When Miranda Met Bruce

Bruce Forsyth has become ‘a legend’ merely by staying alive longer than everyone else and, in the process, clocking up almost as many tribute shows as he has years on this Earth (85, since you asked).

Here’s another one, which begins in the sort of exquisite hell that only light entertainment can provide: Miranda Hart simpering at Brucie while he recycles music-hall gags and ‘house band’ McFly – apparently dressed as The Shadows – play ‘It’s All About Bruce’. If you can survive that, then you’ll find a few infuriatingly brief moments of real insight during the next hour. On those rare occasions when Hart and Forsyth ditch the mugging and talk seriously about the early days of showbiz, career missteps or critical brickbats, the results are fascinating.

But it’s not long before another creaky bit of nonsense about ‘Play Your Cards Right’, ‘impromptu’ piano recital or burst of hysterical audience applause sends the whole thing downhill again. Yes, he did well. But now even ‘Strictly’ obsessives might agree that he’d do even better to retire.