Produced by Thames Television and broadcast on the ITV network for just two seasons between 1986 and 1987, 'Slinger's Day' was a continuation of the television sitcom 'Tripper's Day' which had come to an end with the death of its star, Leonard Rossiter, in October 1984. Cecil Slinger was the manager of Supafare, a small London supermarket staffed entirely by the lazy and incompetent.

The show was created by Brian Cooke with assistance from writer Vince Powell. Unlike that other greatest of British television sitcoms 'Fawlty Towers' of which only twelve episodes were also made, 'Slinger's Day' has vanished almost without a trace.

The sitcom was another first for Forsyth being his first, and last foray outside of the realm of variety and game shows; in fact this show was so unsuccessful that the only review that could be found while conducting research for this quiz dates to August 2008. MSN Entertainment writer Lorna Cooper described it as being "Not Brucie's finest hour."

Answer: Wilnelia Merced

Actress, model and beauty queen Wilnelia Merced, known today as Lady Forsyth-Johnson, was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, on the 12th of October 1957. She met Bruce Forsyth whilst judging at the Miss World Gala Competition in London in 1980. The couple were married in New York three years later and had one son together, Jonathan Joseph. Bruce Forsyth was appointed as an OBE in 1998, elevated to CBE in 2006 and finally received a knighthood in Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday Honours list for 2011. Forsyth himself is reported as saying that it was Wilnelia who suggested that he approach comedian Paul Merton, a team captain on the hit BBC satirical game show 'Have I Got News For You', for a slot as a guest presenter; and it was his first appearance on this show in 2003 that launched Forsyth back into the public eye and endeared him to a new, younger audience.

This appearance on HIGNFY was instrumental in him being selected as host for the hugely successful celebrity ballroom dancing show 'Strictly Come Dancing' a position that he occupied for over ten years until poor health forced his retirement from the public eye in April 2014.