20 years of breakfast television

The BBC beat ITV to be the first on air

Today (Friday) is a very special day: Breakfast celebrates its twentieth birthday.

Launched as Breakfast Time on the 17 January 1983, it was the UK's first early morning programme having beaten ITV's TV-am which was launched later.

The first show was hosted by Frank Bough, who had been presenting the early evening magazine programme Nationwide for the BBC and Selina Scott a former ITN newsreader.

There are four special areas on the website devoted to our twentieth birthday.

You can see a clip of the very first programme by clicking on the link below.

Click here to see the clip

"You had to get up at three in the morning"

Graham Satchell has been to meet some of the original team of presenters.

And he has compiled an extended interview with Breakfast Time's very first weatherman Francis Wilson who had to cope with new technology on the first programme.

Click here to see our extended interview with Francis Wilson

You can also see Graham Satchell's report in full

Click here to see the clip

And there are those rare occasions when things didn't go to plan. You can see some of the highlights from the first three years.

Click here to see the clip

Speaking after the first programme, the then Director General of the BBC Alasdair Milne, was full of praise for this morning's show: "It was a terrific start. The first Tonight programme was not as good as this."

It's thought it cost the BBC £6m to launch the new programme which at the time was described as the most ambitious project since the launch of BBC Two, but the programme didn't mean there was any additional cost to the licence payer.

Francis Wilson, Debbie Rix, David Icke, Frank Bough, Selina Scott and Nick Ross

The programme made household names of many of it presenters including Nick Ross, Sports presenter David Icke and newsreader Debbie Rix.

There were also regular appearances from Diana Moran - the Green Goddess, and Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark both did a stint presenting.

In October 1989 the programme was relaunched under the name Breakfast News. The programme was again relaunched in 2000 by presenters Jeremy Bowen and Sophie Raworth and this time named simply Breakfast.