BBC Breakfast

BBC Breakfast
File:Breakfast logo.jpg
Created by	BBC News
Presented by	Bill Turnbull Sian Williams Charlie Stayt Susanna Reid
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	195 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	2 October 2000 – Present
Related
BBC News at One, BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten BBC News (8pm summary) BBC Weekend News

BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items. The programme is broadcast seven days a week, every week of the year, including weekends and public holidays, which are presented from the BBC News channel set.

Alison Ford, previously the UK Editor for BBC Newsgathering, is the current Editor of the programme, following the departure of David Kermode to Five News.

History

The programme was originally called Breakfast Time and was conceived as the BBC's answer to ITV's plans for breakfast television. Breakfast Time was first on the air. This show was broadcast on 17 January 1983 with Frank Bough, Selina Scott, Nick Ross and Russell Grant. The relaxed feel to the programme included a set designed to be a front room, with red leather sofas, and Bough and Ross wore jumpers and open-necked shirts which added to the air of informality. The first producer, Ron Neil, created a savvy mix of serious news and accessible features, and the BBC show was a huge hit to the detriment of the more formal ITV rival Good Morning Britain, where ratings were so poor its producer, TV-am, almost went bankrupt.

After Ron Neil's departure the programme began to revert to a more traditional and formal approach. Presenters included Kirsty Wark, John Stapleton, Jeremy Paxman and Sally Magnusson.

Following a relaunch, the programme was renamed Breakfast News in 4 September 1989 and followed a much more authoritative tone with a desk modelled on the style used on main news bulletins.

A much larger relaunch came in 2 October 2000 with the establishment of Breakfast, merging the operations of the separate BBC One and BBC News 24 programmes for one single simulcast. Since April 2006 BBC News 24 has begun rolling news coverage at 08:30 while the programme continues on BBC One until 09:15.

From 0830 the tone of the programme shifts to a lighter tone. There is a sports bulletin followed by between three and five items that are mainly arts, entertainment or cultural in nature and in 2006, have included interviews with Halle Berry, Sir Michael Caine and Reese Witherspoon . This provides a link to the daytime schedule, via the daytime controller and also the BBC One Controller.

On Saturdays and Sundays the programme broadcasts from the BBC News Channel studio. It is simulcast on the BBC News Channel and BBC One on both days, lasting until 1000 on Saturdays, and until 0900 on Sundays, although on Sundays in the football season the programme ends on BBC One at 0735 to make way for the repeat of the Match of the Day highlights programme from the evening before, while Breakfast continues until 0900 on News 24.

On Sundays, the female presenter leaves the programme 15 minutes before conclusion to move to another studio in which she presents two news bulletins during the following programme, The Andrew Marr Show.

The programme celebrated its 25th anniversary on 17 January 2008.

The current presentation of the programme was introduced with a wider relaunch of BBC One news bulletins on 2 May 2006. Breakfast moved into studio N6 at Television Centre with the other BBC One bulletins requiring a new, larger set design. The new set walls are made up of Barco video screens allowing for different backgrounds, graphics and still photographs. Initially the background used were of cirrus clouds on a blue sky but following comments from viewers that this was too cold, the background was replaced by orange squares from the new titles. This was also designed to hide any joins or faults between the screens which had been made obvious beforehand.The set has a generic format which can be used for other programmes like the national news bulletins with very little set movement.

On 28 January 2008 Breakfast returned to its previous studio, TC7, as part of BBC News studio changes. The set however remained the same.

Presenters

Main presenters

• Bill Turnbull - Main weekday presenter since 2008, weekend and regular weekday presenter since 2001
• Sian Williams - Main weekday presenter since 2006, weekend and regular weekday presenter since 2001
• Susanna Reid - Main weekend presenter and occasional weekday presenter since 2006
• Charlie Stayt - Main weekend presenter and occasional weekday presenter since 2008, relief presenter since 2006

Relief presenters

• Chris Hollins - Relief presenter
• Louise Minchin - Relief presenter
• Sonia Deol - Weekend relief presenter
• Noel Thompson - Weekend relief presenter
• Ben Geoghagen - Weekend relief presenter

As well as presenting from the studio, the main presenters are called upon to present on location when major stories break. For example, Bill Turnbull presented live from King's Cross in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, while Sian Williams reported live from the scene of the Indian earthquake in 2005.

Sport

Sports updates are presented from the main studio at 06.20, 06.35, 07.35 and 08.35. The main presenters are:

• Chris Hollins - Monday-Thursday
• Sean Fletcher - Fridays and weekday relief
• Mike Bushell - Weekends and occasionally during the week
• Amanda Davies - Weekend relief

Business

Breakfast's regular business presenter is Declan Curry, who presents business updates at 06.10, 06.25, 06.50, 07.25, 07.55 and 08.25 on Breakfast, continuing on thr BBC News channel throughout the morning. Aaron Heslehurst regularly fills in for Curry.

Weather

The weather is broadcast at 15 and 45 minutes past each hour throughout the programme. During the week, forecasts are normally presented from the Blue Peter Garden, from the roof of Television Centre or out on location, often when the weather is in the news, such as during an expected storm surge in 2007 and from sporting events such as Wimbledon, in 2008. The weather presenters are:

• Carol Kirkwood - Monday-Thursday
• Matt Taylor - Weekends and occasionally weekdays
• Liam Dutton - Weekends
• Chris Fawkes - Weekends
• Alex Deakin - Weekends

Reporters

The programme has a team of reporters permanently assigned to Breakfast in addition to using the reporters who appear across BBC news outlets. Reporters work on outside broadcasts at home and abroad presenting live interviews, and coverage from news and feature stories. They are also reporters on news stories and features providing the voice or commentary to a video taped report - although many of these stories are now edited and transmitted using digital technology .

As of 2008, the dedicated team includes Julia George, Sarah Campbell, Graham Satchell, Richard Westcott, Susannah Streeter and Tim Muffett. Reeta Chakrabarti is the programme's main political correspondent.

Video podcast

In September 2006, Breakfast launched its own video podcast called the Breakfast Takeaway. BBC Television News had already launched three other services: Newsnight, the Ten O'Clock News and STORYFix which also had a television version broadcast at the weekend on News 24. The Breakfast takeaway was available Monday to Friday in MP4 format where it could be downloaded to and viewed from a home or office computer.

The video podcasts were a one year trial, and from July 2007 they were discontinued. They are currently reviewing the trial and how to progress forward.

Specials

In 2003, the Breakfast production team was commissioned by BBC One to make a week long series called The Day Team From Chatsworth presented by Nicki Chapman, and presenter of the BBC's Countryfile programme, John Craven. It took a behind the scenes look at the stately home Chatsworth House and was broadcast separately on BBC One at 1030 in the morning.

A number of other guests, or celebrity presenters have been used on Breakfast to present themed days or weeks, even though some have never been mainstream news reporters or presenters. Many of these have seen the programme extended to 0930:

• Chris Beardshaw - Chelsea Flower Show 2006
• Alistair Appleton - Tate Modern 2004, Bath, Somerset 2003
• Jennie Bond - Buckingham Palace 2004
• Nicki Chapman - Children in Need November 2005, London Fashion Week 2004, Chelsea Flower Show 2006
• Philippa Forrester - Alder Hey Children's Hospital 2002
• Andi Peters - Neighbours set 2005, EastEnders/Albert Square outside broadcast 2006
• Gaby Roslin - Wimbledon (tennis outside broadcast) 2002
• Tim Wonnacott - Christie's Auction Room 2004

Former presenters

• Sue Thearle - who presented the sport onFriday and occasionally during the week and weekend for 13 years before leaving in May 2008 to present on the BBC News Channel
• Rob Bonnet - main sport presenter for ten years until October 2005, moved to present BBC World News and weekend bulletins.
• Jeremy Bowen - main presenter alongside Sophie Raworth between 2000 and 2002, now the BBC's Middle East Editor
• Darren Jordon - presented alongside Sarah Montague between 2000-2001, now deputy presenter on Al Jazeera English
• Natasha Kaplinsky - main presenter alongside Dermot Murnaghan and Bill Turnbull between 2002 and 2005. Moved to present the Six O'Clock News, initially as cover for Sophie Raworth but was confirmed as full-time presenter in April 2006. Now with Five News
• Isobel Lang - weather presenter, now working for Sky News
• Sarah Montague - presented alongside Darren Jordon, now presents BBC Radio 4's Today
• Sophie Raworth - presented alongside Jeremy Bowen, Bill Turnbull and Dermot Murnaghan between 2000-2002, now presents the BBC's One O'Clock News
• Moira Stuart - regular newsreader for Breakfast from launch until the relaunch of the programme in May 2006. She presented her last bulletin for Breakfast on 26 April 2006. She then became a newsreader Sunday AM and The Politics Show as well as some weekend BBC News bulletins. She has now been dropped by BBC News.
• Mishal Husain - joined the programme to cover for Sian Williams who in turn had been covering for Natasha Kaplinsky. She has rejoined BBC World as well as presenting weekend bulletins on BBC One.
• Kate Silverton - Regular Relief Presenter from 2005 until 2007, when she moved to present the new 8pm bulletin and cover the BBC News at One.
• Dermot Murnaghan - Main weekday presenter from 2002 until December 2007 after joining from ITN. He presented alongside Sophie Raworth, Natasha Kaplinsky and Sian Williams before leaving when he moved to Sky News.

Awards

• In March 2006, Breakfast won the TRIC award for best daytime television programme for the third year in a row.

Spoofs

• During there time working on the programme presenters Dermot Murnaghan and Kate Silverton were parodied by Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens on the Dead Ringers programme on BBC Two.
• Studio8's Breakfast News also parodied BBC Breakfast, shown on BBC Blast On Two in 2005.
• Armstrong and Miller spoof the programme in their comedy sketch shows

See also

• Breakfast television
• GMTV

External links

• BBC Breakfast at BBC Online