The Big Breakfast

Wikipedia suggests Bob Geldof had a "short-lived political interview slot", no doubt helped by a) Paula Yates's presence on the show and b) the fact he co-owned Planet 24 at the time.

Geldof did appear in a trailer or two for the show, this one tying in the fact the show would be airing Banana Splits:


How long Geldof remained on the show is anybody's guess, probably didn't last a year. Paula Yates remained and IIRC left the show at around the time she fell out with Geldof, 1995/6 maybe?

With Geldof and Mark Lammar heavily featured in pre publicity, the show could have turned out much different than it did, could have been try hard London trendy like Rise was.

I think Bob's slot had been dropped by Christmas 1992. Paula went after the Comic Relief special in 1995.

Yeah I remember Bob had a semi regular interview feature. It was called something like 'The Geldolf Interview'.

I remember him appearing in the first episode, coming in through the double doors, making Chris' glasses wonky and then leaving again.


That pre-launch trailer for Big Breakfast is interesting as I remember seeing some of them at the time. They certainly didn't give much away as to the nature of the programme. Presumably because it was still work in progress - the house hasn't been finished* and the hiring Gaby as Chris' female co-presenter happened quite late on apparently.


*I do remember a news story about a planning permission being rejected for another house before they got Lock Keepers Cottages. No idea where it was though

Planet 24 was the result of a merger between Geldof's Planet Pictures and 24 Hour Productions and I believe his fame was initially one of the main reasons The Big Breakfast got so far in the process. Certainly a lot of the pre-launch hype was based around the idea that Bob & Paula would be hosting together, Richard & Judy style.

Gaby was a last minute hiring as the original presenter Emma Forbes pulled out.

It would have been much later, in the late 1990's, maybe very early 2000's.

One day I was shopping with my nan. I was just a kid. A guy approached and said he was from Channel 4 (I think) and said he was looking for people to record their voices for the big breakfast. He asked me to say something like "The Politics hour" or something similar. And then told me the exact time that it would be used.

Sure enough, I watched, and it was used. But I have never been able to find it again. I can't even remember if it was my voice they used. Given that it was likely only used once, I doubt I ever will.

Well, Geldof was hardly trendy in 1992. As mentioned, the reason Geldof and Lamarr were in the trailers quite a lot, and Gaby wasn't, is because Gaby only joined really, really late. I remember all the publicity photos at the time had Chris, Bob and Paula in. And obviously, Bob and Paula were much more famous at the time than Chris and Gaby. And so were The Banana Splits, actually, certainly at the time I was quite excited about that (although like much archivery, when it arrived it turned out one episode was enough as a novelty).

The Geldof Interview was indeed one of the main features in the early days, it was at 8.10, so a high profile slot, and would be an pre-recorded interview with a leading figure shot on location and stripped across the week. Bob famously announced the feature in the publicity by saying "If I disagree with someone, I'll just say 'that's bollocks'". But in reality it was never as exciting as that, they turned out to be quite dull, and because they were split into five minute chunks they didn't really go anywhere. Also they could never really get enough interesting guests, one of the notorious ones was the Prime Minister of Turkey. They felt a bit out of place, and as mentioned they were dropped as a regular feature before the end of the year. There was one other one, mind, in January 1993, when he interviewed Bill Cosby, I dunno if it was a leftover interview from the original set, but I remember it being billed in the Radio Times.

Yeah, Bob would still turn up every so often, for the anniversaries and so on. As Morning Glory points out, he was on the first birthday show with Zig and Zag, and when Chris told them they were out of time, he said "It's time up when I say it's time up!". I also remember, when they used to do the pre-recorded shows at Christmas when it was an hour of Zig and Zag introducing cartoons and an hour of old clips, Bob was a guest with Zig and Zag on one of them, and virtually presented the show.

Paula and Bob split up in February 1995, and I remember on the Monday after it was announced, Gaby said Paula wasn't here but they gave their love to both of them. Paula did come back a few weeks later but clearly it couldn't carry on and, as you say, she was there on Red Nose Day but I think that was her last appearance. Then there was nobody in that role until Paul O'Grady arrived in June, and initially he was announced as only being there for three weeks, but he proved so popular he stayed on full-time. Come the autumn he had other commitments, but because they wanted to keep him - he was about the only success the show was having at the time - he carried on, but only one day a week.

Of course, as I mentioned to Ian Jones while he was writing Morning Glory, I remember one morning when Mark and Gaby were presenting, but Chris turned up towards the end and sat with the crew, because he happened to be passing and just popped in.

A rare clip from December 96.

Is that the last time we saw the house in it's art deco style?

Possibly for the interiors at least, though the exterior remained through to the summer.

Wow, Mel and Sue haven't aged a bit.