BBC News Virtual Studio

Of course BBC World did use many of the virtual looks at the time for some of its programmes.

I agree it would have been very interesting to see how News 24 would have adapted the virtual look had it decided to synergise with the existing branding rather than take on it’s own brash Flags branding.

Indeed probably the Diana coverage shown how flexible the set could have been in a rolling news format. It did look a little disjointed at times when there were guests in the studio.

I feel it would have required some sort of Newsroom adaptation to the look to add depth as it would have looked a little stuffy to be used to broadcast for long periods of time such as on News 24. I believe that’s why Breakfast News dropped the look before anyone else as it wasn’t the best look for a three hour programme early in the morning.

I don't think it would have looked stuffy to be honest.....but you are making a good point. Also I think one of the reasons that Breakfast News dropped the look was also due to the fact that they wanted to relaunch it. If I am not wrong the BBC make then made the genius decision to start up the day with Business Breakfast at 6am, who on Earth would want to be up at 6am watching the latest financial news?

You might want to take a look at what Radio 5 Live offers at 5am. Early morning finance news is a thing.

It does make sense if you might work in the City of London and commute to be there for 8am.

As someone who commutes to London everyday, the City is deserted, (as is my train).

It was a bit cold, gloomy and pompous, to be fair. Not that it was bad by any stretch. It looks fresh now looking back after nearly 22 years of pips and thunderclaps; and looking at that How Do They Do That segment, it's hard not to be impressed with what they did, even now.

But I honestly prefer the previous incarnations, which for the most part had a bit more balance in being authorative but not overly cold and "regal", so to speak.

It was dreadful, the set and the programme. John Stapleton is scathing in Morning Glory about the later days of Breakfast Time (which he presented) and Breakfast News, saying it was totally unrelentless hard news, far too serious and intense for the mass audience. And I would agree with that, look at it in 1990.



This is the last half hour on a Friday, and welcome to the weekend with reports on ivory trading and child pornography (not long before kids' shows to boot). Serious subjects worth covering, probably, but at ten to nine on a Friday morning on BBC1? They'd be tough going for Newsnight. I'm not saying it should have been Nick and Laurie in T-shirts talking about going to the pub that weekend, but there's no sense of tailoring it to who might be watching and what mood they might be in. It's just news for the sake of news.

I think there are rose-tinted glasses a bit here, the BBC News was incredibly unpopular in this era. It may have had authority and dignity, and looked very flashy, but that also meant it felt incredibly remote and irrelevant. And at the same time you had ITN who were doing the same thing but with substantially more charisma and warmth, and seemed to have more interest in what the audience wanted to hear, not what they thought they should hear. What BBC News has done since is not dumb down, but did what ITN did in its pomp and realise that authority and seriousness can only get you so far without a bit of wit and warmth.

That's one reason why The Day Today was so incredible at the time, it was a completely accurate parody of the self-importance and ludicrous hyperbole that surrounded TV news in those days. People knew exactly what it was parodying.

In the latter days of Breakfast Time and the Breakfast News era, there was a distinct choice. Proper news on BBC1 or fluff from TV:am/GMTV later joined by The Big Breakfast on Channel 4, which was a great period for breakfast television as it catered to different audiences.

Personally I miss the rolling news format provided by BBC1 before it became more consumer led targeting GMTV's audience with more lighter features and business news delivered in a more accessible manner, but understand why the BBC did it as they eventually beat ITV in that slot, something they still do despite Piers Morgan breathing life into what has been a tepid period.

It’s important to remind ourselves that Business Breakfast at 6am aired in an era long before widespread use of the Internet, smartphones or the existence in the UK of Rolling News or Social Media.

So, in those days, the business digest at the ungodly hour of 6am was quite an important bulletin for people working across industry and, in my case, those who dealt heavily in international business where opening markets (in Asia) and currency movements could set the day in some cases.

Business News programming (then and now) is not just for people working in ‘The City’.

Back to the virtual set for Breakfast News: I didn’t mind it so much, to be honest. Like most of us, I would be catching 15-30mins per day at most. Not too much of a strain. Although the subsequent swing back to potted plants and frosted glass was possibly a bit more soothing of a morning!

And in the days before Business Breakfast, you also had 'Dawn Traders' on (the old) LBC which ran usually between 5-6am.

Blimey! You’re even older than me! 😉

I hated it. I always put that down to being a kid but even looking back it's tough going.

I associate it with cold winter mornings, getting dressed for school, it still being dark outside and trying to get porridge or something warm down me. It felt like enduring school assembly and then going into school and having to endure actual school assembly.