Sir Bruce Forsyth has vowed to continue as host of Strictly Come Dancing, despite calls for him to retire.

The 84-year-old, who has hosted all ten series of the flagship BBC1 programme, said slowing down was out of the question after a career spanning more than 70 years.

Sir Bruce told The Mail on Sunday before last night’s final: ‘I am certainly not going to retire – that is the last thing on my mind. It is the buzz of working that keeps me going. It’s that wonderful feeling.’

The showbiz veteran has been accused of being too old for primetime TV – not least by Louis Walsh from ratings rival X Factor, who famously called him ‘out of touch’.

But Sir Bruce, who stepped down from the prerecorded Sunday night results show in 2011 and took a planned week off during this year’s series, added: ‘I am very grateful for the way I’ve been allowed to continue.

'I am quite amazed. I sometimes stop and think, “What are you doing, you must be mad.”

But it still makes me feel good, that’s all there is to it.

‘Although I’m 84, I still get the adrenaline rush walking on to the studio floor for Strictly. I just hope I never run out of adrenaline. In fact I’m going to phone Boots today and order some for next year.

‘If you’ve experienced the warmth of an audience, the achievement of getting your first laugh and entertaining them, [it] keeps it all going.’

Last night Sir Bruce hosted two-and-three-quarter hours of live TV for the Strictly Come Dancing final, as the remaining four couples vied for the coveted Glitterball trophy.

Ten million were expected to tune in to see TV presenter Denise Van Outen, 38, Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh, 31, Olympic gymnast Louis Smith, 23, and actress Dani Harmer, also 23, as they performed two routines each.

Olympic silver medallist Smith was favourite to scoop the title – decided entirely by viewers’ telephone votes – with his dance partner Flavia Cacace.

Next year Strictly will move to a new home at Elstree, North London, following the sale of BBC Television Centre.

And Sir Bruce, who renegotiates his contract with the BBC every spring, is confident he will be back at work after a three-month holiday in Puerto Rico with his wife, former Miss World Wilnelia, 55.



‘Let’s face it, no one is going to put somebody who is 84 under contract for five years,’ he said.

‘When we come back, my wife and I have a talk about the show and make a decision.

'We sit down with a nice glass of champagne and assess the whole thing.

‘After three months in the Caribbean, your mind is clear. You have a new feeling about the year and assess what you would like to be able to do and what you wouldn’t.’

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He wont quit. If he was going to do that, he would have announced it before the start of the series - that this was to be his last - and the whole series would be surrounded around our 'national treasure' leaving the show. He wont just quietly quit off-screen, he will come back for one BIG final series....egos must be soothed.

Trouble is, we get stuck with his dreadful jokes, poor timing, gaffes and all round crap performance just to feed his ego. Someone needs to say NO MORE.

Given his self-obsession of course he is going to vow to stay on but his growing incompetence will ensure that he doesn't last much longer because he is alienating people who used to support him and there's only so much of this he can do before there is a backlash against him that even the head-in-the-sand BBC can't ignore.

Could you ever imagine an 84-year-old woman alongside Brucie? An old lady presenter would have been kicked into touch years ago but Brucie is so powerful he is just able to keep on and on and on ...

Oh joy...

Well on the Daily Mail site hundreds of complaints about his rudeness last night and the year before.

It's all paper talk, given his advanced age, the BBC aren't daft enough to give him a year on year rolling contract, or they might eventually have to start pushing him on in a wheelchair.

He says he wants to continue, but it'll be the BBC who will decide whether he returns next year. His only recent TV work has been because he's been on Strictly. If he weren't on it his opportunity for TV employment will be poor, unless you include QVC, or Ideal World, where "Princess Tippy Toes" I'm told has ended up.

Yes he is doing a "tour"... err.. three dates. Someone on here out of curiosity asked about the availability of seats in "row A" at one venue, there were plenty.

I quite like some of Brucies jokes. What I don't like is some of his ways - like his bossing when everyone ran over the winner yesterday..

What I gather from the interview is that he has no plans to retire from showbiz but is undecided about continuing with Strictly. I'm still holding out hope for some new blood next year.

that will upset his critics

Indeed. Joke or not, it popped the atmosphere like a balloon and the whole programme was spoilt. I could imagine households up and down the country asking what on Earth he was doing.

Unfortunately Bruce seems untouchable.

I don't find Bruce as irritating and frustrating as some, and do find him quite funny at times, but my heart sank when I saw that.

He's evidently starting to struggle in places now, and I think the tenth series being his last would have been very fitting.

We know how much the BBC will turn a blind eye

The thing is Bruce has presided over a show that killed the X Factor this year and got 11 million for it's last show. That is huge and the biggest hit Bruce has had since the 70's and 80's probably. It's very hard to walk away from all that. Especially when you've got Tess next to you to 'catch' you.

I like him. It was only the final moments of last night's show I thought "Oh, for cryin' out loud".

The BBC won't force his hand and won't fix what isn't broken. 11 million viewers, remember.

I think the BBC is under a lot of rightful scrutiny at the moment. I suspect it pays Brucie far more than he is worth (who else is lining up to employ him?) and women are under represented at the top levels throughout the organisation. It can't go on with business as usual and pay a massive amount of our money to a clapped out old star out of sentimentality or over egged yearning for nostalgia in some sections of the population.

Hahahahahaha. People forget that Strictly has a time slot, like all programs on the TV, and they need to be stick to the time slot or else every program after will be late! He might have seemed rude but he was probably told to do it.

Why does this headline make me think of Jesus carrying the cross? Except it feels like he's making us do it.

[quote=stash22;63142152]He wont quit. If he was going to do that, he would have announced it before the start of the series - that this was to be his last - and the whole series would be surrounded around our 'national treasure' leaving the show. He wont just quietly quit off-screen, he will come back for one BIG final series....egos must be soothed.[/QUOTE]

Sadly, this is spot on.

I suppose we should be thankful we didn't get 'Bruce Forsyth's Strictly Come Dancing' as happened with The Generation Game and Play Your Cards Right.

What needs to happen to drive the message home to the poor deluded man, is for attendance at his one man shows to be abysmal but there will always be some misguided souls that find that kind of thing entertaining.

I have always enjoyed Bruce hosting the show, he has always done a pretty good job I thought.
Last night, I found it quite embarrassing to be honest.
He was a proper party pooper, there was no need for what he did.
The show is called Strictly Come Dancing, not the Bruce Forsyth show, he is the host, that's all. The show is not about him, it's about the celebs and the pro's. Those celebs and pro's have worked so, so hard to give the viewers a good show and good show it was too along with a fantastic series. They all did a fantastic job so I imagine they will feel pretty peaved today after his behaviour. They wanted to congratulate Louis and Flavia. Even after they did Back Off, Bruce carried on talking away so they would have had plenty of time to do their congratulations and then allow the winners to perform. For me, he actually spoilt the end of an amazing series.
Bruce almost missed his cue last night because he was busy nattering to someone then after the Back Off thing, he almost stumbled. He is clearly struggling with the auto cue as well.
From a Brucie fan of many years, I thought he was very rude and totally cringeworthy and uncalled for. I would be furious if I was one of those dancers last night. Bruce, call it a day, you have had a good run now let someone else have a chance.

it would be all the same, if every other programme always started on time and never over-ran.

With the obsession the BBC has with ratings, elements of such "ratings chasing" spoils this show, as they had fourteen million viewers, they could have let it over-run a few minutes.

There you go, sometimes they do daft things

Mrs Thatcher vowed to "go on and on" just months before she was thrown out. An omen?

Yay I'm so happy he's staying

The ending with Bruce telling everyone to "back off" was cringe-worthy, as when he was shouting across the floor at Kimberly to thank the audience. He comes across as bossy and rude and Tess Daley annoys me too. Make a clean sweep and get presenters with warmth and personality in!

over the years of strictly I think people have slagged brucey off unfairly saying he is past it, BUT this year for the first time I thought he has gone on 1 yr too long, he didn't seem at the races half the time