Facts and Figures

Here's our A-Z of TV-am:

A IS FOR….Anne

Anne Diamond joined Greg Dyke’s new look TV-am in June 1983 at the age of 28. Former Prime Minister Edward Heath was one of the guests on her first programme. After climbing the career ladder up through newspapers and regional television her success lay in her fresh ‘girl next door’ approach to presenting.

B IS FOR…..Bangers

The first commercial ever shown on TV-am was for Wall's sausages and bacon. With the slogan "no other breakfast television tastes as good", the advert was fronted by the company's managing director Ian Melrose. The end caption featured a frying pan with sausages forming the shape of a TV set as they sizzled alongside some bacon and button mushrooms. The proceeds from the first commercial went to a charity for the mentally handicapped.

C IS FOR….Cushions

November 1985 and comedy star Pamela Stephenson was the main guest of the day. Presenter Nick Owen revealed he had come bottom of a newspaper popularity poll. Pamela announced “I can help you with that” and tried to pull his trousers off. His modesty preserved only by Anne Diamond holding cushions. TV cook Fanny Craddock looked on in disgust!

D IS FOR….Diet with Dors

In the fifties actress Diana Dors was a screen goddess, the UK version of Marilyn Monroe. By 1983 she was larger than life – literally. Greg Dyke recruited her to front a diet series. She refused to be interviewed by young female presenters because they made her look ‘old and fat’. The viewers loved it and the weight dropped off. When the weight began to go back on, the item was dropped and Diana became TV-am’s agony aunt. During a press photo shoot for the series one morning, the electricity board turned up to cut off the power because TV-am had not paid its bills!

E IS FOR….Eggcups

The station’s end copyright caption featured an eggcup. Every year another eggcup was added. There were ten on screen by the time TV-am ended in 1992. The idea came from the TV-am building which had a dozen giant eggcups on the roof.

F IS FOR….Famous Five

The original TV-am presenter line-up. Robert Kee, Angela Rippon, David Frost, Anna Ford and Michael Parkinson.

G IS FOR…..Gulf

TV-am’s coverage of the 1991 Gulf War was highly acclaimed. There were correspondents in all the major locations, often reporting live by satellite. For several weeks the cosy ‘sofa’ format was dropped with the presenters sitting behind a newsdesk for the full three and a half hour programme. The BBC and ITN were left standing with seventy percent of breakfast viewers choosing to get their news first from TV-am.

H IS FOR….Healey

Election Campaign 1987 and Labour’s Dennis Healey was one of the morning’s guests. The normally quiet politician was rattled when a heavily pregnant Anne Diamond quizzed him about revelations in The Sun newspaper that his wife had undergone private surgery. Healey described it as a ‘TV-am dirty trick’ and stormed off the set live on air.

I IS FOR….Injects

Regional coverage was important to TV-am in its latter years and so the company created a network of inject studios all across Britain. Guests no longer had to travel all the way to Camden Lock to be interviewed. There were studios in Glasgow, Newcastle, Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, Peterborough, Cardiff and Belfast.

J IS FOR……Jayne Irving

A reporter turned newsreader and reluctant presenter went on to become one of TV-am’s most popular faces, eventually ending up in the ‘After Nine’ slot. A driving force behind the highly successful Cervical Cancer Campaign she was the obvious choice to fill in for Anne Diamond on GMB. Men adored her legs! She left in September 1989 with the whole of ‘After Nine’ devoted to her.

K IS FOR…..Kelly

Irishman Henry and Scotswoman Lorraine. Two of TV-am’s main presenters. Both attracted some unfair criticism from viewers about their accents but proved very popular breakfast hosts. Henry left in 1987. Lorraine did her first programme in December 1988 and stayed to the bitter end.

L IS FOR…..Lockerbie

December 1988 and it’s another normal night in the TV-am newsroom until news breaks that a plane has crashed near the Scottish border town of Lockerbie. Reporters are despatched and then the true horror of what has happened is revealed. A Pan Am jet has been blown up. Hundreds are dead. It’s TV-am’s biggest story for years. With the help of the ITV companies they produce one of the most complicated live programmes ever seen. Three and a half hours of rolling news. It’s another year before Sky News takes to the air.

M IS FOR....Mike

Mike Morris was a TV-am 'face' from start to end. He joined the station before it went on air working in the sports department and became main presenter in 1987. He said the last words on the very last programme.

N IS FOR.....Nelson

History was made when Mike Morris interviewed Nelson Mandela live on TV-am in 1990. It was the first live interview Mr Mandela did for British TV after his release from prison in South Africa.

O IS FOR…Ordinary

Viewers loved the fact that Good Morning Britain was hosted by otherwise unknown personalities and presenters. It was a unique family that brought breakfast television to ITV screens. Anne, Nick, John Stapleton, Henry Kelly, Wincey Willis, Gordon Honeycombe, Jeni Barnett, Gyles Brandreth, Mike Morris, Richard Keys, Jayne Irving and Kathy Tayler to name but a few. It was also a station which liked to feature the ordinary man and woman in the street, telling their stories and reacting to things in the news.

P IS FOR……Prime Ministers

Margaret Thatcher and John Major were regular guests on ‘Good Morning Britain’ and ‘Frost on Sunday’. In 1983 presenter John Stapleton surprised Mrs T with a birthday cake at the Tory Conference in Blackpool. Her daughter, Carol, was able to speak to her Mum via a special TV-am link and viewers got to see the Prime Minister as never before. Relaxed and full of fun, swapping stories about past birthdays in the Thatcher house. Tony Blair was often featured as a member of the shadow cabinet, and past PMs like Edward Heath and Jim Callaghan also sat on famous sofa.

Q IS FOR…..Queen

TV-am mounted massive coverage of The Queen’s historic visit to China in 1986. There were special editions of Good Morning Britain. The station was criticised when reporter Adam Boulton ‘doorstepped’ The Queen. This went against normal protocol. Buckingham Palace were not impressed.

R IS FOR…..Rodents

Roland Rat and his friends Kevin, Errol, Reggie and Glynis made early mornings fun for younger viewers and parents alike between 1983 and 1985. They attracted massive audiences with their adventures out on the roads of Britain, skiing in the Alps and making a movie called ‘Enter the Rodent’. Roland’s contribution to TV-am’s success was described by the press as the only example of a rat saving a sinking ship.

S IS FOR….Strike

Programmes were disrupted in October 1987 when members of the technician’s union the ACTT went out on strike in a dispute over the ‘Caring Christmas Campaign’. It was a 24 hour stoppage but striking staff were locked out by Managing Director Bruce Gyngell. Unable to broadcast Good Morning Britain, the regular format was replaced with imported shows like Flipper and Batman. In a move that revolutionised ITV, TV-am sacked the strikers and replaced them with non union staff. Viewing figures remained high and slowly normal programming resumed. The unions no longer had a say in how ITV stations were run. Other ITV stations followed Gyngell’s example and Mrs Thatcher approved.

T IS FOR….Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was a guest many times on Good Morning Britain. Her daughter Carol worked as a journalist in the TV-am newsroom and Mrs T was a personal friend of TV-am’s Managing Director Bruce Gyngell. When the company lost its franchise she wrote to Bruce saying she was “mystified and heartbroken…you of all people have done so much for the whole of television”. It was Thatcher’s own legislation that had cost the company it’s right to broadcast.

U IS FOR….Umbrella

The first thing people want to know in the morning is ‘what is the weather going to be like?'. Commander David Philpott famously barked out the first ever breakfast forecast on ITV but was quickly replaced on the weekdays by Wincey Willis. Other weather presenters included Trish Williamson, Anna Walker, Georgey Spanswick, Carol Dooley and Ulrika Jonson. In the early days magnetic symbols were used on a revolving board operated by Billy behind the scenes. Computer graphics took over in 1988. Sadly weather girl Trish Williamson was killed in a road accident in November 2007, aged 52.

V IS FOR…..Videos

Keep fit queen Mad Lizzie Webb was such a hit with viewers that she had to bring out several keep fit videos. They proved to be a real money spinner for TV-am. Robbie Williams, Roy Castle, David Mellor, Anita Harris, Dora Bryan, Ruth Madoc and the Roly Poly’s are just some of the celebrities who joined her on screen for a shakeout.

W IS FOR….Wide Awake Club

The award winning children’s show broadcast every Saturday morning between 1984 and 1989 hosted by Tommy Boyd, Michaela Strachan, Arabella Warner and James Baker. Timmy Mallett hosted the spin off school holiday show Wacaday. It was replaced by Wideawake and then WAC 90.

X IS FOR….’Xpert’

TV-am.org.uk is the place to find expert knowledge about TV-am and it's programmes.

Y IS FOR….Yolk

1986 and comedy star Pamela Stephenson is a guest on the programme once again. Hidden about her person are half a dozen eggs. She decided to have ‘fun’ with them. Wincey was a target at the weather board..SPLAT…the studio walls were next…SPLAT…presenter Geoff Meade had one smashed on his head! SPLAT!

Z IS FOR……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sleep…the thing breakfast TV presenters do when they’re not at work. If they’re not asleep they feel very tired all of the time because they normally get out of bed at about 3am!