BBC Breakfast

BBC Breakfast
Current titles
Created by	BBC News
Presented by	Dermot Murnaghan Sian Williams Bill Turnbull Susanna Reid
Country of origin	Vereinigtes Königreich
Production
Running time	195 minutes (3 hour 15 min, Weekdays on BBC One)
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	2000-10-02 – present
Related
BBC One O'Clock News, BBC Six O'Clock News, BBC Ten O'Clock News

BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and BBC News 24. 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 presented from the BBC News 24 set.

The current editor of the programme is David Kermode.

History

The programme was originally launched as Breakfast Time on 1983-01-17. Presenters included Frank Bough, Kirsty Wark, John Stapleton, Selina Scott, Jeremy Paxman and Sally Magnusson. The relaxed feel to the programme included a set designed to be a front room, with leather arm chairs and sofas for presenters to sit on.

Following a relaunch, the programme was renamed Breakfast News in 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 2000 with the establishment of Breakfast, merging the operations of the separate BBC One and BBC News 24 programmes for one single simulcast. The simulcast since April 2006 has seen BBC News 24 begin rolling news coverage at 08:30 while the programme continues until 09:15 when the tone shifts to arts, entertainment and cultural items. During special outside broadcasts, the programme length has been extended to 09:30 on several occasions.

The programme celebrated its 20th anniversary on 2003-01-17.

File:BBC Breakfast 2006 set.jpg

The current Breakfast set.

The current presentation of the programme was introduced with a wider relaunch of BBC One news bulletins on 2006-05-02. 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.

Presenters

Main presenters

The programme has four main presenters:

• Dermot Murnaghan (joined from ITN in September 2002)
• Sian Williams (joined in January 2001 and became main presenter in 2006)
• Bill Turnbull (former BBC Washington Correspondent and News 24 presenter, joined in 2001)
• Susanna Reid (joined in 2006 as secondary presenter after previously being a relief presenter on Breakfast and BBC News 24)
• Kate Silverton (relief presenter and is also a regular anchor for News 24)

Dermot Murnaghan presents the programme on Monday to Thursday alongside Sian Williams. Bill Turnbull presents the programme on Friday-Sunday and when Murnaghan is away. His regular co-presenters are either Susanna Reid or Kate Silverton.

Charlie Stayt regularly covers for Turnbull at the weekends, and Kate Silverton is also a regular female anchor - she presented the weekday programme on a regular basis for some months during 2006 and 2007 while Sian Williams was on maternity leave. Louise Minchin and Julia George are other occasional stand-ins, though George is currently on maternity leave. BBC Sydney correspondent Michael Peschardt fills in during the summer when other presenters are on holiday.

As well as presenting from the studio, the main presenters are often called upon to present on location when big stories break. Bill Turnbull presented live editions of Breakfast from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and also from King's Cross in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Sian Williams reported live from the scene of the Indian earthquake in 2005. Dermot Murnaghan anchored Breakfast''s coverage of the 2004 US Presidential election from Washington.

Sport

The main Sport presenters are Chris Hollins (who presents each Monday-Thursday and occasional Fridays), Sue Thearle (presents most Fridays and occasionally at weekends) and Mike Bushell (presents at weekends, and occasionally during the week). Sport updates are at 06.10, 06.35, 07.35 and 08.35.

Business

Breakfast's business presenter is Declan Curry, who presents business updates at 06.10, 06.25, 06.50, 07.25, 07.55 and 08.25. During his absence the role is usually filled by Working Lunch presenter Paddy O'Connell or BBC World Business and World Business Report presenter Manisha Tank.

Weather

The main weather presenters are Carol Kirkwood and Helen Willetts (both of whom present on Mondays-Thursdays on alternate fortnights). However, Willetts is currently on maternity leave and her role is being filled by regular weekend weather presenter Louise Lear. Matt Taylor or Alex Deakin present the forecasts on Fridays and at weekends. 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, including the 2006 drought in southern England.

Reporters

The programme has a team of reporters permanently assigned to Breakfast. They cover a range of stories nationally and internationally including the 2004 hurricane in Grenada[1] and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

In 2007, the dedicated team includes Julia George, née Botfield (currently on maternity leave), Sarah Campbell, Graham Satchell, Richard Westcott, Susannah Streeter (recently back from maternity leave) and Tim Muffett .

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 .

Several other reporters cover specialist areas, and they work for all BBC News programmes. Reeta Chakrabarti is the programme's main political correspondent, and Ben Ando is an overnight reporter covering a cross-section of breaking news stories.

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 has a television version broadcast at the weekend on News 24. The Breakfast takeaway is available Monday to Friday in MP4 format. It can also be downloaded to and viewed from a home or office computer.

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.

From 0830, when Breakfast is only transmitted live on BBC One, the tone of the programme shifts. 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 BBC One Controller Peter Fincham.

The relationship between the three BBC departments: television news programmes, daytime and the BBC One controller has led to a number of guest, or celebrity presenters being 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 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

• Rob Bonnet - main sport presenter for ten years until October 2005
• Jeremy Bowen - main presenter alongside Sophie Raworth between 2000 and 2002, now the BBC's Middle East Editor
• Tanya Beckett - business news presenter
• 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
• 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 2006-04-26 and continues as newsreader on Sunday AM and The Politics Show as well as some weekend BBC News bulletins.
• 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.

Awards

• In March 2006, Breakfast won the TRIC (the Television and Radio Industry Club) award for best daytime television programme for the third year in a row.

Spoofs

• Dermot Murnaghan is parodied by Jon Culshaw on the Dead Ringers programme on BBC Two.

See also

• Breakfast television
• GMTV

External links

• BBC Breakfast at bbc.co.uk
• BBC Breakfast - Presenter profiles
• An unofficial history of the BBC's breakfast television from the 1980s from TV Ark