Breakfast Time (British TV programme)

*Breakfast Time*
Breakfast Time
Genre	Breakfast television
Presented by	Frank Bough (1983–1987); Selina Scott (1983–1986); Nick Ross (1983–1986); Mike Smith (1983–1986); Francis Wilson (1983–1989); Sue Cook (1983–1986); Fern Britton (1983–1984); Debbie Greenwood (1985–1986); Sally Magnusson (1985–1989); John Mountford ; Jeremy Paxman (1986–1989); John Stapleton ; Jill Dando (1988–1989)(1988–1989); Kirsty Wark (1988–1989)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Running time	150 minutes (1983–1986); 120 minutes (1988–1989)
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	17 January 1983 –; 29 September 1989
Related
	Breakfast News ;

Last updated April 01, 2024

Breakfast Time is British television's first national breakfast television programme. It was broadcast from 17 January 1983 until 29 September 1989 on BBC1 across the United Kingdom. It was broadcast for the first time just over two weeks before TV-am, the commercial breakfast television station.

Format

Breakfast Time mixed hard news with accessible features, creating a cosy feel, with sofas and bright colours.^[3] The presenters typically wore casual clothes instead of formal suits, in contrast to the regular news broadcasts. Frank Bough, Selina Scott and Nick Ross anchored the show, with regulars such as Russell Grant (astrology) and Diana Moran, also known as the "Green Goddess" due to the colour of her leotard.

The news was read by Debbie Rix, while each region opted out of the main programme at quarter past and quarter to the hour to broadcast short regional news bulletins. Initially, viewers in London and the South East were provided with their regional news by one of the main Breakfast Time presenters rather than a regional presentation team. This continued until autumn 1985 when the new London and South East regional news programme London Plus started to provide the regional news opt-outs during the programme.

The weather slot (known as Window on the Weather) was presented by Francis Wilson, and reflected the rest of the show in having a more laid-back feel. Window on the Weather actually introduced modern, projection-style graphics some two years ahead of the transition from the old-style magnetic boards used in the BBC's main weather bulletins. Whilst Wilson was the resident weather presenter on the show, other presenters such as Michael Fish, Bill Giles and Ian McCaskill stood in during Wilson's absence.

During Breakfast Time's first broadcast, letters and telegrams were sent from different breakfast shows around the world to wish Breakfast Time good luck such as Network Ten for Australia, CTV for Canada, CBS and ABC for the United States, TVB for Hong Kong and NHK for Japan.^[4] Among the in-studio guests on the first Breakfast Time on 17 January 1983 was Jane Pauley, presenter of NBC News Today in the United States.

Breakfast Time aired from 6:30 am until 9:00 am each weekday morning. On Monday 18 February 1985, the programme changed to a later time slot of 6:50 am until 9:20 am.^[5]

On Monday 10 November 1986, Breakfast Time was relaunched with a news desk and presenters in suits.^[1] Hardened journalists such as Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark joined the team as the programme shifted its tone to analysis of the morning's news stories, especially politics. The new look programme also started later, running from 7:00 am and ended any time between 8:30 am and 8:55 am.^[6]

Comparisons with TV-am

The commercial breakfast show TV-am launched two weeks later on ITV.^[7] Despite TV-am's high-profile presenters, Breakfast Time proved more popular with viewers.^[7]^[3]

Breakfast Time notably broadcast continuous live coverage of the Brighton hotel bombing at the Conservative Party conference in 1984.^[3] TV-am, meanwhile, was castigated by the broadcasting authority for its poor coverage of the event.^[8] TV-am had just one crew covering the conference, but they had been called back to London to cover a train crash in Wembley.^[9] Only John Stapleton was present in Brighton, and had to make do with phoning in reports from a public phone box, with a picture of him shown on screen, along with an archive picture of the hotel.

Unlike TV-am, Breakfast Time was only broadcast on weekdays; weekend breakfast transmissions on BBC1 continued to consist of programmes from the Open University. However, on two occasions, weekend editions of the programme were broadcast. They were to provide coverage of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster and the Hillsborough disaster.

Olympic Breakfast Time

The 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympic Games took place during the period when Breakfast Time was on air and during both Games, with the exception of news, weather and regional news, the programme was entirely devoted to Olympic coverage. In 1984, the time difference meant that Olympic Breakfast Time was given over to highlights of the overnight action. Frank Bough presented the programme with David Icke providing "Olympic Action Summaries" at 7.05, 8.05 and 8.50.^[10] In 1988, Olympic Breakfast Time coincided with the middle of the afternoon local time so the programme mixed live coverage with overnight highlights. Steve Rider was the presenter with David Icke providing Olympic summaries at 6.30, 7.30 and 8.30am.^[11] During both Games, Olympic Breakfast Time was also broadcast over the weekend, although the Sunday edition in 1984 started at the later time of 7am.^[12] The weekend editions also included news summaries, albeit hourly rather than every 30 minutes.^[13]^[14]

Related Research Articles

TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise. Its daily broadcasts were between 6 am and 9.25 am.

This is a timeline of the history of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

<i>Breakfast News</i> British TV series or programme

Breakfast News is a breakfast news programme which first aired on BBC1 on 2 October 1989. The programme was previously known as Breakfast Time. It was planned to launch on 18 September 1989 but was held back by two weeks due to technical issues with its new studio. The programme adopted a rolling news format with news summaries every 15 minutes plus weather and regional news every 30 minutes. Other features included a review of the day's newspapers and regular business news updates.

BBC Breakfast is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel every morning from 6:00am. The simulcast is presented live, originally from the BBC Television Centre, London before moving in 2012 to MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. The programme is broadcast daily and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items.

This is a list of British television related events from 1992.

This is a list of British television related events from 1988.

This is a list of British television related events from 1987.

This is a list of British television related events from 1986.

This is a list of British television related events from 1985.

This is a list of British television related events from 1984.

This is a list of British television-related events from 1983.

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This is a list of British television related events from 1980.

News After Noon is a news bulletin that aired on BBC1 at lunchtimes from 7 September 1981 to 24 October 1986.

The Radio 2 Breakfast Show refers to a range of programming on weekday mornings on BBC Radio 2 since the station's inception on 30 September 1967. The show's longest serving host to date was Sir Terry Wogan, who worked on the programme for 28 years in 2 separate stints, from 3 April 1972 until 28 December 1984, and again from 4 January 1993 until 18 December 2009. The show's shortest serving host to date was Brian Hayes, who hosted the show from 6 January to 23 December 1992. Since 14 January 2019, the show is now hosted by Zoe Ball.

This is a timeline of the history of BBC One.

This is a timeline of the history of breakfast television in the United Kingdom.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Television News.

This is a timeline of the history of television news in the UK.

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References

1 2 3 "BBC NEWS – Programmes – Breakfast – Presenters – The Evolution of Breakfast". BBC News. 14 November 2008.
↑ first tx. of "BBC BREAKFAST NEWS" (BBC1) BBC Timeline at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 November 2014)
1 2 3 Gough, Patrick (13 January 2008). "Wake up call". Bournemouth Daily Echo . Retrieved 27 August 2019.
↑ Breakfast Time – First Edition Wishes. TVARK . 17 January 1983. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
↑ "Breakfast Time – BBC One London – 18 February 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3196): 41. 14 February 1985.
↑ "Breakfast Time – BBC One London – 10 November 1986 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3285): 50. 6 November 1986.
1 2 "BBC Breakfast celebrates 30 years". BBC News. 13 January 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
↑ Dawkins, Andrew (February 2013). "Breakfast TV's 'turmoil' recalled". BBC News.
↑ Bonner, P.; Aston, L. (13 December 2002). Independent Television in Britain: Volume 6 New Developments in Independent Television 1981–92: Channel 4, TV-am, Cable and Satellite. Springer. ISBN 9780230287136.
↑ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 30 July 1984
↑ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 23 September 1988
↑ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 5 August 1984
↑ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 4 August 1984
↑ BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 1 October 1988

External links

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[AirDates-1] 1 2 3 "BBC NEWS – Programmes – Breakfast – Presenters – The Evolution of Breakfast". BBC News. 14 November 2008.

[FirstDate-2] rst tx. of "BBC BREAKFAST NEWS" (BBC1) BBC Timeline at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 November 2014)

[Echo_Wake_Up_Call-3] 1 2 3 Gough, Patrick (13 January 2008). "Wake up call". Bournemouth Daily Echo . Retrieved 27 August 2019.

[4] Breakfast Time – First Edition Wishes. TVARK . 17 January 1983. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2013.

[5] "Breakfast Time – BBC One London – 18 February 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3196): 41. 14 February 1985.

[6] "Breakfast Time – BBC One London – 10 November 1986 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3285): 50. 6 November 1986.

[BBC_30_years-7] 1 2 "BBC Breakfast celebrates 30 years". BBC News. 13 January 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2019.

[8] Dawkins, Andrew (February 2013). "Breakfast TV's 'turmoil' recalled". BBC News.

[9] Bonner, P.; Aston, L. (13 December 2002). Independent Television in Britain: Volume 6 New Developments in Independent Television 1981–92: Channel 4, TV-am, Cable and Satellite. Springer. ISBN 9780230287136.

[10] BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 30 July 1984

[11] BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 23 September 1988

[12] BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 5 August 1984

[13] BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 4 August 1984

[14] BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 1 October 1988

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