Get it down your necky! (Big Breakfast, The)

Member Name: Feefo

Product:	Big Breakfast, The
Date:	08/05/02 (244 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quirky, Charismatic characters, Gets you in a good mood for work!

Disadvantages: It's over!, Difficult to maintain this level constantly

I found myself in a "horrible limbo" in the week that followed the BB ending recently. Viewers were faced with a childrens' programme instead of the BB while channel 4 got to work on the final touches of "Rise", BB's successor.

I have to confess that I actually cried when it last aired a few weeks ago. It surprised me but then it has been on our screens for over ten years so it shouldn't be that amazing for myself and others to find some regret in it's demise.

It did go out with a fairly good "bang" though with Mike "Squeaky" Mclean one of the presenters depositing the BB Gnome outside Channel 4 studios with the addition of a "thumb" crudely summing up some of their thoughts.

The rest of the last live show was I thought quite similar to the usual format of recent BBs hosted by the last presenters it was to have.

The Big Breakfast has had some amazing high points often brought about just by the sheer chemistry between it's presenters. Chris Evans and Gabby Roslin were the first. I used to watch the show quite a lot at that time.

I was studying my Law course and staying with lots of housemates when Johnny Vaughn and Denise Van Outen were the main presenters, and then of course, swiftly followed by Johnny and Lisa Tarbuck.

I have particularly fond memories of all the housemates and I watching BB in the morning before College and the amazing hairdresser sketch which Johnny and Lisa did. Previously the sketch that I had loved had been with Johnny and Denise whose flirting and charisma made it exhilarating viewing.

It was great fun to watch. Feel good viewing. There were so many presenters on the show. Paula Yates, again a very charismatic, compelling character, who used to interview guests on the house bed.
Mark Little, the australian who used to be in "Neighbours" was pretty funny.

Vanessa Feltz is str
angely watchable for her unpredictability and eccentricities. She was bigger in those days and still married. Then when hubby left her she got slim, got made over and went on Celebrity Big Brother. She was a good interviewer.

Lilly Savage was a host too, again a flamboyant person to say the least. Do we see a pattern emerging here!!?.

There were guest hosts too like Patsy Palmer who I believe did a week on the show. I remember the huge excitement when Robbie Williams was on the show for a week and the massive crowds that gathered outside the house. I think some girls in the crowd played a game for a chance to snog him!.

There were the outdoor presenters, Richard Bacon, Mark Lamarr and Squeaky Mclean. I adored Squeaky. I think because he had some cheekiness and flirtiness about him.

Richard Bacon was too boyish for my liking and the charm never quite came off. He was the least charismatic of the presenters for me.

I did like the way Richard alluded to the fact that he was a minor celebrity when he got deservedly promoted to being the "indoor presenter" as opposed to the "outdoor" one.

Richard was also good at doing the papers, but somehow, the magic wasn't quite there. The days of fantastic pairings of Johnny/Denise/Lisa and Chris and Gabby were long gone.

I wasn't even that keen on Johnny Vegas. While I am sure he is admired by many and has a huge fan club out there I didn't like his particular brand of humour.

The innovative factors about the BB when it first began and remaining all the way through were that it was first and foremost, a house. No other programme has done that in Britain in quite the same way.

There were families of the week, making it seem even more like a home, children who were brought in as experts to grade toys and sketches which because they followed a theme for a while became little fascinating programmes themselves. r>
There was the garden shed where star guests would wait and be interviewed. The stars got very fond of the BB. They were used to the show and the format and spoke kindly of it.

The show even had it's own huge and funny puppets "Zig and Zag" who themselves had "presenter status". And there was the bed used for interviews as a backdrop for more flirting than was "seemly" for that time in the morning.

The show was anarchic, a sort of "Tiswas makes the News". It was very loud, (I can remember having to turn down the tv volume sometimes). There was lots of laughter and natural humour arising from the unexpected in a live forum.

There was music, often in the form of live bands, and choirs. Sometimes there were "alternative musical numbers" from the crew themselves, they had their own breakfast song accompanied jovially by the piano.

There were "silly games" for viewer participation, some involving stars' capacity to do something. The viewer would ring in to the show to suggest how well the star would do.

I can remember a strange game which must have been in the summer where guests had to play tennis wearing further pairs of pants to restrict their capacity to play successfully.

There was also another strange game played in the pool outside where a man swimming in the pool had to grab as many of the objects as he could while being directed by a viewer.

I got into a habit of videoing the BB while I was at work on the two weeks up to it coming off the air. I had heard a rumour that it was being cancelled and then I saw it was happening.

There is a new programme in it's place. It is sad but true, I think Channel 4 may have been right to try a format with a more "Euro" feel. "Rise" is BB all grown- up.

The hosts all sit on a panel and everything is "bigger". The humour is ge
ntle and only slight innuendos get through.

It gave lots of people a lot of pleasure over the years. It's time for a change but it's always sad when something that was so unique is gone forever.