I know we are stuck with him for this year at least. So I am trying to find a positive way to make the time he has work better.

With a couple of weeks off he may be less curmudgeonly and we get 2 weeks Bruce free.

Oh I'm not anti BBC but I do think the BBC are damned if they do and damned if they don't where Bruce is concerned.

As many would be appallled at forcing him out as think he should be forced out so I really don't think they can do anything and as such they will let the situation fester unto something forces their hands......like Bruce dying on air.

Bruce's ego is too caught up in 'aren't I marvellous 150 years at the top of showbiz and I'm still going strong presenting prime time TV' mainly because no one has sat him down and said 'Mate you're too old and fuzzy for this now'.

And the BBC are too afraid of the ageist backlash caused by pensioning him off and so it goes on.....until someone's hand is forced.

I won't have time to watch the full show for the next few days and everyone is talking about this moment last night... can anyone direct to me when in the show this happened?

It was just after all the dancers walked down the stairs and stood in the studio.....

Bruce and Tess are chatting before they introduce the first couple....

Sorry, I dont know how many minutes into the show it was..

Hope that helps

How about Michael Ball to replace him. Everyone seems to like him and he wouldn't try to hog the limelight.

Just watched it again. Looks worse than I thought last night. Interestingly, he says something like "you've done worse, haven't you Suzanne?" and the camera immediately cuts to her nodding. Wonder why camera would have her in pre shot?

About 5 minutes in.

To me it looked more like he couldn't read the autocue for some reason, which isn't quite the same thing as not being able to get your words out.

Does he wear contact lenses?

If not then not many 84 year olds have perfect 20/20 vision.

He often looks like he is squinting to read what is in front of him.

Noooooooo, please not Barrowman.

There's a well-documented medical term for the condition in which Bruce found himself for a few seconds.

"He'd completely lost it."

He's not really had it for quite a while.

Thing is- I can think of a lot of out-take programmes were young and able people fluff their lines.

The various guest presenters of HIGNFY are regularly shown being unable to read a sentence out loud. But, because it is pre-recorded, they can do it again, and laugh at their sheer incompetence, without anyone suggesting they are past it.

After last night, I really think it is a situation which ALL parties need to look at very carefully. Let's be realistic - Bruce is a fantastic entertainer - always was, and still is - but he's at his best interacting with ad-lib comments to the public - re Generation Game etc. If he was allowed freer reign with his comments, he would probably still be at the top of the tree. BUT... Strictly isn't like that - it's live and scripted, and therefore he has to stay within what is provided for him, and sadly, at 85 years old, he is looking a bit shaky. Neither the viewers nor the BBC want a "Tommy Cooper" moment, of that much I'm sure, so perhaps it is time that he made way to a younger, and dare I say safer, pair of hands. Replacing him on SCD does not mean he need never appear on TV again, but give him a show where he can show his still considerable talents off better than he can in his current role.

I think it's the live TV aspect that he has a problem with...I don't think anyone would begrudge him a part if he were just doing the pre-recorded shows.

Strictly on Saturdays is live, now Tess fluffed an autocue link last night, no one mentions that, Ant and dec have had a few when there * live* but some of their show is recoded like the majority of shows today, so they do not have errors.

Look at BBC3 last night and the Doctor Who live after party, that was a total embarrassment , and Zoe was the professional in charge. It shows you how good Bruce is.

I think it very strange a few people devote disproportional time to raising negative posts on Bruce who at the very start helped this show get going without a famous name it might not have had the great start it did and may not have come back.

I keep thinking how many of the people who post negative comments re Bruce would be brave enough to say it to his face.

It's not just about fluffing his lines is it? He's rude and makes inappropriate comments, and he often looks like he's struggling. It makes for uncomfortable viewing.

I don't want to watch him die on the ballroom floor. It would be horrible and sad. I hope he leaves with some dignity.

Most I would think, a good puff of wind and he'd blow over.
But that isn't the point. People who pay their licence fee have every right in criticising the "service" he's providing if they don't think it satisfactory.

If you want to criticise the performance of anyone else on Strictly, start a thread, no one will mind and gauge the support you get, against the criticisms of the old codger on many threads.
That's just "public opinion" you don't have to like it, but you'll have to lump it.

He's been doing it for ten years, he needs only to be able to read the auto-cue and the stuff on his cards, how hard should that be?

It's not as if he faces a new "challenge" every week. It's the same routine and format, week in, week out.

Was is the operative word!

However, he cannot live on past glories - he struggles and some caring executive at the BBC needs to grasp the nettle and tell him!

How true, there were several complaints from viewers on "Points of View" this evening. They were upset about the comments he made to Mark about his size.

He really is a nasty old man.

I sincerely hope not. That would completely ruin the show.

I shudder to think of Bruno, Craig and John Barrowman camping it up :yawn:

Although never a fan of Sir Bruce' s, to say the least, until last night I thought that he was still the best man for the job. I don't think that having a problem with the autocue is an issue but the time he took to silently think about it,live on air - was. I too, thought that he was having a sort of petit mal attack but he was just trying to read the autocue...apparently.
I think that partly, the reason for that is that he probably thinks of it as his, show so people will be focused primarily on him rather than everything else so they'll wait. The other reason, connected to the first, is that he'd lost the ability to very quickly recover from a mistake. He can still, ad lib faster than anyone else there but that's the first time I've ever seen really,him lose command of -himself. People do, have 'lapses' of concentration then back to 100% . It's often not an instant and complete process- having problems with short term memory and being occasionally forgetful wouldn't be a huge problem but not being aware that it matters at all, is a different.
He needs to leave the show, - and go out with dignity and in the glow of the success, of the show.

If you read the whole article he's been regularly visiting her in the nursing home she's been in since 2008 - not the same as nursing someone as I know having had a mother-in-law in the same position. And regularly visiting could mean anything from once a year to every day - the article doesn't specify - particularly as he spends three months in the winter in Puerto Rico.

I thought he was being taken ill last night, and definitely do not want to see another TV person die live on TV or anywhere else. I found my father-in-law dead in his armchair and stranger dead on the footpath behind my house. Don't want to see any more anywhere. If that's what he wants, then he's being selfish.

As we know, there is no show on a Sunday, it's all done on the Saturday evening. Bruce isn't even fit enough to do the whole show.

He must just do half and then go home. Obviously Tess is there and Claudia takes over from Bruce.

This alone tells you he shouldn't still be working.

You have a problem with gay people ?