Reminiscing The Big Breakfast

Yes, as said previously, the 1996 revamp was carried out on the grade II listed house without planning permission. This is what ultimately led to the bricks being painted back onto the render. Render has been added and removed over the years, such as when the large upstairs window was replaced with two smaller, more classic frames in 1998. The large window returned after the 2002 fire, although not as tall as before. The windows to the left of the building, which is now a separate dwelling, are taller than they were previously.



I'm going to guess it was more necessary for the interior when they reinstated the hallway.

Not sure if this has been posted already but Johnny Vaughan recently revisited Lock Keepers Cottages for Radio X, complete with tour.

Hi all,

I'm not a regular poster to TV Forum, but have a been a fan of the site for many years and have posted on the odd occasion.

Big Brekkie was a staple diet of my childhood before heading to school most mornings, so reading this thread has been a must and has brought a smile to my face - particularly during these strange times we are all going through right now. Seeing Johnny revisit the house was fascinating to watch - it was his era of the show with Denise and Liza I predominantly watched.

Sorry if this is geeky, but whilst I was doing some reminiscing I had to mention this. During The Bigger Breakfast era (1997 I think?) does anyone else also remember when the clock got to 9.59, changing over to 10.00 it wouldn't fit the graphics - so sometimes it would say The Bigger Breakfast 0.00 and they would have to either "squash" the size of the clock down so it all fit, or take the graphics off the screen altogether whist they go to a break (always after The Secret World of Alex Mack I recall!) to adjust this? Always found this rather fun to see how they would deal this each morning - would be cool to see a clip of this.

I recall sometimes when The Bigger Breakfast strand started at 7am, they "squashed" the clock down to the smaller size right from the start of the show (I guess so they didn't have to bother about this at 10am?)

Welcome! You're quite right, that particular clock was a bit messy at times.

When it was introduced it wasn't contained within a box:



which despite a slightly awkward Big Breakfast logo was fine, although on Bigger Breakfast days it was pretty bulky:



They eventually boxed it up:



During the first year of The Bigger Breakfast, the whole programme took that brand, from 7am onwards:



But when it got to 10am, you're quite right - the clock would switch to 0:00 and they'd replace it with another version of the clock with the digits squeezed in:



And I think you're right in saying for a while they'd just start at 7 with the digits already squeezed.

The reason for this was that the equipment which ran the clock wasn't capable of stretching the digits automatically at 10:00.

Of course, eventually the rectified the situation by introducing a clock with four digits:

Graphics wise that yellow on blue clock they used from late 1997 for about a year really was hideous.

One other geeky graphics point is how long the 1996 cue cards lasted with the blue logo on yellow long after it was ditched. The autumn 2000 video I uploaded a few days ago is the first time I notice a version with the yellow logo used.

For the 1996 relaunch the cards changed colour each day along with the clock, cushions, script paper etc, but I think they kept with blue on yellow eventually. They only changed the design when the phone number changed in 2000.

I think apart from the cards, the longest running relic from the 1996 relaunch was the phone jingle.

Thanks Whataday for the kind words and showing the timeline of graphics The Big / Bigger Brekkie used around that time. I remember when they introduced that White “The BB” clock as posted in your last image and remember how different it looked, compared to what had gone before.

I’m sure someone will have a clip somewhere, showing an example of where this happened with the clock showing 0.00, turning over from 9.59. The 1 In the 10am did appear I recall, but it was always outside the box which I always found to be quite amusing.

Another geeky thing I have been thinking about is, aside from The Biggest Breakfast Ever, does anyone recall the latest time in the day that one of The Bigger Breakfasts ran until? I know dependent upon which school holiday it was, it was either 11:30am, 12:00pm or 12:30pm it finished at. I swear though, that I vividly recall on the odd day, it ran on later than 12:30pm, but this was a rarity? I may be wrong on this but I recall in a TV Guide being surprised to see it running until 12:40 or something like that. Whether it did or not, I can’t recall though.

I seem to recall there being some pictures showing the left hand side of the house before it was turned in to a private part of the house available on the locationworks at the time but those pictures don't seem to be on locationworks anymore.

Didn't they do a late night Big Breakfast for Christmas one year maybe back with Chris and Gabby? or was that just a dream

New Years Eve 1992:


And of course, New Years Eve 1999:

They did New Year's Eve going from 1992 into '93. I think a clip of the "first Channel 4 ad break of 1993" has been posted on here already. (EDIT: Whataday got there first )

Of course those two shows both effectively exacerbate two popular (but wildly inaccurate) misconceptions, and two of my pet peeves ... What "Big Ben" actually is, and the start of the Millennium. Both of which can be argued elsewhere, but not here!