This may make you slightly jealous, but I've been to Strictly Come Dancing. It was the first show of a series a few years back and, yes, it was brilliant to be in the vast studio at Elstree to watch dancing professionalism at its best and BBC TV production of the highest quality. The fact it was going out live added an extra buzz, if indeed it was needed!

But I was even more taken by watching Bruce Forsyth in action. I was witness to a master craftsman at work with an audience. It's normal to have a warm-up person to set the scene and Strictly had a perfectly good one, chatting to us, putting us at ease and generally explaining the paraphernalia of live TV while cracking some corny gags. Then 15 minutes or so before the live transmission, he handed over to Bruce who came on and did his own warm-up, which even involved dancing with a lucky member of the audience. He didn't have to do it, I thought, because the warm-up man was perfectly good, but I sensed it was Brucie's own way of 'reading' the audience. I think he was as much warming himself up, as us.

The ease with which he chatted, joked, took the mickey and generally neutralised the obvious pre-live TV tension was quite brilliant, especially for an entertainer in his eighties. Then – and this to me was the remarkable thing – with barely a minute to spare at the end of his off-air routine, we were live across the nation and Bruce was looking down a camera lens addressing an audience of millions. The transition was effortless. I was genuinely in awe.

I shouldn't have been surprised. From those grainy black and white Sunday Night at The London Palladium shows when he was 'In Charge', Bruce Forsyth has been at the top of his game for as long as I've been on the planet. It's one thing to introduce stars with a touch of wit and bonhomie, but it's quite another, in my view, to deal with a live game show on stage. Beat the Clock was part of the Palladium TV shows and allowed Bruce to ad lib around the contestants' failings. It was hilarious because it was largely unpredictable and Bruce milked it for all it was worth.

It was almost certainly his Beat the Clock skills which sealed his fate as the epitome of a game show host and there was no better vehicle for him than The Generation Game which had me, my sister, my Mum and Dad glued to Saturday night TV and rolling around the lounge in mirth. Long before multi TV channels vied for our attention and long before we were all slaves to wi-fi and double-screening with our tablets on our knees, Bruce redefined what families should do together of a Saturday night. Then, remarkably, he came back to us with Strictly and families like ours reassembled in one room around their TVs again. I can't remember a moment he wasn't on prime-time TV and more to the point I can't remember a time he wasn't the best at what he did on prime-time TV.

I think we all sensed his days were coming to end and reports of his growing frailty in these last few weeks were worrying. We hardly dared imagine the entertainment world without Sir Bruce.

I doubt we'll see his like again. The showbusiness and broadcasting world, which propelled him to the top and through which he honed his skills in front of generations, feels more fragmented and dare I suggest, more transient and cynical.

If life really is the name of the game, then Sir Bruce, you won.