The Big Breakfast

There's a bit of Gaby and Richard together in this clip from an old Challenge Anneka...

Notice the error of Anneka's camera man who show's a bit of Zag's bottom half. He also seems to surprise Richard as he appears in shot too.

I'd love to see how that went out on TV.

I didn't have an hour to spare but I watched that anyway. Will Macdonald from Most Wanted and TFI Friday is seen at 24:15.

As for Paul Ross. I guess The Big Breakfast was a big part of his life. Didn't he name his daughter after the show? I think she is called Donna Phone Issy Justine Fun.

I'm guessing the living room was re-painted in January of 1995 then? There's a closedown clip of the show from New Year 1994 and the living room still has the original look from 13:14 onwards...

I think the first live show of 1995 saw the redecorated living room make its first appearance.

You can tell they had to recreate a clock for when it went past 9pm. It looks different somehow.

Yeah, that's all correct. Mark Little first appeared at the beginning of 1994 standing in for Evans for a week and then appeared on a couple of occasions before becoming a regular presenter. There were a couple of occasions in the first few months, when Danny Baker was presenting on Mondays and Fridays, where Evans and Little would sometimes be on together and Little would do The Crunch and a couple of other features (though as Evans points out in his book, The Crunch was usually pre-recorded anyway, and presumably Little came in the house for continuity reasons).

When Paul Ross took over he was only supposed to be a temporary measure, I remember it being billed as such in the papers at the time, while they found someone to take over full time. One reason why he went down to two days a week in February 1995 was because he was getting in the tabloids regarding his relationships. Richard Orford was supposed to be the full time replacement but they still had to keep Mark Little on for contractual reasons, I think. At that point Little more or less assumed that was the end of him, hence why he decided to do the Edinburgh Festival and a stand-up tour. But Orford was seemingly unsuccessful because within two months he'd been swapped for Cheggers, and then Little was on five days a week. All of this came out of the blue, Little was on one Monday in July and said he was going to be doing it all week now, but not to worry because Cheggers would be there when he was away - and indeed because of Edinburgh and his tour, in fact by the end of the year Cheggers had actually been on more than Little had.

The two big mistakes they made with The Big Breakfast when Evans left were not appointing a full-time replacement for him, and not changing the format enough. As it says in Morning Glory, for nearly eighteen months, it was simply impossible to answer the question "Who presents The Big Breakfast?", which in a show that revolved so much on the personalities of its presenters was totally ridiculous. Then if they didn't revamp it when Evans left, they absolutely should have when Gaby left, in 1995 and 1996 it was just a desperate retread of former glories.

Then of course when they finally got a full-time presenting team in Little and Ball, the two hated each other.

A thicker font? Looks like the font of 'BIG' rather than 'the' & 'breakfast' that the clock tended to use.

Thanks for that. Absolutely agree they should have had a full time replacement ready to go when Chris left - it did the show no favours at all. Not sure any change of format was really required at that point - it was still relatively fresh then and apart from a bit of a freshen up I don't think anything as drastic was what came later was needed at that point, though agree by the time Gaby left it did.

It's quite interesting how absent Gaby is from that highlights vid of 1993 - it's very much the Chris Evans show with Gaby only really getting to shine when joined by guest hosts. It's only really once Chris left that her role became more on an equal footing to the male co-host.

Did Richard and Zoe ever present together in the house. I know Zoe joined them on the Eggs on Legs tour for a week or two when the house was revamped but they were kept very much apart with Richard and Dannii (Minogue) presenting the roadshow and Zoe and Simon Gregson presenting from a boat or something.

Incidentally, that clip above... the bit with Paula and Arnie isn't recorded in the house, it's a set that they would take with them to press junkets and set up in a hotel or wherever the junket was taking place.

It's interesting how many faces worked their early days on The Big Breakfast. On YouTube there is some very ropey presenting from Ant & Dec, some of Sara Cox's early laddish presenting which she later toned down and a very fresh faced Ben Shepherd.

Then at the same time there are presenters who were very of their time, very 1990s who have barely been seen since.

The clips of Gaggin For It and The Pun Down from Johnny and Denise's era bring back memories

Plus it's a shame Phil Gayle isn't reading the news nationally on TV anymore.

I knew Jasmine Lowson (the BB newsreader in the last couple of years) back in 2007-08, absolutely lovely and genuine. She said the fame from her BB days got a bit overwhelming in the end and couldn't believe how much she was recognised, especially given the show wasn't anywhere near as popular by then compared to its heyday.