TV-am day one | Tuesday 1 February 1983

From the archives of www.transdiffus...
It's Tuesday 1 February 1983 and, a mere 2 months early, TV-am catapults on to the airwaves to an audience of... very few. The BBC had stolen what small audience there was with a downmarket, Nationwide-esque light programme called Breakfast Time that they rushed on air two weeks earlier as a spoiler.
There's early promise in the early TV-am, a format that Antenne 2's Télématin would freely borrow two years later. But in Britain, it wouldn't work and TV-am would come close to collapse within weeks, with the stars seen here ejected and a new bunch of (cheaper) unknowns put in their place in a more lightweight, inexpensive and popular version of the station. That was the formula that worked, eventually kicking the BBC's Breakfast Time into a newsier version, then forcing the BBC to attack from the other end of the spectrum with the entirely news-driven BBC Breakfast News.
Now tables have turned: the BBC's current show, Breakfast, is celebrity and fluff driven (albeit with space for news); TV-am's successor GMTV has given way to Daybreak, also designed to be celebrity and fluff driven but, so far, failing to take GMTV's audience with it (as GMTV had also failed on launching its newsier TV-am replacement, finding the viewers heading over to the BBC instead).

[@guksack]

That opening music used to fill me with dread of getting up for school etc. Now brings back cozy warm memories of my family and late father.

[@davidallen7977]

To me this is frightening, as it only seems like yesterday. Life really is so short.

[@digitalmediafan]

@Induxvideos yes we are just passing ships in the night. You don’t think about time passing until you are older

[@leethomson5733]

Yes , same it goes so quick

[@CARLIN4737]

I agree i was 11/12 that year and it literally does seem like yesterday....Nearly dead now. 53 this year?

[@DarkLight753]

I remember getting up for school in the late 80's and having this music shrieking in my ear....I just wanted to go back to bed.....not to mention seeing my mother go for gold and following Lizzie Webb in her exercises while I'm eating my Cornflakes and trying to get marbles together. I also remember seeing Timmy Mallett, Mike Morris and Anne Diamond. Actually, all those memories are rather pleasant. Cheers.

[@chriswalsh9168]

DarkLight753

[@chrispaw1]

DarkLight753 they are all my memories too! Id go back to those days in a flash, the 80's were amazing.

[@Batsinthebelltower]

classic times matey

[@nicktatters7523]

Don't forget Rusty lee with her huge infectious laugh!! Wow, them were the days..

[@TheGreatestPlayerInTheWorld]

I was was 5 when this came out but do remember roland rat and lizzy

[@donaldsunny7836]

I was only 13 years old when this was on TV. It is so bad, it's good. It brings back good memories. Breakfast, P.E. kit, maths and RE homework, football boots for after school practice, out the door. Do not want to be late and get detension again. Thanks for uploading.

[@davidpinnock4227]

getting stressed looking at the clock thinking you will be late for school lol! :)

[@Cheeseburgerandfries2006]

When I get ready for school we don’t even have the telly on one bit we just have the radio on

[@stevelloyd5867]

Looks like you didn’t pass English Language. It’s detention 😂

[@DarkLight753]

They should bring TV-am back. It was always on in my house. I find Piers Morgan a difficult person to take in the evening......let alone in the mornings! Probably the reason why I watch BBC Breakfast.

[@lightsshadow919]

Now that Morgan is gone...

[@shaolinfingajab]

I was eating my corn flakes wondering what star wars stickers i needed and what one's i was going to swap...

[@Gary80264]

Woke up especially to watch the first tvam on Tuesday 🌅.

[@krisstarring]

I'm a Yank, but I think if I was a British kid back in the 80's, I would have listened to that screen with the theme of "Good Morning Britain" over it out of sheer enthusiasm. I love the sound of that theme. Jeff Wayne is a genius.

[@TheImatube]

I just love the scene at the end. Wish I could go back to 2nd february 1983 to watch day 2

[@edmund184]

Modern television is never this spontaneous

[@markdavies5933]

Yes me too I remember this way back in 1983 what better happier times they were for us all

[@lisamorris7491]

Getting up not wanting to go to school lol !! Love this tune

[@DaveNightingaleRADIO]

It might be clunky,it might look strange,but one thing is still great ..that Jeff Wayne theme is still bloody fantastic.

[@kaduroy3427]

Sixty minutes Too.

[@97channel]

I like how the news appears to have no script. Just a few pages of notes and a gentleman rambling about what he's read in the papers that morning. Extremely ramshackle, but somehow quite charming.

[@applemask]

Poor Robert Kee, he was never happy reading the news at 6 in the morning.

[@Westy1971]

Interesting to note David Frost was involved in the early days of 2 ITV companies(TvAm & LWT) & they both nearly went tits up! I had great respect for Frostie as a broadcaster, but behind the scenes surely was another matter?

[@leeosborne3793]

"every morning, every day of the week, for at least the next eight years!" - that sounds like a prison sentence!

[@ajs41]

Anna Ford looks a lot younger than 39.

[@donrennis7585]

This show brings me back to my childhood. The music is iconic. I was just a tiny feutus when this was first broadcast but this show ran for so long that i still remember hearing this playing while getting ready for school.

[@clark5401]

I was 9 years old when this broadcast. I remember my mum waking me up to watch the first broadcast at 6am. Then when they showed the cartoons at 7.25am - I insisted on watching Good Morning Britain instead of Breakfast TV on BBC 1. I watched it until I left school in 1989.

[@PriseeBoy]

By the end of its run in 1992 TV-am had a 60% audience share at breakfast. No other breakfast offering ever did as well as TV-am in its later years, after a few faltering steps they found the perfect balance between light material and heavyweight news pulling off some major scoops along the way.

[@caledoniankittyOfficial]

Getting ready for school and this on in the background. I would always follow the little clock at the edge of the screen lol

[@davidallen7977]

How nicely they spoke.

[@DavidMander-rs4uk]

Just turned 41 years ago!! 😮

[@RegularCapital]

Breakfast Television Centre (TV-am's old studios) is now home to Viacom's MTV and Nickelodeon UK operations.

[@admiralackbar9307]

+RegularCapital And the TV-am eggcups are still up on the rooftops.

[@sjmiles]

+Admiral Ackbar I take it that's the studio's at Camden Lock?

[@michaelw9285]

Yes, the former car showroom on Hawley Crescent near Sainsbury's!

[@BelfastGav]

It all seemed incredibly plummy - apart from Michael Parkinson, who, as I recall, and without any TV competition from BBC save for Open University output, had the weekends to himself (and Mary Parkinson), and was by far TV-am's most popular output until the weekday stuff was revamped and the rest of the 'Famous Five' variously departed or got sidelined as 1983 wore-on. It was a snowy morning in Belfast to greet TV-am, by the way.

[@timg5tm941]

Anna Ford - quite scrumptious!

[@joshaw7005]

reminds me of getting up for school half asleep trying to beg the day off with my dad while hes wastching this lol

[@joshaw7005]

Mr37357 hated the theme tune to many bad memories n all of school lol

[@Cromper]

You edited out the weather!!! Has anyone got the weather forecast on tape before I jump into my time machine? I can't travel to a specific time destination if there is snow or frost on the ground.

[@tellydav]

The generic "buy a newspaper" ad is an intriguing oddity. Who would have been the actual advertiser? Was there an official trade body at the time representing all of them?

[@DJdefcon4]

Me and my sister 11 and 8 at the time got up early to catch this first broadcast. Never didi again.

[@leeosborne3793]

There wasn't much on it for kids during the week, but I was 8 when this launched, and stuck doggedly to watching it for ages! I've no idea why, much of their output was genuinely awful.

[@joshaw7005]

was five n first starting school with this first tvam god im old..

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

One of the rare appearances of George Thomson. I was already a BBC Breakfast Time addict at the time so didn't see this.

[@McSynth]

Great stuff ! Glad you uploaded this.

[@MrFaceHead]

Every morning, every day of the week, at least for the next 8 years... :D lol

[@RetroGUY77]

I just commented that. Creepy isn't it!

[@andknuckles101]

it's the predecessor to "like and subscribe"

[@leeosborne3793]

You get less for murder! 😂

[@sean65xjrurwin61]

Missed this in 1983, I recall there was trouble with the programme and viewing figures dropped down to negligible numbers. If this was the first broadcast it was absolutely awful, clunky and awkward. The format was terrible and disjointed. BBC breakfast time was much more polished and slick at the time. I was 18 in 1983, how time flies !!!

[@97channel]

I fear that the postage stamp to send the cheque amounted to more than their donation of the income from the first ad break to chari-dee, mate.

[@CaptainSiCo]

Interesting watching that advert promoting newspapers at 13:13 - the gimmick being how ridiculous it would be for people to carry portable TVs around with them for the news, etc - but I wonder if it crossed their mind that 30 years later people would be carrying around iPads, iPhones etc instead of newspapers!

[@kernowgeek6058]

I would have been 3 yrs old unknowingly growing up throughout the awesome 80’s.

[@aditierneu9651]

i was 11 just about to start my paper round .....oh to be young again

[@antster1983]

To be fair, Robert Kee was already an old man here. He didn't look all too happy to be awake at that ungodly hour...

[@Springamatul]

What happened to the Pye brand?

[@Naughtybaz]

Good morning Britain 1st Feb 2020 🇬🇧👍

[@andrewscott1253]

I love that bit at the end where Frost kind of says we did it and using it as an excuse to touch Anna's legs. Broadcasters good not get away with that now.

[@digitalmediafan]

+Andrew Scott it was her and Angela's legs actually simultaneously...and twice also !

[@HafizIzzudin]

today is 1st february! Happy 30th birthday british breakfast tv!

[@IATM29]

(contd)as well as other well known names like Richard Keys and Lorraine Kelly.Gave birth to Roland Rat and Timmy Mallet and WACADAY who were huge ratings winners and made TV-AM compulsive early morning viewing. That was until the now infamous 1991 franchise round when TV-AM lost its franchise to Sunrise Television(GMTV) and Bruce Gyngell got literally a hard kick in the balls by his friend Maggie Thatcher. TV-AM 1983-1991 gone copied but never forgotten.

[@johntomlinson6849]

I'd forgotten how cold and snotty Anna Ford was. I could never understand how she made it to the top of TV news.

[@williamcallaghan2023]

think it's obvious how she got to the top

[@transdiffusion]

She's certainly always been more comfortable when completely scripted vs having to ad-lib, but for the entire 1980s she was viewed as the best national female newsreader and presenter in the country and was a heartthrob to male journalists on the big papers like the Telegraph and the Grauniad.

[@ellee3727]

Oh my gosh where's the time gone! I was 14!!!!

[@CARLIN4737]

Like a different world from another planet. Only 4 channels on tv. I was 12 years old? Channel 4 only went live the year before and i kid you not years before it wasnt even on all day. Used to finish with the National Anthem at around midnight and that was it till 6/7am?

[@evonneokafor]

35 years old today!!!!!!!!

[@shaolinfingajab]

People should look up "Protect & Survive - Nuclear attack is imminent" .... there is something you did not want to come on the TV when you were eating your cornflakes..

[@PC-lu3zf]

I was less than 2 years old born May 11th 1981 day Bob Marley sadly died:(

[@spenstrangward5126]

Did Jeff Wayne write the theme tune ? Its fantastic

[@80ssynthfan48]

Yes, Jeff Wayne at his finest.

[@tehzeebkabir8901]

IAM SWAPNO

[@tooley58]

This a very badly edited VHS tape, it wasn't a shambles. There are some extremely dense comments here!

[@eddielasowsky7777]

Anna PHWOOOARD

[@IATM29]

There is no chemistry between Parky, Frost, Anna Ford,Angela Rippon, and Robert Key whatsoever. TV-AM was clearly under-prepared no wonder people switched over to BBC1 to watch BBC Breakfast Time presented by Frank Bough and the gorgeous Selina Scott. TV-AM's formula was a disaster apart from the legendary Good Morning Britain titles. But after near closure and numerous strikes TV-AM survived got rid of the dead wood signed the classic pairing of Anne Diamond and Nick Owen(contd)

[@aditierneu9651]

God totally forgot about the eggs at the end showing each year that passed

[@dannysinclaire2109]

PYE....TUBE.....CUBE.....WOW.

[@transdiffusion]

There's a certain something about early 1980s electronics styling, isn't there? Rugged but streamlined. Of course, if your Pye Tube Cube went wrong, you'd lose your clock radio, TV and tape player all at once, something you don't need to worry about with separate items. Although these days if you lose your mobile phone you also lose all of these things at once anyway!

[@robertcomer2767]

I think I gave up with TV-am when that pompous Commander Philpott arrived on the scene

[@jerusefan7]

Does anyone remember the silent cartoon intro for early tv? I was a classical composition characters coming out of the sea playing violins, cello's players with white wigs but blank faces a real strange short etc..

[@aditierneu9651]

No but i remember an egg playing a violin ..i think it was from Germany or Hungary...I think it was called Ludwig or something

[@sarahperry7431]

I only watched tv am for roland rat and wacaday

[@blackmichael75]

The Newspaper Publishers Association, London EC4?

[@john111257]

and now we have piers..omg

[@Ampex196]

Thanks for the reminder. It was indeed a shameful 'cringeworthy' shambles! The BBC stole a lead and did it properly from the outset (launching 2 weeks earlier). Frank & Selina were great but Ron Neil was the driving force behind BBC Breakfast Time!

[@BelfastGav]

When TV-am won the ITV Breakfast TV franchise in December 1980, one of the competitors for which was ITN, TV-am - in the shape of David Frost and Peter Jay - indicated they wanted/hoped to work with ITN on their output, something the IBA said it would interest it, but nothing ever seemed to come of it, so it took until well after the embarrassingly paltry coverage of the IRA-bombing of the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference for then to improve their news-service - which actually became pretty good for a time before they then lost the franchise and it was cuts, cuts, cuts.

[@thomastaylor1575]

For the first three months I'll be hosting until either I get fired for saying something ridiculous on air or on Teletext, or I realise I made a massive mistake taking on this job and I will resign pretending I disagreed with the ITV bosses on the direction the show was going.

[@AlexanderEdoh2013]

TV-AM was besieged with problems from the start.

[@marvy3022]

Sorry, don't see them.

[@AlexanderEdoh2013]

@@marvy3022 The problems are documented (excellently) in the ITV in the face series as well as countless research.

[@Rulinator]

How horribly smug they all seemed at the end. No wonder those lot flopped.

[@s1977spw2]

anna ford was tidy in 1983 :o)

[@OscarPlymouth]

It's a jinxed name, methinks! ;)

[@nicolerichwine5767]

Is cwilliams1976 even still around?

[@Thomas828]

No, he's not. I don't know the details but he'd been found guilty of multiple counts of copyright infringement and all his videos deleted.

[@transdiffusion]

+Cormac Moore Wrong, we're afraid. kzbin.info/door/mO3OyNbRsP-CzV_deCywXw

[@Thomas828]

Ah, he's back but under a different name. I stand corrected.

[@k.voskuyl5775]

He makes watching British clips in youtube pretty hard

[@robertcomer2767]

Cormac Moore So what did he do that got him done for copyright infringement when this is full of clips. Or was it just to save us from his voice?

[@127dot0dot0dot1]

Its 22:02 on 25 April 2015 and still no word from the Kremlin....

[@AntarcticaTelevision]

13:13 - 13:42 #buyacoffee

[@Batsinthebelltower]

Classic Britain era , watched this before school . Its not in this episode but i alwasy remember the traditional circular clock that used to be onscreen lower bottom right . Also , note the lack of a staged diversity spread of every ethnicity and sexuality on show , its just normal people youd see in the street , much bettert han how tv is now

[@ebakindeji5941]

So what you saying, that you don't see normal people of every ethnicity out on the street these days or even back then?.

[@RetroGUY77]

Is it me or was what Angela said before the advert break a bit creepy. "We hope you join us for not just today but at least the next 8 years... Good Morning Britain!" I find that a bit patronising

[@thornthehedgehog4086]

+Mini Mort 2 Yeah when the station closed down a year later after the predicted 8 years.

[@antster1983]

+Mini Mort 2 We joined TV-am over the years, but Angela, Anna, Michael and Robert eventually didn't! Angela and Anna were sacked in April 1983 after going public over their support of ousted chairman Peter Jay. Robert and Michael stayed on for a year or two. Only Frosty stayed at TV-am until the end when he left for the BBC.

[@1990chrism]

I think what Frost said about pouring boiling water on people was worse tbh...

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

It was really rather crap until Nick and Anne and Wincey and Roland all joined up

[@anchorman87]

what a poorly presented first show- I'd not be coming back...

[@john111257]

looks so dated now..aled and lorraine are great together..this is so BBC

[@aidanlunn7441]

Which is ironic as this was ITV.

[@mikekaraoke]

+John Robertson So dated is rather over the top

[@anchorman87]

even for 1983 this look terrible

[@goodolgranite8247]

At least they tried.

[@jasoncox9394]

Wow ,what memories this music was ,milkman had just been ,and you would be preparing your cereal or ready brek.Miss these days ,everything seemed so normal back then.

[@mrkipling2201]

Totally agree with you.

[@ajs41]

We still have the milkman delivering the milk.

[@southpawboxing4265]

I'd much prefer this coverage than the glossed nonsense on offer in 2021.

[@williamhughes934]

Anna Ford 💖💖💖💖💖💖 Didn't really watch TVam in the early days, until Anne Diamond and Nick Owen came along. It had a real family feel to it with the new friendly presenters. Then Roland Rat and Wacaday rounded the new look off and from then on it was part of my mornings 📺

[@grahampearson5670]

I remember watching TV-AM when I was a lad even though Angela Rippon and Anna Ford were sacked not long after Peter Jay resigned as chairman and Aitkin took over. The advertising wasn't very good at the time because Equity members were on strike in a dispute over pay.

[@leeosborne3793]

Yes - early on the ads were all for obscure companies and clearly made on the cheap, like the ones fronted by the guy who ran OTV!

[@123brownjames]

It went so well on the first day, that half the presenters were fired the month after!

[@ItsABeautifulDay.]

40 Years.

[@T0mat0S0up]

Ahh those beige bricks, how I have missed them.

[@StuAcker]

Beige bricks? That's no way to describe David Frost and Robert Kee!

[@matthewpayton]

Loved the original Good morning Britain. I also love the new Good morning Britain.

[@Bombellih]

Though it was partly a copy of the 1980 Moscow Games.

[@peterpeterxxo]

got up extra early to see the start of this (and bbc breakfast time on jan 17th)..i remember i got bored pretty quick but the 1st hour was stilted and repetitive looking at this again...that keys bloke couldnt have lasted long, he was poor.

[@paulchallinor2420]

Interesting to hear that the original idea was for Angela and Robert to take it in turns to present Daybreak. No offence to Robert, but he wasn't a live news reader, and Angela would've at least made Daybreak a little more coherent, even if the mix of hard news, farming reports and stiff upper lip weather forecasts would've made it hard going regardless of host. Of course, when they discovered that David Frost and Anna Ford weren't gelling very well, Angela was quickly elevated to presenting GMB.

[@ianhalsall-fox]

Fateful words Angela - "for at least the next eight years"

[@dylanwilson7047]

Love this music!

[@gottagothatsme]

Those Daybreak titles are just vile.

[@TheConsettcowboy]

Should have stayed like this. Nowadays Good Morning Britian isnt the same as it was back then was much better.

[@80sandretrogubbins25]

Not in their control. Franchises don't last forever.

[@transdiffusion]

There's a strange one going over to Central in our TV-am playlist (search for "TV-am sign-off switch" - it's the first result).

[@UKRetroChannel]

The original Good Morning Britain is a hell of a lot better than the Good Morning Britain we have nowadays!

[@salfordguy69]

the problem in the uk is at breakfast time you only watch for abt 15 minutes so don't want commercials so ITV will never win!

[@2001JamesTV]

Do you have the recording of the 10 minute break between TV-am and the handover to the regions?

[@1990chrism]

11:34 I'm sorry, what!?

[@UFOSIG]

Miss those days. We knew one of the make up artists on the show, Brenda.

[@Scripture-Man]

Back when the country was godly and decent. Before society went to the pits.

[@brucedanton3669]

Indeed so too!! Thank you anyway!!

[@peterwilliamskelhorn6675]

​@@brucedanton366940 years after tv-am Angela will be on series 21 of strictly come dancing

[@andrewbashford9786]

I remember the first day of TV AM a milestone in British Telly 📺 🇬🇧