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After fourteen months of newsy breakfasts, Frank finally called it a day just before Christmas 1987, and was replaced by another former Nationwider, John Stapleton (right). Later on, Kirsty Wark (middle) and Laurie Mayer (right) also joined the team. In 1988 Jill Dando made her national television debut on the programme, presenting half hour summaries from the BBC newsroom (this set would also be used by the Nine O'Clock News). She was later promoted to the main Breakfast Time desk. In the same year Breakfast Time moved out of the doomed Lime Grove studios, and into Studio TC2 at Television Centre - it is probable that it was at this point that this revised version of the set was introduced (below).  
Just a little before that, however, on 16th October 1987 - the morning after the Great Storm - viewers who still had power would have been surprised to see that Breakfast Time was being presented from the Children's BBC 'Broom Cupboard' by Nicholas Witchell - in his own words "a funny little red-haired figure telling them...to go and make and a cup of tea and on no account to go out of their homes because something terrible had happened...with one sheet of paper I wittered on, repeating myself endlessly for an hour..." The BBC bosses clearly remembered this performance, because two years later, when Breakfast Time was relaunched as BBC Breakfast News, Witchell was chosen to be the programme's main anchorman. The planned relaunch date had been 18th September 1989, but viewers switching on that morning found that unexpectedly Breakfast Time was still there. The new look programme finally started two weeks later, on 2nd October 1989.  
Despite the name change, this time there was to be no radical change in format. "More pace and punch" was the promise given by the programme's editor, Bob Wheaton. The programme started thirty minutes earlier, at 6.30am, with most of the first half hour taken up by business news. Headlines were now repeated every 15 minutes.   
Nicholas was joined by existing presenters Kirsty Wark, Jill Dando, Laurie Mayer, and that stalwart of early morning television, weatherman Francis Wilson. The comfy area of the set was ditched, but the existing theme tune remained, in re-recorded form. In 1992, Francis, who for years had been the only survivor from the start of Breakfast Time, finally departed for Sky television. From now on breakfast weather bulletins were presented by members of the BBC weather team.  BBC Breakfast News's next relaunch occured on 13th April 1993 (right). For the first time, it conformed to a standardised look across all of the BBC News bulletins on BBC1. The programme now joined the One, Six and Nine O'Clock News in Studio N2, using the same 'virtual' set. Unfortunately the computer generated backdrop lacked depth and consequently had a habit of looking rather unreal at certain camera angles.
The music was revamped once again, this time using a combination of orchestra and electric guitar, which was probably the best of the 1993 re-recordings. Business Breakfast (which at the start of the year had become a programme in its own right) was revamped in a similar style. Presenters around this time included Justin Webb, Andrew Harvey, Jill Dando and Tanya Sillem.   
 The blue 'virtual' set provided viewers with a rather cold, unwelcoming start to the day, and so after four years Breakfast News (now shorn of the 'BBC' from its name) broke away from the other bulletins again and relaunched with a warmer, friendlier - and non-virtual - set, housed in Studio TC7 at Television Centre. Presenting here are John Nicholson, who replaced Justin Webb as the programme's main presenter in 1998, and Sophie Raworth. For the first time, the clock was now digital.
This look was introduced on 2nd June 1997, and also included a decidedly watered-down new version of the theme tune, and a new title sequence which featured businessmen and women walking down the side of the Big Ben clock tower! These titles were perhaps rather alienating to non-city workers, and around a year later were altered to include a more leisurely scene of a kite rising above people walking along a cliff edge. In the year 2000, more changes were afoot. The continuous news channel BBC News 24 had been on the air for nearly three years when the BBC bigwigs noticed that in the mornings it was duplicating the service provided by Breakfast News. The accountants therefore deemed this that an obvious saving that could be made, and so the decision was taken to merge Breakfast News and News 24's breakfast programme. And so on 15th September 2000, the final edition of Breakfast News aired on BBC1. For the next two weeks, BBC1 was airing Olympics coverage, so those wanting their morning fix of news had to switch to BBC2 for a simulcast of BBC News 24 breakfast, known as Breakfast 24.  
Then on 2nd October 2000, a brand new breakfast programme launched on both BBC1 and BBC News 24, named, um, Breakfast. In widescreen for the first time, the new graphics and title sequence now conformed to the BBC News corporate look, as did the music, which even by this stage still harked back to the original Breakfast Time theme of 1983. You might have expected that since it was now going out on the rolling news channel, the new programme would have a harder-edged, newsy focus. But in fact, it proved to be the opposite - the loss of the word 'News' from the programme title provided a clue to that. Instead, Breakfast promised to give viewers a softer start to their day than its predecessor. Even the sofa was brought back after a 14 year absence, although this was mainly used in the later parts of the programme, the desk being retained for more serious news items.  
The new presenting duo was made up of Sophie Raworth, who stayed on from Breakfast News, and the BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, who brought a distinctly laid-back approach to the proceedings - rather too laid back in some people's opinion! Moira Stuart also joined the team to present news summaries every half hour. Business Breakfast, meanwhile, disappeared altogether, although business updates remained, coming from Declan Curry at the London Stock Exchange. 
Later set changes saw the desk ditched altogether, several changes of sofa, and in November 2002 a revised theme tune and a change in the presenting line-up as Jeremy Bowen returned to reporting and Sophie Raworth moved to the Six O'Clock News. In their place came Dermot Murnaghan from ITV News, and Natasha Kerplunsky, who joined from Sky. (Shown here, though, are Friday presenters Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams).  
Left: Dermot and Natasha presenting in a completely new set which was introduced in the middle of 2003. Right: at this time, however, they didn't turn up until 6.30. The first half hour was known as Breakfast Briefing, presented by Moira Stuart, who was still there throughout the programme with her summaries every thirty minutes.  
The next major relaunch occured on 2nd May 2006, when Breakfast received its first new opening title sequence since 2000.  
Due to a round of cost-cutting measures, the programme moved out of TC7 and joined the other main news bulletins in N6. This meant that the desk was back, although the sofa hadn't gone away - despite this, the set feels rather sparse and empty. The original backdrop, which showed white fluffy clouds on a deep blue sky (left), proved unpopular and within weeks was changed to orange. By this time Kerplunsky had gone to dumb down the Six O'Clock News, and Sian Williams took her place on Breakfast. Breakfast Briefing also disappeared at this point, and so did Moira Stuart.  
By the time of the 25th anniversary of breakfast television, Dermot Murnaghan had departed for Sky News, and so Bill Turnbull, who has been Breakfast's main relief presenter since 2001, stepped into his shoes. 
Above: the silver jubilee on 17th January 2008 was celebrated by a reunion of past presenters in this re-creation of the original Breakfast Time set in TC7. Shortly afterwards this studio became Breakfast's regular home again as the BBC news programmes begin another a game of musical studios. Page 1 Page 2 | 
