Nice

At long last Bruce Forsyth has been knighted. I admire him not least for the sheer time that he has been a major national entertainer.

He began his career at 14 with an act 'Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom' and first appeared on television in 1939. He hit the big time with his Generation Game in the seventies — a Saturday night spectacle bringing in viewers by the million and promoting his 'fist to head' pose and catch phrase 'nice to see you — to see you nice'. He wrote and sang the programme's theme tune 'Life is the name of the Game'.

I also admire his positive image – old school in the best way.?Not for him a style that requires viewing the darker side of the TV watershed. He has shown that entertainment can be for the whole family without the need to rely on lazy vulgarity or violence.

I have little time to watch television nowadays but one show the Stride family has often enjoyed is Strictly Come Dancing. A huge commercial success that has also flamboyantly revived something special from yesteryear. Bruce is also the embodiment of Kennedy's great observation on age — that it's 'not a time of life but a state of mind' — a man who is married to a former Miss World 29 years his junior, and still foot tapping to ten million viewers on a Saturday night at 84 is a pretty good advertisement for how life can be led to the full.

Then there is a final reason that I rather like Sir Bruce — simply that he's a nice man. Nice of course is a much denigrated virtue nowadays — for many it smacks of vacuity. But in a world where consideration is so often missing I think nice matters. Well done, Sir Bruce.