The Big Breakfast

There's a section on the Bigger Breakfast DOG on Andrew Wiseman's old DOG Watch page. It was so big it obscured episode titles, attracting complaints: http://625.uk.com/dogwatch/index.htm#c4

Well, that was also because they put it over new episodes of Babylon 5, which had a massive fanbase.

Surely the simplest thing to do would have been to not bother with a clock at all? It's not like Christmas breakfast is such a time-sensitive affair as it is on a normal weekday (hence why they didn't/don't bother with a clock at the weekend).

That's true for Christmas Day but the whole week between Christmas and New Year were pre-records.

You would think in the case of The Big Breakfast that not much would change to alter the running time - there were no live inserts* so it would have been relatively safe to include the clock I'd have thought.


(*other than once, I think the Monday after the Millennium when they added live news, with a presenter different to who was named in the pre-record)

Strange it was done this way as I would think it would've been easier to use Bow for live links between the shows only and have Ch4 handle the actual TX of the shows.

It would have solved the clock problem nicely and masked the rehearsals cleanly. Incidentally, I recall that happening - the clock being absent after returning from a break, then returning after the following break.

Though if the BB clock was needed, surely a more transparent version would've helped matters - although I'm not sure transparency would have made the white example used over Babylon 5 better... the later dark blue clock style used would have been better...

Not really, doing it that way will have given the Big Breakfast team more creativity over getting into and out if the programmes, the other way it would have just been cuts from VT to Bow, not put it into monitors on set etc. Didn't they used to caption things over the programmes too?

I seem to recall a show during the Christmas 2000 pre-records Johnny announced Jazmine Lowson up next with the Big Breakfast News and Gemma Woodman appeared instead.

Ah yes, I hadn't considered this.

One way of resolving this would be to put the programme feed from Ch4 straight to air. It would depend on where in the TX chain out of Bow the clock is actually added. If it's right at the end (on the "way out") then it would be difficult without a reconfiguration but if there is an output that doesn't go through the kit applying the clock - cutting to that when going to the programme would solve it.

It was mentioned above that the clock generator was quite bespoke so I'm guessing it would not be producing the captions as well? If so, it could remain in the chain and be used for captions over the programmes (if required).

Or am I on completely the wrong track with this?

It's a well established techniqe, BBC1 used to do it every Saturday. SwapShop/Superstore/Going Live would link to a long pre-record such as a cartoon and pres would then cut to the VT machine directly to free up the studio to rehearse or pre-record. This only stopped when they introduced a DOG so the studio had to stay in circuit all morning.

CBBC used to do the same thing when they were using Pres A for continuity and I suspect live links from Salford work in the same way.

Ah ok, that makes sense - despite the additional setup required it does make the transitions between links and programmes smoother.

It's interesting that it had to be stopped on BBC One when a DOG was introduced, yet it continued on BB with the clock. Unless Ch4 is less bothered about such things as the BBC.

I suspect it was more that vision mixers got more advanced so the gallery could do both things simultaneously.