Rhaya Barton
BBC Breakfast producer

The BBC Breakfast clock looks a little bit different this morning!

The usual on-screen digital clock has been replaced with the retro blue face of the 1980s. On the very first episode of Breakfast, presenter Frank Bough said: “Time is of the essence to all of us. So here is our clock, and here it will stay”.

And stay there it did…until 1986 when the studio and programme had a rebrand. Then the clock was smaller, and lighter in colour – although kept the same retro feel. It disappeared from the screen in 1993, before returning closer to the format viewers are familiar with now in 2003.

A few weeks after getting my new job as a BBC Breakfast presenter last summer I found an old diary in my childhood bedroom. It was from 1983.

I was 13 at the time. The same as Adrian Mole. In fact, probably more like Adrian Mole than I’d like to admit!

I didn’t write in it for very long - my life was clearly so boring that I gave up keeping a diary by the middle of February that year - but buried among my profound teenage musings on Phil Collins, fish fingers and having a coldsore, is this entry from Monday 17 January 1983:

“Today I woke up at 6am to watch the most publicised - and now criticised - Breakfast TV. It was good - but ALL NEWS!!!!Imagine eating Corn Flakes while watching Mr Bough”.

BBC Breakfast Time had been given a lot of hype in the days beforehand, so I do remember creeping downstairs to witness that moment of TV history.

The opening titles that seemed to go on forever…that iconic theme tune….the sunny logo…the on-screen clock..…and then this weird mix of news, sport, horoscopes and gossip all presented on a red leather sofa - just like my red leather diary.

We’d never really seen anything like it on TV before. And certainly not before school! Before Breakfast Time arrived, television screens were blank until lunchtime. And remember: no phones, no social media, no YouTube.

Clearly, this 13-year-old felt there was too much news on the first programme (awkward) but I do remember feeling excited that people were waking up across the country that morning and sharing a live “moment” together, through television.

Forty years later, I never imagined that I’d be presenting the anniversary edition of Breakfast. It’s funny how life works out.

David Sillito
Media and Arts correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

"People said television in the morning, that’s disgusting. Some even said it was immoral."

Forty years on, Ron Neil, who was the first editor of Breakfast Time knew there were doubts about this strange new arrival on television.

But everything had changed at the corporation when the news broke that their rival was about to take the early morning plunge.

The BBC, he says, “hummed, it hawed, it hesitated… and then one bright day ITV announced it was going to do breakfast TV and from that day onwards the BBC decided it was going to do breakfast television and it was going to do it first.

"The question was what would be the mood of this new type of programme. Ron and the rest of the team had a vision.

“Everyone thought it should be welcoming, it should be light hearted. It shouldn’t be a boring man behind a desk giving you a lecture. I’m not sure that we said to Frank Bough to wear a jumper.

"I just think Frank decided to put on a jumper. Within a few weeks, ladies up and down the land began to knit jumpers for Frank.”

Also watching on that first day were their slightly disgruntled rivals at ITV - the BBC had sneaked in ahead of them by two weeks. But, the original TV AM formula was rather more formal and serious than the BBC.

It was not what the pundits or the advertisers had been expecting and for TV AM it was to be the beginning of a rather rocky period.

17 January 1983 was just the beginning. Breakfast TV was not just a new arrival in the schedules it was to be for months, front page news.

This was the original title sequence for the first edition of Breakfast Time on 17 January 1983.

It aired Monday to Friday from 06:30 to 09:00 on BBC One.

In 1986, Breakfast Time adopted a more formal news format. The cosy, informal studio was replaced with a news desk and presenters wore suits.

The new look programme also shifted in tone, to focus on analysis of the morning’s news stories, especially politics. In 1989 the show’s title changed to Breakfast News.

Richard Frediani
Breakfast editor

Welcome to 1983. No internet. No social media.

Just four TV channels and blank television screens before 9am. But on Monday 17 January 1983 at 6.30am the dawn of a new era in British broadcasting began on BBC One with the launch of Breakfast Time.

The BBC had beaten ITV rivals TV-AM to the starting line by two weeks.

Frank Bough and Selina Scott eased viewers into the day with a mix of news, weather and sport as well as extended features reviewing the morning’s papers, food and consumer holidays.

But there was also something new for a British TV programme with a daily astrology section and Getting Britain Fit with the Green Goddess.

Forty years later we may not be telling Virgos what the future holds or holding ‘Keep Fit’ sessions, but it’s fascinating to see how many of the ideas and structures from the very first programme still exist.

Presenters remain on a sofa – albeit a red one that doesn’t squeak like the original leather one – while an agenda that is part easy-going magazine show, part news are at the heart of what we do.

It is often said that “life begins at 40” and 2023 promises to be another major year of challenge and change for BBC Breakfast.

But most important to us are the millions of loyal viewers who watch every morning making us the number one choice at Breakfast time just as we were 40 years ago.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage as BBC Breakfast celebrates its 40th birthday.

We’ll bring you updates live from the programme today - as well as moments from behind the scenes.

Expect to hear from presenters past and present, including Debbie Rix, Francis Wilson and Russell Grant.

We’ll also hear viewers’ memories of the show - which started off as Breakfast Time in 1983 - over the years.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest from the UK’s oldest national breakfast TV show.