The Big Breakfast

Off topic, I know, but can anyone tell me why the tags for this thread include 'Android tablet' and 'Back injury'?

Didn't Johnny have weeks off with a bad back?

With the current pandemic going on, would the show suffer much or would they do the normal features but with every guest in their homes/hotels? I could see the Family of the Week going back to the 1996-relaunch style but live via skype.

Also, what was the presenting line-up after Chris left and how long until Mark Little became the main co-host?

Guess it would be in a similar situation to This Morning but the house being divided into rooms might make social distancing difficult.


As for hosts didn't Mark replace Chris pretty much directly? Danny Baker originally did the couple of days a week Chris didn't, but was followed in weeks by Paul Ross (with Keith Chegwin replacing him on Down your Doorstep).

I think Mark joined when Chris left with the continued split arrangement. Richard Orford then joined as the replacement for Paul Ross hosting with Gaby but was soon shifted to the OB and Keith bought in to the house. Certainly by the time Zoe arrived the 2/3 days a week arrangement had been changed in favour of them doing so many weeks each, but Mark was certainly on more often than Keith.

Mark did the first few weeks with Zoe but they supposedly didn't get on and ultimately Keith replaced him through to Zoe leaving, though with Simon Gregson (and possibly another) guest hosting with Zoe for her last couple of weeks on the road. Not sure if Keith even got a goodbye from the show even though I think he was there till a couple of weeks before the revamp.

Almost. Danny Baker was the first permanent replacement for Chris on his days off, from February 1994, though Mark Little had already made his debut back in January as a stand-in. Baker then left in April (apparently because he'd breached his BBC contract) and Mark Little then did two days a week, Mondays and Fridays, and was Evans' regular stand-in on the other days.

When Evans left, they said there was going to be a permanent replacement in due course but in the meantime it was Paul Ross Mondays to Wednesdays and Mark Little Thursdays to Fridays. It might have made more sense had Ross taken it on full time, but seemingly Little was still under contract. During Ross' stint he went down to twice a week because his private life started getting the papers. This was Ross' second stint on the programme, he left Down Your Doorstep in the summer of 1993 with Cheggers joining then.

Then in April 1995, Richard Orford was unveiled as the new, official full-time host, but Little still appeared two days a week. At this point it looks like Little assumed he was on the way out, so arranged to appear at the Edinburgh Festival and a stand-up tour. But it didn't work out with Orford, so by June he'd been shuffled off to Down Your Doorstep and Cheggers was brought in to the house.

Finally in July (nine months after Evans had left), Little started presenting five days a week, but Cheggers was going to be his regular stand-in, and indeed because Little had Edinburgh and his tour, by the end of October Cheggers had actually been on more than Little.

As you say, Mark and Zoe never got on and so in July Little was dropped, and Cheggers held the fort until August. And no, he never really had a proper goodbye, I remember they said he was going to be taking a break, but that was it from him. What a mess it all was.

Thanks - Cheggars replacing Paul confused me somewhat.

Even with all his time off Mark then probably hosted more editions than Evans in the end considering he was there two and a half years, but clearly was never considered plan A, but most competitions of the era I remember him fronting while associate Cheggars more with the summer ones, so that made sense.


I never really understood at the time why Orford was booted out to the road either, but would say out of all the Down your Doorstep hosts he was the best and of course he ended up spanning two era of the shows, until like Zig and Zag and Vanessa he just disappeared as the show rebuilt exclusively around Johnny and Denise.

Seem to remember Cheggers announcing Zoe's departure in early August, but trying to soften the blow revealing
Sharon Davies as her replacement. Though no hint of leaving himself.

By the airing of his interview on BBC 1's "Multi-Coloured Saturdays" doc at the end of the month it felt like a long way off him last being on The Big Breakfast.

Wasn't it also Cheggers who revealed the building the work of the house? If anyone has that, I'd love to see it. I remember them coming from a tent in the front garden while work was going on.

Yeah, for most of August 1996 the programme came from a marquee in the garden, and then in the final week, when as mentioned Simon Gregson was hosting, they weren't at the house at all and did it all from the Eggs On Legs roadshow (a terrible concept, which never worked).



Yes, Mark Lamarr only did Down Your Doorstep for six months, and then Paul Ross for five, so at the time it felt like a really relentless role that nobody could do for very long, but then Cheggers did it for ages. Cheggers' route onto the programme was an interesting one, his career was completely down the toilet and he was invited onto The Word, edited at the time by Paul Ross of course, which in those days would bring on washed-up celebrities to be laughed at for a few quid. But when he appeared, he really impressed everyone because he was such a nice man and so professional and knew exactly what they wanted, doing loads of self-deprecating jokes, and Mark Lamarr told him after the show that he'd written a load of jokes about him and he couldn't use any of them because he was going down so well with the audience.

So after the show Planet 24 were impressed enough to offer him a week on The Big Breakfast, standing in for Paul Ross, then a few weeks later he stood in for Evans (as seen on the VHS with Zig and Zag alongside Shaggy), and then in the summer he joined full-time, of course Paul Ross had lots of other work including being Editor of The Word.

It's testament to Cheggers' good humour and professionalism that he was able to reinvent himself as a relevant and popular presenter in the nineties, as I say he was in a really bad way personally and professionally at the start of the decade. But during his spell on The Big Breakfast he went from being a bit of a novelty booking to being a reliable, assured presenter, a proper safe pair of hands (as illustrated by how often they called on him to hold the fort at the last minute). I know he always preferred to be outside the studio, though, when he died Evans called him "the king of outside broadcast" because he was such a master at it.

Richard Orford wasn't so bad, but he was a bit of a nobody (I know he'd done The Disney Club, but no adults knew him) and I think he was a bit unfortunate because his first day was also the first day of Chris Evans' Radio 1 breakfast show and a load of the audience went off there. I know I did.

I suppose the route of going for Richard Orford and Rick Adams looking at presenters who’d worked well on kids tv was the same route of Chris Evans who in the early nineties hosted TV Mayham on TV-am.

Not really, Chris's reputation and experience in 1992 was mostly from radio. That's what he was mostly known for. His only kids TV experience was the few weeks on TVam. His radio work and BSB gig was what will have made him wanted for the Big Breakfast. He was an obvious star in the making, it was only a matter of time before someone gave him a big TV break


If anything the lack of success Rick Adams had on the programme shows that kids TV wasn't the best route. That said, Gabby Roslin was from kids tv and later Richard Bacon

Though Richard Bacon would never have got the job purely from his Blue Peter work.

I think we kind of know the origins of most of the original team but where did Peter Smith come from. Had he been a newsreader in one of the regions or a reporter for ITN or something?