''Breakfast with Frost'' is a Sunday morning

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

current affairs programme hosted by Sir David Frost. It covered the main political news of the day, with Frost interviewing key figures in the world of politics, and celebrity guests reviewing the Sunday papers. The programme was broadcast on

BBC One 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 channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

from 1993 to 2005.

History

TV-am

Frost was one of the original 'Famous Five' presenters and shareholders of the

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 ...

consortium, the first ITV breakfast franchise holder. Originally, Frost had promised 'sexual chemistry' as the co-presenter of the daily magazine programme '' Good Morning Britain'' with

Anna Ford Anna Ford (born 2 October 1943) is an English retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television, ITN, and the BBC. Ford helped launch the British ...

. However, its serious tone meant that within weeks of the station launching in February 1983, it faced poor ratings against the BBC's competing, lighter '' Breakfast Time'', which resulted in a major shakeup of TV-am's programming, management, and presenting line-up. After being dropped from the weekday morning slot, Frost was chosen to host the Sunday morning edition of ''Good Morning Britain'' from 28 August, initially for eight weeks with the belief that Michael Parkinson would return to his full duties in October. By November, Parkinson had returned; however, he was only given the Saturday slot after Frost had increased the number of viewers on Sundays. In summer 1985, it was named ''The Sunday Programme'', then renamed again on 13 September 1986 as ''David Frost on Sunday'', and a final name change in 1988 to ''Frost on Sunday''. As Frost only worked six months of the year, other hosts would fill in, including Jonathan Dimbleby,

Lorraine Kelly Lorraine Kelly (born 30 November 1959) is a Scottish television presenter. She has presented various television shows for ITV and STV, including '' Good Morning Britain'' (1988–1992), ''GMTV'' (1993–2010), ''This Morning'' (2003–2005, ...

, Anne Diamond and Maya Even. A number of episodes were also broadcast by BSB. The programme continued until the end of TV-am's franchise at the end of 1992, after it lost to

GMTV GMTV (an initialism for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ''ITV Breakfast, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited'', was the name of the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the Uni ...

in the 1991 ITV franchise renewal, and the final episode aired on 27 December 1992.

BBC

The BBC picked up the format straight away, starting the following week on 3 January 1993, and it continued for more than 12 years, until the final edition on 29 May 2005. The first ever guest to be interviewed on ''Breakfast with Frost'' was then Prime Minister,

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

. In its early years, a replay of the programme was broadcast on Sky News later on Sunday mornings. The final edition saw guests including Archbishop

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

, comedian

Rory Bremner Roderick Keith Ogilvy "Rory" Bremner,"Rory Bremner". '' Who Do You Think You Are?''. Wall to Wall for BBC One. 2 February 2009. No. 1, series 6. (born 6 April 1961) is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political sati ...

, and BBC director-general Mark Thompson, with TV presenter Carol Vorderman, author Gyles Brandreth, and chef

Nigella Lawson Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer and television cook. After graduating from Oxford, Lawson worked as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of ''The Sunday Times'' in ...

reviewing the papers.

Titles

The first opening titles were used from 3 January 1993 to 25 August 1996, the second version was used from 1 September 1996 to 30 August 2003, and the final version was used from 6 September 2003 to 29 May 2005. Its theme tune was composed by Chris Blackwell.

References

External links

''Breakfast with Frost''
at

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

''Breakfast with Frost''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

{{David Frost 1993 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings 1990s British political television series 1990s British television talk shows 2000s British political television series 2000s British television talk shows BBC television news shows Breakfast television in the United Kingdom British English-language television shows