''Breakfast Time'' is British television's first national breakfast television programme. It was broadcast from 17 January 1983 until 29 September 1989 on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

across the United Kingdom. It was broadcast for the first time just over two weeks before

TV-am 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 ...

, the commercial breakfast television station. On 2 October 1989, the show became ''

Breakfast News ''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 techn ...

''.first tx. of "BBC BREAKFAST NEWS" (BBC1)

Format

''Breakfast Time'' mixed hard news with accessible features, creating a cosy feel, with sofas and bright colours. The presenters typically wore casual clothes instead of formal suits, in contrast to the regular news broadcasts.

Frank Bough Francis Joseph Bough (; 15 January 1933 – 21 October 2020) was an English television presenter. He was best known as the host of BBC sports and current affairs shows including '' Grandstand'', '' Nationwide'' and '' Breakfast Time'', which he l ...

Selina Scott Selina Mary Scott (born 13 May 1951) is an English television presenter. She co-hosted the first dedicated breakfast television programme in the UK, before moving to the United States to join '' West 57th'', a prime-time current-affairs show. Sc ...

and

Nick Ross Nicholas David Ross (born 7 August 1947) is an English radio and television presenter. During the 1980s and 1990s he was one of the most ubiquitous of British broadcasters but is best known for hosting the BBC Television programme ''Crimewatc ...

anchored the show, with regulars such as

Russell Grant Russell John Dammerall Grant (born 5 February 1951) is a British astrologer and media personality. He has written several books on astrology, provides syndicated newspaper horoscopes and operates premium rate astrology phone lines. In March 2 ...

(astrology) and Diana Moran, also known as the "Green Goddess" due to the colour of her

leotard A leotard () is a unisex skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870). There are sleeveless, short-sleeved, and l ...

. 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 ''

BBC London Plus ''BBC London Plus'' was the name of the BBC's regional news programme for southeastern England. Launched on Monday 3 September 1984, the programme represented the BBC's attempt to boost regional news service for the South East. Prior to the launc ...

'' 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 Michael Fish (born 27 April 1944) is a British weather forecasting, weather forecaster. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for BBC Weather. Career Fish was born on 27 April 1944 in Eastbourne, Sussex. Educated at Osmington Sch ...

, Bill Giles and

Ian McCaskill Ian McCaskill (born John Robertson McCaskill; 28 July 1938 – 10 December 2016) was a Scottish meteorologist and television and radio presenter, who frequently presented weather forecasts on the BBC. Early life McCaskill attended Queen's Par ...

stood in during Wilson's absence. During ''Breakfast Times first broadcast, letters and telegrams were sent from different breakfast shows around the world to wish ''Breakfast Time'' good luck such as

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

for Australia, CTV for Canada,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

for the United States,

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB; zh, t=電視廣播有限公司) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Canton ...

for Hong Kong and

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

for Japan. Among the in-studio guests on the first ''Breakfast Time'' on 17 January 1983 was

Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host and author, active in news reporting since 1972. She first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the age of ...

, presenter of NBC News ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' 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. On Monday 10 November 1986, ''Breakfast Time'' was relaunched with a news desk and presenters in suits. 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 8:30am and 8:55am.

Comparisons with TV-am

The commercial breakfast show

launched two weeks later on ITV. Despite TV-am's high-profile presenters, ''Breakfast Time'' proved more popular with viewers. ''Breakfast Time'' notably broadcast continuous live coverage of the

Brighton hotel bombing On 12 October 1984 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate members of the British government, including the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. Five people were killed, in ...

at the Conservative Party conference in 1984. TV-am, meanwhile, was castigated by the broadcasting authority for its poor coverage of the event. TV-am had just one crew covering the conference, but they had been called back to London to cover a train crash in Wembley. 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 The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. However, on two occasions, weekend editions of the programme were broadcast. They were to provide coverage of the

Zeebrugge ferry disaster MS ''Herald of Free Enterprise'' was a roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ferry which capsized moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the night of 6 March 1987, killing 193 passengers and crew. The eight-deck car and passenger ferry was ow ...

and the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

Olympic Breakfast Time

The

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

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.

presented the programme with

David Icke David Vaughan Icke ( ; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist, author and a former Association football, footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more tha ...

providing "Olympic Action Summaries" at 7.05, 8.05 and 8.50. 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. 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. The weekend editions also included news summaries, albeit hourly rather than every 30 minutes.BBC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 1 October 1988
/ref>

References

External links

* * {{UK Breakfast TV BBC television news shows 1983 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings British English-language television shows Breakfast television in the United Kingdom

Format

Comparisons with TV-am

Olympic Breakfast Time

Further reading

References

External links