The Big Breakfast was a early morning light entertainment show. Channel 4's answer to ITV's 'GMTV' and the BBC's more news based shows. Set entirely in an old Lock Keepers' Cottage, it was a mix of news, gossip, weather and humor. Originally the show's presenters were Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin but after two years on the show Evans left which left the show in a bit of a turmoil with Mark Little, Paul Ross, Richard Orford and Keith Chegwin all attempting to fill his shoes at one point or another. With dwindling viewers the show got a revamp. On relaunch Johnny Vaughan and Denise van Outen were the next hosts, Van Outen left being replaced with Kelly Brook then Liza Tarbuck before returning to the show. Then in 2001 both Vaughan and Van Outen quit together being replaced by Richard Bacon, Paul Tonkinson, Amanda Byram and Simon Feilder. The show lost its appeal and was canceled in March 2002.
Notable other personalities involved in the series were:
- Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the wind-up radio would talk about inventions and new gadgets.
- Bob Geldof, part owner of the production studio that made the series, then husband of presenter Paula Yates, and also interviewed a couple of times on the show.
- Zig and Zag, puppets that often interviewed guests.
- Johnny Vegas, off-beat comedian
- Paula Yates, who would interview celebrities whilst in bed. The interviewee had to get on, or in, the bed with her.
- Jenny McCarthy co-hosted the show once in 1997.
Provides Examples Of:
- Alliterative Title: The Big Breakfast
- Determinator: The show aired every single weekday (and a few special weekends- new years', for instance) during its nine-and-a-half-year run, with the single exception of September 12 2001.
- Flyaway Shot: The end-credits sequence, which is the Title Sequence in reverse.
- Hurricane of Puns: A regular feature called "The Pun Down", which listed the best headline puns from that day's newspapers.
- Ms. Fanservice: Typically employed with a number of the female presenters; the slightly rowdier atmosphere compared to a number of other programs often resulted in things like Denise Van Outen's cleavage being zoomed in on while the camera looked up at her and she knowingly looked down on the camera, appearing wearing nothing but underwear and an apron, or in one instance, her photoshoot with a 'lad's mag' being detailed by cohost Johnny Vaughan, including a unusual aversion of Nipple and Dimed (particularly for a breakfast program) as he detailed them being like 'fifty pence pieces'. Guest presenter Melanie Sykes also served as this during the same period, to the extent she appeared to have been groped by Arnold Schwarzenegger during a promotional interview . Later hosts, including Lisa Rogers, were subjected to the same treatment regarding their appearances in men's magazines, and Kelly Brook in particular seems to have been hired specifically for her sex appeal.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: Received one in the form of Breakfast Time on the young FXnote , hosted by a young Tom Bergeron, Laurie Hibberd, and "Bob the Puppet" (Al Rosenberg) from 1994 to 1996; that year briefly saw the program move to the main Fox network as Fox After Breakfast, but didn't last long thanks to fierce competition and several retools (all three hosts left, and the show eventually turned into The Vicki Lawrence Show).
