Television and Radio LARRY GRAYSON 'I couldn’t watch my TV hit’

Press, 26 December 1979, Page 9

Television and Radio LARRY GRAYSON 'I couldn’t watch my TV hit’

It is no accident that the 8.8.C.'s top TV quiz show, “The Generation Game,” has been renamed “Larry Grayson's Generation Game.” It is a way of saymg a big thank you to the 56-year-old comedian for bringing his own brand of comic genius to the show that, up until then, had been thought of as exclusively Bruce Forsyth's. Grayson admits quite frankly that when he first took over as compere a year ago, he was scared stiff. “In 10 years’ time. I’ll look back and die at what I took on,” he savs. “On that Saturday night, when the show went out for the first time. I couldn’t bear to watch it. I really couldn't. “I went for a walk instead. and every house 1 passed seemed to have the Tv switched on inside, and they were all watching me. 1 tell you, I felt really ill.” Yet within six months, he had received over 8000 fan letters, and replied personally to every on?. He is the first to admit that success has come to him late in life. He has been in show-business since lie was 14. when he earned five shillings for standing up and singing

“The Bushes At The Bottom of the Garden” in a local club Until 1955. he used the name Billy Breen, (his real name is William White), and it was his agent. Eve lyn Taylor, who suggested that it might be worth changing it. “The ’Grayson' was after the singer Kathryn Grayson.” he told nie. “She was a very big star then, and Evelyn thought it sounded good." Even so. it took another 17 years of playing the music halls and northern clubs before he achieved any real success. Then, in 1972, he was discovered by a TV talent scout, and given a spot in ATV’s “Saturday Variety.” Later that year, he got his own show. "Shut That Door." and he has been a star ever since. “It’s lovely being famous after all the years of obscurity,” he says. But. apart from the gleaming white Rolls Royce and his chauffeur, Tony, he is very much a lover of the simple life. He lives in a pleasant but (by showbiz standards) modestly furnished house in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, with his sister Fan. They’ve been together ever since Fan’s parents adopted him when he was six, and life would be unthinkable without her. Once, he revealed (“about 20 years ago, it was”), he was going to get engaged. “A lovely girl, she was. But when she said: ‘When we get married, what’s going to happen to her?' (meaning Fan), that was the end of that.” Now, he and Fan are very content together. And it is she who cooks him his favourite dishes of steak and kidney pud or tripe and onions. “I don't like fancy food, really.” he says. “It doesn't agree with me. There's not a lot I want out of life, when I think about it. And Fan’s the same. “I don’t know what happens to my money, because my accountant and my bank manager look after it for me. But 1 must admit it’s nice never to go short.

“We don’t have poop* in much. We like being bv ourselves. Isla comes to see us quite a lot.” (h'n St Clair, his hostess in his "Generation Games"). "She’s a lovely girt. ■She's so natural, and s he loves a good laugh. I don’t go for plunging necklines and lhat kind of thing." Another thing he doesn't go for in his show is a script. “I’ve never been a person who’s stuck for words.” he savs “I like io rattle on and just be me ” “And the only lime I ever worry is if I actually have to learn anything -— I’m always terrified in case 1 forget it. That's why the ’Generation Game' has been so good for me. 1 think 1 never even rehearse the games — it doesn’t matter really if 1 make a terrible mess of them, in fact it j ist makes people laugh all the more. "You know something?'* he said. “Having friends is the best thing in the world, I think. And I think the worst thing must be to be lonely. I’ve been very lucky, really, when I look back on my life I don’t think I’ve ever felt lonely. “I get a lot letters from people who live, alone, and they say when they watch me on TV, they feel as though they’r® seeing a friend. j “It makes me very > happy that they think of , me in that way. It's a great compliment, really.” <