Bruce Forsyth ashes location (22nd February 1928 to 18th August 2017)

Bruce was part of the Saturday evening television landscape when I was growing up. Though he was considered a national treasure and could put over a show with aplomb I thought the air of I’m-a-living-legend orbiting him was rather off-putting. My mum considered him so ugly. She used to say “Oww, isn’t he fowl!” (her word for ugly.)

Here I am outside the London Palladium where his ashes were interred (under the stage) after a 70-year career in show business. This is a fitting place as he first hosted Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1958. It kick-started his career – and his lifelong relationship with the theatre. In 2015 he performed his one man show here for the very last time – thus book-ending his hugely successful stage-and-screen career.

He died aged 89 in 2017. Earlier that year I can remember reading in the newspaper that he’d been admitted to intensive care in hospital with a severe chest infection. I remember thinking the next time I read about him it will be about his death. Not long after he died of bronchial pneumonia at his Wentworth Estate home in Surrey. Exactly one year after his death his ashes were laid to rest by his wife and six children during a small and private ceremony.

I worked for a company which supplied an industrial heater for his indoor swimming pool area. The salesman went to visit his big home (since sold) to perform a survey. He considered Bruce unfriendly and frosty. One of Bruce's oft-repeated line was "Nice to meet you, to meet you nice." Upon meeting Bruce my colleague said this line but got a hostile reception. Antlers meshed a little. Oh well.

While in London I made sure I passed the London Palladium in remembrance of Bruce. Seven decades in business is pretty good going. I did a salute and left.

Bruce's home where he died...