There's a good chance you've probably spent the last five years desperately upset that there aren't any TV shows about confused old ladies cack-handedly making some pottery while a room full of easily-amused simpletons cackle and whoop.
But there's a light at the end of the tunnel for those of us upset that we can't see a procession of elderly men fail to make a string of sausages properly – The Generation Game is back. And not the ghastly 'prog rock and racism' Generation Game that Jim Davidson was in charge of, either – we're talking The Generation Game as it should be, with Bruce Forsyth as the presenter. True, the new Bruce Forsyth-presented Generation Game will only be shown on UKTV Gold so nobody will actually watch it, but at least Bruce Forsyth has somewhere lovely and warm to spend the afternoons now, and that's the main thing.
Younger readers may only know Bruce Forsyth as the host of Strictly Come Dancing, but it might come as a shock to know that Bruce Forsyth wasn't always a doddery old semi-comprehensible fool who shows up on GMTV from time to time whenever someone steals his dog – there was a time when Bruce Forsyth was actually kind of cool; hanging out with Sammy Davis Jr, marrying Miss Worlds and starring briefly in one episode of Magnum PI. There's even a bust of Bruce Forsyth in the London Palladium.
But what Bruce Forsyth is best-remembered for is The Generation Game, a show where eccentric old ladies teamed up with their obviously-embarrassed nephews to ice cakes hilariously badly or blow glass hilariously badly or dance the dramatic climax to Starlight Express hilariously badly. Bruce Forsyth wasn't the only host of the Generation Game – there was also Larry Grayson, the man who invented homosexuality; and Jim Davidson, the man who invented hitting women, shouting at men in wheelchairs and generally being a prick – but Bruce Forsyth was the definitive Generation Game host.
And now The Generation Game is back, sort of. Television graveyard UKTV Gold has announced that it is to make a Generation Game revival starring Bruce Forsyth entitled The Generation Game: Then Again. But most of it will probably just be old clips of Generation Games from years ago, as The Telegraph explains:
"I am so looking forward to bringing back some wonderful memories," said Forsyth. "It always was a 'good game, good game'." [UKTV head James] Newton, who also commissions Wogan: Now and Then for UKTV Gold, said: "Working with Bruce Forsyth – a genuine TV legend – to reinvent this iconic entertainment show is a true honour for UKTV Gold."
UKTV Gold is getting to be the go-to station for old TV shows that want to be resurrected. It already shows Wogan: Now And Then, where Terry Wogan shows a clip of an interview he did with a celebrity 25 years ago and then interviews the same celebrity in the present day – it basically may as well be called Everyone Is Always Getting Older And Death Is Unavoidable.
UKTV Gold is also doing a similar thing with Jim'll Fix It, and now The Generation Game too. It's inevitable that UKTV Gold will commission more of these revival shows soon, but what? Beadle's About Revisited, where bitter victims of Jeremy Beadle's hidden-camera pranks take their revenge on Beadle by burning his house down? Grandstand Again, where Steve Ryder presents interminable day-long coverage of a bowls match that took place before most people were even born? Or Fearne Cotton Then, where everything Fearne Cotton has done, is doing and will ever do is shifted over to UKTV Gold for eternity just so we don't have to watch her as much?
Leave your UKTV Gold suggestions below if you want to.
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