Page 1 Page 2  
The image of Tower Bridge at sunrise, followed by that sun logo-thing spinning around and turning upside down, complete with a jaunty and memorable theme tune, heralded the launch of the first ever UK-wide breakfast television service on 17th January 1983. Hear the theme tune  
Breakfast Time was not intended to be a hard news programme - instead, the "keynote [was to be] relaxation" - according the programme's editor Ron Neil in the Radio Times launch feature. "If we pummel people with facts and analysis at that time of the morning, they just won't want to know." The article went on to state that "the set will reflect the mood - no desks, just long, squashy leather sofas...even the studio lighting will be subdued when the programme goes on air at 6.30, getting gradually brighter as the morning progresses".   
Breakfast Time stole a march on rival TV-am by starting over two weeks earlier, and quickly managed to steal most of the viewers. Frank Bough and his jumpers soon became an essential part of the early morning ritual.   
Joining Frank on the long squashy sofas in Studio E at the BBC's Lime Grove studios with their jumpers were Selina Scott, fresh from ITN, and Nick Ross in his first prominent television role.   
Francis Wilson joined from Thames News and, with his jumpers (mostly sent in by viewers), was standing by to present his Window on the Weather. He would sometimes find his forecasts invaded by celebrity guests, most notably Lenny Henry (right) and Pamela Stephenson.   
Completing the regular team were Debbie Rix (left) who presented news updates every half hour, and David Icke (middle) who presented the sports news. Right: unlike TV-am's breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, regional news featured on Breakfast Time which, for the first couple of years, was at quarter past and quarter to each hour.  
Radio Times, in its launch feature, compared Breakfast Time to a tabloid newspaper: though there would be news, there would also be lots of regular features. These included Diana Moran - the 'Green Goddess' - with her attempts at Getting Britain Fit (left) each  morning around 6.45; and Russell Grant (right), whose daily astrology spot and jumpers at 8.40 became a daily signal that it was time for us seven year-olds that it was time to depart for school. Other regulars included the first television look at the new pop charts each Wednesday with
Mike Smith, cookery from Glynn Christian, Problem Page with Claire Rayner, The Breakfast Time Doctor, consumer items from Lynn Faulds Wood, and even a 'gossip' spot from Chris Wilson. Francis Wilson appeared every day of the week on Breakfast Time - but whenever he took a holiday, one of the regular BBC forecasters presented Window on the Weather - here it was Michael Fish who had to reset his alarm clock (right).   
In contrast to the turmoil at TV-am which could only be saved by employing a furry rat, Breakfast Time's format of relaxed sofa chat remained pretty constant with no major changes over the years. Nick Ross took a break for a year to launch the unsuccessful Sixty Minutes, while various new presenters joined the team, including Guy Michelmore (left), Fern Britton (middle) and Debbie Greenwood (not pictured), while Mike Smith (right) graduated from the pop slot and took a break from Radio 1 to become one of the main presenters.  
Left: Frank and Russell in some rather garish jumpers for the time of morning. And you see the landscape behind them? As Lenny Henry proved during his visit to the studio, it wasn't actually real... Right: an updated version of the logo from around 1985. A computer generated version of the title sequence was introduced in 1986, but it wasn't to last very long. For it was later that year that the BBC decided that the BT format was too similar to that being served up by the other side. And so the familiar spinning sun was banished, and the famed sofa supposedly auctioned off in aid of Children in Need. From now on, there would be no more astrology, cookery, keep fit exercises or celebrity guests, no more jumpers - and no more fun.  
Going completely against Ron Neil's assertion in 1983 that viewers did not want a formal news bulletin first thing in the morning, on 10 November 1986 Breakfast Time was converted into just that - a two-hour news programme.  
Only Frank Bough and Francis Wilson survived the relaunch - but they were now forced to wear suits. Joining the team were Sally Magnusson and Jeremy Paxman. A new theme tune was introduced, which was clearly reminiscent of the original, but the set was completely revamped with a conventional desk 'upstairs' for hard news (above), and a coffee table and comfy chairs 'downstairs' for interviews and features. The change did not go down at all well with viewers, sparking complaints that the "friendly informality" of the old format had been ruined, and that Breakfast Time had now become "dull, dreary and diabolical". But the programme's new editor Dave Stanford stood by his guns, claiming that the BBC should offer a "distinctive product from the other channel - not more of the same". Viewing figures would never be the same again. Page 1 Page 2 | 
