The Big Breakfast

Between 1992 and 2000, during most nationally recognised UK school holiday periods, The Big Breakfast would run beyond its typical 9 am finish to provide continuity into and out of unrelated shows aimed primarily towards children. This would last throughout the morning, usually until around midday. Although typically presented to the viewer as simply a programme on Channel 4, most of The Bigger Breakfast is perhaps better classified as an informal style of in-vision continuity.

The strand also acted as an umbrella brand for the programming which it linked to, by use of Big Breakfast style break-bumpers and Digital On-Screen Graphics.[6] The expanded format always featured the regular content of The Big Breakfast from 7 am to 9 am. The first run of The Bigger Breakfast during the summer of 1997 was titled as such all the way from its 7 am start, presented throughout by Richard Orford and Denise van Outen. Future editions would see slight separations made from the 7 am to 9 am content, by way of this portion of the show being branded and scheduled as The Big Breakfast, with all content after 9 am taking on the expanded Bigger Breakfast name. After a while, a further distinction was made by using a different set of presenters from that of The Big Breakfast. Presenters of The Bigger Breakfast included Josie D'Arby, Ben Shephard, Melanie Sykes and Dermot O'Leary.

Programming was primarily composed of reruns of Channel 4 shows and US imports. The line-up changed frequently. The list below is of some of series featured on The Big Breakfast and the Bigger Breakfast over the years:

The Bigger Breakfast was discontinued after Christmas holidays in 2000. The block of programming provided within The Bigger Breakfast was retained, with Channel 4's youth strand T4 taking over the continuity role.

Snap Cackle Pop, a regular and recurring feature throughout the history of The Big Breakfast, was briefly retitled as simply Snap, in 1997. As well as continuing as a short, daily entertainment news feature within The Big Breakfast, Snap also became a show in its own right. Airing once weekly at 6.00pm on Channel 4, the half hour show was a light hearted round-up of recent news stories concerning popular entertainment in the UK.

Presented by Denise van Outen, the show was intentionally recognisable as being closely related to The Big Breakfast, from which it originated and continued to be part of. Snap contained a number of elements synonymous with The Big Breakfast, such as using the very same boudoir set and on-the-bed interviewing of guests. However, care was generally taken not to alienate viewers who were not so familiar with The Big Breakfast.

Three months after first appearing, Chris Evans, Gaby Roslin and Paula Yates hosted a live edition of the show, seeing in the new year of 1993. Zsa Zsa Gabor featured as a special guest.

On 1 January 2000, The Big Breakfast aired an extended New Year's Day edition entitled The Biggest Breakfast Ever, celebrating the arrival of the year 2000. Written by John Mann and Ged Parsons and broadcasting from 12:30 a.m. to just past 9:00 a.m., the special featured various retrospective features and the competition "Owe? No You Don't!"—where contestants competed in classic Big Breakfast games (concluding with the new game "Wonga") for a chance to have their debts paid off.

In January 2021, members of The Big Breakfast production team launched a podcast in which they discussed their experiences working on the series.[8]

In September 2021, it was announced that the show would return for a one-off event known as "Black to Front Day", which would feature and celebrate the talents of those with black heritage. The show was presented by Mo Gilligan and AJ Odudu and had many guests from African American and Black heritages in celebration. The show was broadcast once again from the show's original home at Lock Keepers' Cottages.[9]

On 26 May 2022 it was confirmed that the series would return part time for four Saturdays in a two and a half hour slot from 13 August 2022, with Gilligan and Odudu again returning to host from a new house, revealed to be in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.[10] Denise van Outen returned as a guest to "hand over the reins" of the show to the two new presenters.[11] In June 2023, a Channel 4 spokesman announced that there were no plans to commission any further episodes, but did not rule out the possibility of it returning at some point in the future.[12]

Before most advertisement breaks a clip from an upcoming TV show or movie would be shown, a question being asked by one of the hosts about it; the answer would be revealed after the advert break, along with details of the show or film. This feature would result in the production team chorusing "Don't phone, it's just for fun!" which was a Chris Evans creation, initially used on his radio shows before he shot to fame on The Big Breakfast.

A phone-in feature encouraging viewers to provide humorous answers throughout the morning to a pertinent (or occasionally inane) question. At one point it was accompanied by a fanfare, apparently played on the trumpet by "little Ted" beneath the camera (in fact a member of the team waving a toy trumpet in shot). One morning's question was "What should the BBC do to improve EastEnders?", and one viewer suggested adding Barbara Windsor to the cast; this actually occurred shortly afterwards.

"Your indispensable guide to a better life!", this feature appeared during the early years of the show; in it celebrities would give various simple but useful hints for such issues as cleaning or keeping food fresh.[13]

"Streaky Bacon" became a regular feature, in which Richard Bacon would get a member of the public out of their house to 'streak' along their street wearing nothing but bacon-covered underwear in order to win their weight in bacon from their local butcher.

"Vital Statistics" was another common feature, particularly in the Johnny Vaughan era. These would often relate to a news story, a guest or a topic they had discussed, such as Doctor Who on their Doctor Who Special.

A key feature for the first five years was the "On the Bed" interview. Paula Yates (the then wife of Bob Geldof, whose company produced the show), and later Paul O'Grady (as Lily Savage) and Vanessa Feltz assumed the role of interviewer. One of the most infamous on-air moments was Paula Yates' open flirting during an interview with Michael Hutchence as a prelude to their affair.

A repeating feature in the Vaughan and Van Outen era, in which an erratically filmed, speeded-up video clip of a line of tea cups was shown to a call-in viewer. Vaughan, dressed as an Anglican vicar, and Van Outen, dressed as a nun replete with false teeth and an inferiority complex, then explained the rules. The caller guessed the number of tea cups shown in the video lead in, with Vaughan responding "More tea, vicar" if the number is too low; "Less tea, vicar" if too high. If the contestant guessed the correct number within the time limit, a prize was awarded.

The inventor of the wind-up radio, Trevor Baylis, would join Johnny Vaughan in the shed to discuss innovative new products. Vaughan tended to make fun of Baylis for being older.

A Jenga-style game, followed by various shouting and anarchy, with fans and the Wonga Lawyer. The show famously went over 27 minutes for a game once, with the Millennium Big Breakfast actually being commissioned with extra time for Wonga.

The Big Breakfast used to give out "wonga money" to people when they won money because they didn't want to give it to them on the show. They would give the real thing to them later.

Each Friday the two main presenters and the whole crew would gather in the hallway for The Friday Song. The song would look back at events that happened on the show each week

The lyrics to the chorus went as follows:

Singing, wakey, wakey, wakey rise and shine,
The big breakfast is the only way to dine,
It's your number one big breakie
So get it down your neckie,
And stick with us from seven until nine!

In November 2002, seven-and-a-half months after The Big Breakfast was axed, a fire destroyed a significant proportion of the first floor of the cottages. A large part of the roof was also destroyed in the blaze. The fire was deemed suspicious as there was no gas or electrical supply to the building.

The house was slashed in value because of the fire of November 2002, and was bought for little more than half the original asking price of £1 million at £550,000. Since the fire, extensive work has taken place to restore the house and it is now used as a family home.

The house has now been fully renovated, but some of the well-recognised aspects of the house from its use during the run of The Big Breakfast remain.

The newly renovated house features in the BBC Two show Neneh and Andi Dish It Up, BBC Three's Singing With the Enemy, Too Fat To Toddle on ITV1, and the one-off revival of The Big Breakfast on Channel 4.

The cottages are located about 200 metres from the site of the main stadium used in the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2005, the cottages became part of a compulsory purchase order for the Games,[14] giving rise to speculation that the building may be demolished. However, the cottages and gardens remain unchanged.

The house made a cameo appearance in a Channel 4 ident shown in the lead-up to the channel's coverage of the Paralympics in August 2012.

The Big Breakfast's return on 13 August 2022 has been confirmed to be from a new house, leaving the original Lock Keepers' Cottages behind for the first time in the show’s history. The new house is located in Potters Bar. Filming takes place on The Villa mansion,[15] a seven-bedroom cottage set in ten acres of countryside.