The Big Breakfast

The Big Breakfast
Lock-keeper's cottages, in Old Ford Lock, Tower Hamlets used as the studio for The Big Breakfast
Created by	Charlie Parsons
Starring	Various
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	2,482
Production
Running time	2hrs 5mins / 5 hrs 35mins (The Bigger Breakfast)
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Picture format	576i (SDTV), 4:3
Original run	28 September 1992 – 29 March 2002
Chronology
Preceded by	The Channel Four Daily
Followed by	RI:SE

The Big Breakfast was a British light entertainment television show shown on Channel 4 and S4C each weekday morning from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002 during which period 2,482 shows were produced. The Big Breakfast was produced by Planet 24, the production company co-owned by former Boomtown Rats singer and Live Aid organiser Bob Geldof.

The programme was distinctive for broadcasting live from a former lockkeepers' cottages commonly referred to as "The Big Breakfast House", or more simply, "The House", located on Fish Island, in Bow in east London.^[1]

The show was a mix of news, weather, interviews, audience phone-ins and general features, with a light tone which was in competition with the more serious GMTV and even more serious BBC Breakfast programmes.^[2][3]

History

The Big Breakfast was launched at the end of September 1992 to replace The Channel Four Daily, which was Channel 4's unsuccessful first dip into the breakfast television market between 1989 and 1992. The Daily, launched at huge expense, had possessed an analytical style, focusing largely on current affairs, news bulletins and cerebral quiz shows; however, this format had failed to earn enough viewing figures, and consequently Channel 4 opted to change direction and work towards a lighter style concentrating mainly on entertainment and humour.^[4]

The first two presenters were Chris Evans (from 1992 to 1994) and Gaby Roslin (1992 to 1996). At its height in 1993, viewing figures reached around two million per edition, and it was the highest rated UK breakfast television programme. Along with Evans and Roslin, Bob Geldof presented a short-lived political interview slot. His wife Paula Yates became notorious with her interviews conducted lying on a bed, and the puppet characters Zig and Zag created morning mayhem in the bathroom with Evans in a slot called The Crunch.

As part of his contract with The Big Breakfast, Evans was committed to developing a new show for Channel 4. Don't Forget Your Toothbrush began in early 1994, and Evans cut his involvement with The Big Breakfast to three days a week, Tuesday to Thursday. Former Neighbours star Mark Little replaced Evans on Mondays and Fridays. When Evans left the show later that year, Little continued on Mondays and Fridays and Paul Ross took over the mid-week duties. Richard Orford replaced Ross around Easter 1995, but he was quickly dropped. After this, the show reverted to using just one male presenter throughout the week. This role alternated between Keith Chegwin and Mark Little.

Relaunch

Roslin continued full-time until she made way for Zoë Ball in 1996. Audience figures slipped a little after Evans left, and a little more after Roslin stopped appearing. Mark Little left shortly afterwards and was replaced by Keith Chegwin. To stop the sliding viewing figures, the show was given a relaunch, including refurbishing the house at a cost of £2 million. Ball and Chegwin were replaced by Rick Adams and Sharron Davies, but viewing figures fell dramatically, losing audience primarily to radio and GMTV. Producers stopped the rot quickly though, finding a winning partnership in Johnny Vaughan (who eventually spent more than 1,023 hours in front of the camera) and Denise van Outen.^[5] Audience figures jumped back almost to their peak. In 1999 Vaughan also briefly presented with Kelly Brook, who was largely unknown at the time, but Brook's lack of experience in presenting a demanding live TV show clearly showed and audience figures dropped. As a result, Brook was sacked while on holiday, saying that she found out about losing her job from reading a newspaper, and later adding that waking up at 6am every morning had been taking its toll. Liza Tarbuck then co-presented for a while but when she decided to leave after eighteen months, van Outen returned.

Demise

The two presenters' departure turned out to be the death-knell for the show, as viewers did not warm to their replacements, Richard Bacon, Paul Tonkinson, Amanda Byram and Simon Feilder.

Mike McClean and Donna Air joined the show as it reverted to using more than one main presenter, but this format only lasted for a couple of months and the show went back to its original format for what would be its final months, with Bacon and Byram as the main presenters. The Big Breakfast last aired on 29 March 2002. The final programme included a twenty-minute retrospective that included contributions from Evans, Roslin, Vaughan and van Outen. Both Evans and Vaughan declared the cancelling of the show a bad idea. The show ended with a tribute from the Prince of Wales before the last Friday song.

When the show finished, the house again became a private residence, now known as 'The Cottage'. After renovation following a fire, it has also been used for a number of television shows.^[6]

Innovations

Mark Lamarr, Keith Chegwin, Paul Ross, Richard Orford, Richard Bacon and Mike McClean were "down your doorstep" outside broadcasters, often turning up live and unannounced at an unsuspecting viewer's house, while rooms within the Lock Keeper's Cottages featured the zany aliens Zig and Zag and video games guru Ben the Boffin.

The show's style, with hand-held cameras moving around all of the set, meant that many of the crew members could be seen on screen. This led to them getting nicknames, such as 'Sturdy Girl', who was regularly asked to shake her head so that her hair would be hurled around whilst music played and the camera zoomed in and out. 'The Carpet Monster' was revealed in the Doctor Who Special to have been an extra, playing a deadly clown, in the Seventh Doctor story The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

The show also used gimmicks such as live weddings to attract viewers. The first one was in 1993. This featured Jamie and Mandy from Catterick in North Yorkshire, who also came back on the show after their honeymoon.

Main presenters

Chris Evans (1992–1994) Gaby Roslin (1992–1996) Danni Minogue (1994-1995) Paul Ross (1994–1995) Mark Little (1994–1996) Keith Chegwin (1995–1996)[7] Zoë Ball (1996) Rick Adams (1996–1997) Sharron Davies (1996–1997) Johnny Vaughan (1997–2001)

Denise van Outen (1997–1998, 2000–2001) Kelly Brook (1999)[8][9][10][11][12] Liza Tarbuck (1999–2000)[13][14] Paul Tonkinson (2001)[15] Donna Air (2001) Richard Bacon (2001–2002) Amanda Byram (2001–2002) Mike McClean (2001–2002) Lisa Rogers (2001–2002) Helen Chamberlain

• The most regular temporary stand-in presenters for Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin were Danny Baker (1993–94) and Dani Behr (1994-95). Baker stood in while Evans was working on the first series of Don't Forget Your Toothbrush.

Features presenters

• Bob Geldof - (1992) (Interviewer)
• Paula Yates - (1992-1995) (On the Bed Interviewer)^[16][17][18]
• Mark Lamarr - (1992-1996) (Outside interviewer)
• Zig & Zag - (1992-1998) (The Crunch), 2002 (Alien Alarm)
• Kim Wilde - (1993) (as co-presenter with Chris Evans)
• Lily Savage - (1995-1996) (On the Bed Interviewer)
• Ant & Dec (1995 - 1997)
• Vanessa Feltz - (1996-1998) (On the Bed Interviewer)
• Johnny Vegas - (2000-2001) (Morning Glory)
• Gail Porter
• Sara Cox
• Jenny McCarthy

Newsreaders

• Phil Gayle (1996–2000)
• Jasmine Lowson (2000–2002)

Spin-offs and related programming

The Bigger Breakfast

Between 1997 and 2000, during most nationally recognised UK school holiday periods, as well as occasional bank holidays, The Big Breakfast would run beyond its typical 9am finish to provide continuity into and out of unrelated shows aimed primarily towards children. This would last throughout the morning, usually until around midday. Although typically presented to the viewer as simply a programme on Channel 4, most of The Bigger Breakfast is perhaps better classified as an informal style of in-vision continuity.

The strand also acted as an umbrella brand for the programming which it linked to, by use of Big Breakfast style break-bumpers and Digital On-Screen Graphics.^[19] The expanded format always featured the regular content of The Big Breakfast from 7am-9am. The first run of The Bigger Breakfast during the summer of 1997 was titled as such all the way from its 7am start, presented throughout by Richard Orford and Denise Van Outen. Future editions would see slight separations made from the 7am-9am content, by way of this portion of the show being branded and scheduled as The Big Breakfast, with all content after 9am taking on the expanded Bigger Breakfast name. After a while, a further distinction was made by using a different set of presenters from that of The Big Breakfast. Presenters of The Bigger Breakfast included Josie D'Arby, Ben Shephard, Melanie Sykes and Dermot O'Leary.

Programming was primarily composed of reruns of Channel 4 shows and US imports. The line-up changed frequently. The list below is of some of series featured on the Bigger Breakfast over the years:

Babylon 5 Batman Bewitched Boy Meets World Bug Juice California Dreams CatDog City Guys The Crystal Maze Eerie Indiana Fantastic Four Inspector Gadget Hang Time

Johnny Bravo Madison Moesha The Monkees Planet Pop Planet pop [20] Pugwall's Summer Renford Rejects Sam & Max Saved by the Bell Sister Sister The Secret World of Alex Mack

The Bigger Breakfast was discontinued after summer holidays in 2000. The block of programming provided within The Bigger Breakfast was retained, with Channel 4's youth strand T4 taking over the continuity role.

Snap

Snap Cackle Pop, a regular and recurring feature throughout the history of The Big Breakfast, was briefly retitled as simply Snap, in 1997. As well as continuing as a short, daily entertainment news feature within The Big Breakfast, Snap also became a show in its own right. Airing once weekly at 6.00pm on Channel 4, the half hour show was a light hearted round-up of recent news stories concerning popular entertainment in the UK.

Presented by Denise Van Outen, the show was intentionally recognisable as being closely related to The Big Breakfast, from which it originated and continued to be part of. Snap contained a number of elements synonymous with The Big Breakfast, such as using the very same boudoir set and on-the-bed interviewing of guests. However, care was generally taken not to alienate viewers who were not so familiar with The Big Breakfast.

The Big Breakfast End of the Year Show 1992

Three months after first appearing, Chris Evans, Gaby Roslin and Paula Yates hosted a live edition of the show, seeing in the new year of 1993. Zsa Zsa Gabor featured as a special guest.

The Biggest Breakfast Ever

At 12.30am on 1 January 2000, a mammoth eight-hour live broadcast took place from Lock Keepers' Cottages to herald in the new century. Written by Ged Parsons and John Mann, The Biggest Breakfast Ever was hosted by Johnny Vaughan and Liza Tarbuck and featured many classic moments and 'best of' features. Even eight hours of airtime was not enough. The show's producers got Channel 4 to extend its broadcast time by half an hour to fit in the premiere of the competition "Wonga" (a large-scale version of Jenga). The winner of the game had been told to 'stop steadying the stack' on numerous occasions, but was still allowed to play and eventually won £100,000. It was a prize game that returned to the show many times in its final two years, but never again was anyone allowed to blatantly break the rules of the game.

Lock Keepers' Cottages

Unusually for a live British TV show at the time of its creation, The Big Breakfast was broadcast entirely from a real house. Located alongside the Hertford Union Canal, in east London, the property became informally known as 'The Big Breakfast House'. Filming would frequently take place within the large grounds of the property and the closely surrounding area. The cottages are in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Built in 1947, the property originally comprised three cottages which housed the lock keepers, toll takers, and navigation operators of the Old Ford Locks in Bow. By the time of purchase by the programme-makers, Planet24, in 1992, the property had become Grade II listed and had remained unused for around 20 years. Extensive renovation work saw the transformation of the three cottages into one large three-bedroom property, specifically fitted for use as a TV studio. The exterior character of the property was largely unchanged. During the first four years of the show, the given address for the house was number 2, Lock Keepers' Cottages. The '2' was later dropped.

In 1996, due to the declining popularity of The Big Breakfast, the house was transformed in an art deco-style makeover. The original brickwork was virtually entirely covered over with a smooth rendered finish, painted white. Two large balconies now adorned the front and rear. The only untouched exterior features recognisable from the show's original styling were the four brick chimneys and the roof. The legality of this extensive makeover could be questioned as having broken the rules of by its Grade II listed status. The work carried out is purported to have cost around £2million, largely funded by its sale to the show's parent company, Channel Four Television.

Structurally, the house largely remained in this style for the remainder of the series. The only notable structural alterations were the removal of the front balcony, the partial removal of the balcony to the rear and minor alterations to the styling of the doors and windows.

However, the character of the house was altered through several artistic makeovers to both the interior and exterior. The exterior was painted bright yellow, later a light brown similar in shade to the original brickwork, followed by a faux red brickwork effect which was painted onto the render. The latter style became the final look of the house, during the show's final three-and-a-half years.

Cottages since The Big Breakfast

In November 2002, seven-and-a-half months after The Big Breakfast was axed, a fire destroyed a significant proportion of the first floor of the cottages. A large part of the roof was also destroyed in the blaze. The fire was suspicious as there was no gas or electrical supply to the building.

Since the fire, extensive work has taken place to restore the house and it is now used as a family home. The house was bought for little more than half the original asking price of £1 million at £550,000. The house was slashed in value because the fire of November 2002.

The house has now been fully renovated, but some of the well-recognised aspects of the house from its use during the run of The Big Breakfast remain.

The newly renovated house features in the BBC Two show Neneh and Andi Dish It Up, BBC Three's Singing With the Enemy, and most recently Too Fat To Toddle on ITV1.

The cottages are located about 200 metres from the site of the main stadium used in the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2005, the cottages became part of a compulsory purchase order for the Games,^[21] giving rise to speculation that the building may be demolished. However, the cottages and gardens remain unchanged.

The house made a cameo appearance in a Channel 4 ident shown in the lead-up to the channel's coverage of the Paralympics in August 2012.

Games and features

Pun Down

UK tabloid newspapers delight in punny headlines. The Pun-Down took a look at the best (or worst) puns in the headlines of that day's papers, and was especially popular in the Johnny Vaughan era. On Fridays this became the "Pun of the Week" when an award was made for the best pun from the week's newspapers.

Question About the Clip

Before most advertisement breaks a clip from an upcoming TV show or movie would be shown, a question being asked by one of the hosts about it; the answer would be revealed after the advert break, along with details of the show or film. This feature would result in the production team chorusing "Don't phone, it's just for fun!" which was a Chris Evans creation, initially used on his radio shows before he shot to fame on The Big Breakfast.

Question of the Day

A phone-in feature encouraging viewers to provide humorous answers throughout the morning to a pertinent (or occasionally inane) question. At one point it was accompanied by a fanfare, apparently played on the trumpet by "little Ted" beneath the camera (in fact a member of the team waving a toy trumpet in shot). One morning's question was "What should the BBC do to improve EastEnders?", and one viewer suggested adding Barbara Windsor to the cast; this actually occurred shortly afterwards.

Super Hints

"Your indispensable guide to a better life!", this feature appeared during the early years of the show; in it celebrities would give various simple but useful hints for such issues as cleaning or keeping food fresh.^[16]

Streaky Bacon

"Streaky Bacon" became a regular feature, in which Richard Bacon would get a member of the public out of their house to 'streak' along their street wearing nothing but bacon-covered underwear in order to win their weight in bacon from their local butcher.

Vital Statistics

"Vital Statistics" was another common feature, particularly in the Johnny Vaughan era. These would often relate to a news story, a guest or a topic they had discussed, such as Doctor Who on their Doctor Who Special.

On the Bed

A key feature for the first five years was the "On the Bed" interview. Paula Yates (the then wife of Bob Geldof, whose company produced the show), and later Paul O'Grady (as Lily Savage) and Vanessa Feltz assumed the role of interviewer. One of the most infamous on-air moments was Paula Yates' open flirting during an interview with Michael Hutchence as a prelude to their affair.

More Tea, Vicar

A repeating feature in the Vaughan and van Outen era, in which an erratically filmed, speeded-up video clip of a line of tea cups was shown to a call-in viewer. Vaughan, dressed as an Anglican vicar, and van Outen, dressed as a nun replete with false teeth and an inferiority complex, then explained the rules. The caller guessed the number of tea cups shown in the video lead in, with Vaughan responding "More tea, vicar" if the number is too low; "Less tea, vicar" if too high. If the contestant guessed the correct number within the time limit, a prize was awarded.

The lyrics to "More Tea, Vicar" were as follows:

More tea, vicar

More tea, vicar

More tea, vicar

Guess how many cups

From Me Shed, Son

The inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis, would join Johnny Vaughan in the shed to discuss innovative new products. Vaughan tended to make fun of Baylis for being older.

Wonga

A Jenga-style game, followed by various shouting and anarchy, with fans and the Wonga Lawyer. The show famously went over 27 minutes for a game once, with the Millennium Big Breakfast actually being commissioned with extra time for Wonga.

Wonga money

The Big Breakfast used to give out "wonga money" to people when they won money because they didn't want to give it to them on the show. They would give the real thing to them later.

The Friday Song

Each Friday the two main presenters and the whole crew would gather in the hallway for The Friday Song. The song would look back at events that happened on the show each week

The lyrics to the chorus went as follows:

'Singing, wakey, wakey, wakey rise and shine,
The big breakfast is the only way to dine,
It's your number one big breakie
So get it down your neckie,
And stick with us from seven until nine!''

Others

Guess The Mess One Lump or Two? Sunny Side Up Pots Stop Telly Rellies Get Your Kit On Show Us Your Behind Court With Your Pants Down You Pet Spot the Sausage What's in My Pants What's Your Job, Bob? Yanks for the Memories Bring Home The Bacon Bowl The Vole Get Your Nobbly Nuts Out Egg On Your Face Young Fogey The Brian Moore The Merrier Pushy Mum Why

Bun in the Oven (Bunny in the Oven was an Easter special) The Vincent Price Is Right Housey Housey Wheel Of Fish Stop The Mop Chicken In A Basket Moving The Goalposts My Lenny, Um, Gnome An Ostrich In Time Whose Washing Line Is It Anyway? Ice One Cyril Licence To Lurk Arrest The Vest Beat The Banger Game for a Bath Thatch of the Day Gaggin' for it Count-Down-Under Young Fogies Lost in Telly Vidal Balloon

References

External links

• The Big Breakfast at channel4.com

UK breakfast television programmes BBC Breakfast Time Breakfast News Breakfast with Frost Business Breakfast BBC Breakfast BBC World News ITV TV-am Good Morning Britain Daybreak Wide Awake Club GMTV ITV Breakfast Daybreak (2010-2014) Good Morning Britain Lorraine Weekend Channel 4 The Channel Four Daily The Big Breakfast RI:SE Morning Glory Freshly Squeezed Channel 5 5 News Early Five News Breakfast Milkshake! Sky News Sky News Sunrise Other Channel M Breakfast CITV/CITV Breakfast Breakfast with Frost

Coordinates: 51°32′18″N 0°01′14″W / 51.5383°N 0.0205°W / 51.5383; -0.0205