BBC Breakfast

Breakfast Time was the first BBC breakfast programme, with Ron Neil as producer. It was conceived in response to the plans of the commercial television company TV-am to introduce a breakfast television show. Breakfast Time's first broadcast was on 17 January 1983[2] and was presented by Frank Bough, Selina Scott, Nick Ross and Russell Grant. The atmosphere of the set was intended to encourage a relaxed informality; a set that mimicked a living-room rather than a studio, with red leather sofas, and Bough and Ross wearing jumpers and open-necked shirts.[3] Breakfast Time lasted 150 minutes, initially being transmitted between 6.30am and 9am, before moving to a 6.50am to 9.20am slot on 18 February 1985.

Ron Neil, the programme's first editor,[4] departed from the programme and on 10 November 1986 a more conventional news focus was introduced featuring a news desk, presenters in smart dress and a time-reduced programme broadcast that began at 7am and ended any time between 8.30am and 8.55am.[3] Presenters included Kirsty Wark, John Stapleton, Jeremy Paxman and Sally Magnusson.

On 2 October 1989, the programme was renamed BBC Breakfast News and followed a more authoritative tone with a set modelled on the conventional desk style of news bulletins, starting at 6.30am. The programme had been planned to start in September but was postponed due to delays with the set. The first edition was presented by Nicholas Witchell and Jill Dando.[5]

In January 1993, both programmes moved to the then sixth floor N2 studio in a set used for the One, Six and Nine o'clock news.[5] Composer George Fenton reworked the theme tune for the Silicon Graphics CGI, title sequences were designed in-house by the BBC and the set was built by Television Production Design Ltd. The business news coverage extended to an hour-long programme in its own right, beginning at 6:00am, while Breakfast News started at 7 am. A further revamp occurred in June 1997 when the programme was renamed as simply Breakfast News.[5]

On 2 October 2000 the merging of separate breakfast programmes of BBC One and BBC News 24 into one single simulcast called BBC Breakfast started, with the first show hosted by Sophie Raworth and Jeremy Bowen.[5] The studio was replaced with a new set in 2003.

Since April 2006, the BBC News channel has returned to its traditional format from 8.30 am while Breakfast continues on BBC One until 9.15 am. In April 2008, BBC News 24 was renamed "BBC News", as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's news output, complete with a new studio and presentation.

On 2 May 2006, Breakfast moved into studio N6 at Television Centre with other BBC One news programmes that required a larger set design that included walls of Barco video screens. The original screen scenes of[5] cirrus clouds on a blue sky were changed as a result of viewer comments that 'it looked too cold'—their replacement was with orange squares of the same design as those appearing in the programme's new title sequence, which were designed to hide any joins or faults between the screens which had previously been obvious. The screens eventually displayed visuals needed for story content: different backgrounds, graphics and still photographs. More importantly, the set had a generic visual style that could be used for other programmes, such as the national news bulletins, without much additional physical change. The programme celebrated its 20th anniversary on 17 January 2003.[6]

On 28 January 2008, Breakfast returned to the TC7 studios, where Breakfast Time had been based following its move from the BBC Lime Grove Studios. On 2 March 2009, Breakfast relaunched with a new set and studio background.[5] The backdrop resembled that of the BBC News channel as did the new Breakfast titles. In May 2009 as part of costcutting the live broadcasts of the business news from the London Stock Exchange were dropped.[7]

BBC Breakfast set in 2010 with Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams

In July 2010, the BBC announced that Breakfast was moving to their new studios in Salford Quays.[8] The BBC announced that with the April 2012 move to Salford, co-presenter Sian Williams and sports presenter Chris Hollins preferred not be included in the move to the North of England.[9] Williams left Breakfast on 15 March 2012.

On 12 December 2011, the first of several presenter changes was announced. Louise Minchin would, with the studio move to Salford, join the other main presenters of BBC Breakfast: Bill Turnbull, Susanna Reid and Charlie Stayt. Carol Kirkwood, on 26 March 2012, would remain in London presenting weather. Sports presenters Mike Bushell and Sally Nugent and business presenter Steph McGovern would locate to Salford. The first Breakfast edition from Salford occurred on Tuesday 10 April 2012.[10] London-based newspapers have reported extensive criticism of the BBC move,[11][12][13] but a decrease in audience has not occurred with the retention of an approximate average of 1.5 million viewers.[14]

The 2012 Summer Olympics prompted BBC Breakfast to temporarily broadcast from an interim studio near the Olympic Park in Stratford. During the games, former presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins also returned to lead the morning programme, in addition to Bill Turnbull and BBC Sport presenter Hazel Irvine. The show ended its temporary London return with broadcasting from the BBC News Channel's studio on the morning following the closing ceremonies before rebroadcasting from Salford the next day.

On 19 March 2013, BBC Breakfast updated its "lower thirds" to match the graphics and fonts used by the rest of BBC News since the previous day. The clock was consequently moved to the lower right side of the screen.

On 23 July 2014, the show went on location again, this time to Glasgow to showcase highlights from the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In the hours leading up to the opening ceremony, Carol Kirkwood reported from Celtic Park.

For the 2016 Summer Olympics the programme was again renamed Olympic Breakfast and would be anchored from Salford and Rio.

Between 06:00 and 08:30 on weekdays, the programme is simulcast on BBC News. During the simulcast, the sports news is at 06:10, 06:35, 07:35 and 08:35. In addition, live sports bulletins are broadcast from sporting locations, such as Royal Ascot and Wimbledon, with the presenter interviewing key sporting figures. Business updates are presented at 06:10, when the main business stories from the newspapers are also discussed, and then at 20 minutes and 50 minutes past the hour, either from the studio, or out on location. The United Kingdom weather forecast is at 15 minutes and 45 minutes past the hour throughout the programme, either from the BBC Weather Centre in Broadcasting House, or out on location. Short (approximately four minutes) regional news, travel and weather bulletins are done just before the hour and the half-hour throughout the programme. Once the BBC News Channel breaks away for its own programming (starting from Business Live) at 08:30, a brief check of the headlines, and sports are done then the show gradually shifts to reporting lifestyle and entertainment-oriented stories. The show occasionally ends with a musical performance from one of the guests.

The show is abbreviated during bank holidays to just three hours but still features regional news updates, and is completely simulcast on the BBC News Channel.

During weekends, there are no updates from regional news bureaus. The first and/or second hour of the weekend edition may occasionally feature abbreviated versions of the BBC's other programmes such as Click, Reporters (shown in full at 6:30 on Sundays), The Travel Show and the Film Review. They also have a paper review with guests, and Paul Lewis normally discusses business or personal finance news. The show is also simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News Channel but BBC One occasionally breaks away on Sundays to show the previous night's edition of Match of the Day.

Breakfast encourages viewer response and interaction via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.[15][16] Video reports and interviews from the programme are made available on the Breakfast Facebook page after transmission.

BBC Breakfast's current main presenters are:

• Louise Minchin 2006–present (Main presenter 2012–present)
• Dan Walker 2016–present
• Charlie Stayt 2006–present
• Naga Munchetty 2009–present (Main presenter 2014–present) [21]

Richard Frediani is the current editor of BBC Breakfast. He took on the role in September 2019 after being appointed in July 2019.[25] He replaced Adam Bullimore who had held the role since 2013. Bullimore was previously the deputy editor for five years.[26] Alison Ford, previously the UK Editor for BBC Newsgathering, was the editor of the programme until her death in July 2013.[27] Her appointment followed the departure of David Kermode to 5 News.[28]

BBC Breakfast has a regular panel of experts who appear to provide specialist insight or analysis into news stories as when they are required. In addition the newspaper review at the weekends have a regular guest to provide commentary.

• Justin Urquhart Stewart, Business expert
• Kevin Maguire, Political journalist
• Andrew Pierce, Political journalist
• Dr Rangan Chatterjee, Doctor
• Dr Rosemary Leonard, Doctor
• Linda Papadopoulos, Psychologist
• Cary Cooper, Psychologist
• Ian McMillan, Poet
• Sally Hitchiner, Vicar
• Nazir Afzal, Former Chief Crown Prosecutor[29]
• Simon Calder, Travel expert
• Bobby Seagull, Maths expert
• Peter Bradshaw, Author and film critic

Presenters make on location broadcasts based on the significance of the story:

• 12 September 2001. Jeremy Bowen presented live near Ground Zero in New York City in the aftermath of the tragic events.
• November 2004. Dermot Murnaghan presented from Washington DC for the 2004 US Election.
• 7 July 2005. Bill Turnbull presented live from King's Cross in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
• 2005. Sian Williams reported live from the scene of the Indian earthquake.
• June 2006. Dermot Murnaghan presented from the election campaign from Bristol.[30]
• November 2008. Bill Turnbull reported live from Washington DC for the US Presidential Elections.
• September 2009, Kate Silverton presented from Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan.[31]
• September 2009. Bill Turnbull presented live from Brighton for the Liberal Democrats Conference.
• September 2009. Sian Williams presented from the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences.
• March 2010. Susanna Reid presented from the Academy Awards Ceremony.[32]
• 6 April 2010. Sian Williams presented from Westminster in the run-up to the announcement of the 2010 General Election.[33]
• April/May 2010. Bill Turnbull presented and reported from various locations on party campaign trail throughout the country.[34][35][36]
• 30 April 2010, Charlie Stayt presented the programme from the University of Birmingham following the final leaders debate of the election campaign.
• 12 May 2010. Sian Williams presented the programme from College Green, Westminster the day after David Cameron became Prime Minister.
• 12 May 2010. Bill Turnbull presented from outside 10 Downing Street.
• On 3 June 2010, Turnbull presented live from the town of Whitehaven, following the Cumbria shootings the previous day.
• 27 July 2010. Bill Turnbull presented on the progress of the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London starting two years before the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.[37] Chris Hollins presented the sports news from the same location.[37]
• September 2010. Bill Turnbull presented from their party conference in Liverpool and the Labour Conference in Manchester.
• October 2010. Sian Williams presented from the Tory Conference in Birmingham.[38]
• October 2010. Sian Williams presented from College Green, Westminster in anticipation of the unveiling of Chancellor George Osborne spending review.[39]
• October 2010. Sian Williams presented the unveiling of Chancellor George Osborne spending review.
• On 29 April 2011, a special split edition of the programme with Sian presenting from Westminster Abbey and Bill live from Buckingham Palace for the build-up of the Royal Wedding.
• 26 July 2012. Charlie Stayt and Louise Minchin presented the show live from the BBC News Studio in Olympic Park in London for the Olympic Games. Weather and sports news were also originated from the same location.
• 17 April 2013. Charlie Stayt presented the show from St Paul's Cathedral, London for a special split edition in the build-up of the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher.
• 27 & 28 June 2014. Bill Turnbull presented from Camp Bastion to celebrate Armed Forces Day.
• 4 August 2014. Charlie Stayt presented from Glasgow Cathedral in the lead up to ceremonies marking 100 years since World War 1 broke out.
• 13 March 2015. Bill Turnbull presented from St Paul's Cathedral, London in the lead up to a special service of remembrance to mark the end of operations in Afghanistan.
• 12 June 2016. Louise Minchin presented from outside Buckingham Palace in the lead up to the finale of the Queen's 90th Birthday celebrations.
• 25 June 2016. Naga Munchetty presented from outside the Palace of Westminster covering the aftermath of the United Kingdom's European Union membership referendum results.
• August 2016. For the 2016 Summer Olympics, Breakfast was broadcast from the BBC Sport studio, from the 6–22 August.
• 23 March 2017. Live from Westminster after London's terror attack with Charlie Stayt & Sally Nugent.
• 10 June 2017 . Hung Parliament result from 8 June Charlie Stayt & Louise Minchin speaking to MPS in westminster
• 14 June 2017. Charlie Stayt & Naga Munchetty focusing on a special on the Grenfell Tower fire that happened during the night.
• 15 June 2017. Charlie Stayt Live from West London and Naga in the studio talking to people after the Grenfell Tower fire.
• 19 May 2018. Naga Munchetty presented live from Windsor Castle to mark the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• 13 December 2018. Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt presented live from College Green, Westminster focusing on the unsuccessful vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May by Conservative Party MPs.
• 22 February 2019. Charlie Stayt and Steph McGovern presented live from Endcliffe Park in Sheffield where a flypast took place for the 75th anniversary of the "Mi Amigo" crash.

In September 2006, Breakfast launched its own video podcast called the Breakfast Takeaway. BBC News had already launched three other services: Newsnight, the Ten O'Clock News and STORYFix (also previously shown on television at weekends on News 24).[40] 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 but after the BBC then reviewed the trial, the podcasts have been discontinued since July 2007.

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 [41] and was broadcast separately on BBC One at 10:30am.

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 9:30am:

• Alistair Appleton – Tate Modern 2004, Bath, Somerset 2003
• Chris Beardshaw – Chelsea Flower Show 2006
• 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 Championships outside broadcast 2002
• Tim Wonnacott – Christie's Auction Room 2004

During the COVID-19 pandemic the programme was shortend to 3 hours (06:00-09:00) with the local news bulletins also being dropped. The BBC additionally implemented British Sign Language translations of the programme between 07:45 and 08:15 on the BBC News channel broadcast. During the pandemic, to comply with social distancing guidlines, the majority of interviews were carried out via video link, with only 2 presenters appearing on-screen in the studio.

• In March 2006, Breakfast won the TRIC award for best daytime television programme for the third year in a row[42]
• The show was nominated for a National Television Award in the Topical Magazine Programme category in 2011 but lost out to ITV's This Morning[43]

• Breakfast television
• Today (BBC Radio 4)

• BBC Breakfast at BBC Programmes
• BBC Breakfast on IMDb