The Big Breakfast House - 1992

Shots of the set of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast taken one week before launch in September 1992. Notice a very Sonic The Hedgehog influenced bedroom which was one of the first to get redecorated - possibly after complaints from Sega?

[@RebeccaGunn]

Aggghhh I didn't know the BB house had a Sonic themed bedroom, it looks so good! - Sega's usually pretty chill and I would of thought would of been pretty happy with some promotion in 1990. Didn't they have the rights to Sonic SatAM a few years later as well?

[@97channel]

What I liked about the original style of the interior, was that the set didn't just cater for fixed angles of filming. The lighting was also unobtrusive, the later fixtures looked a mess. I also never liked the sun filters they put up at the windows. It was all about the authenticity of the house as just being an ordinary house, for me.

[@MatgoStyles]

Although the additional lighting was needed. In the early years some of the lighting was portable and they had to light each scene as and when needed, which I can imagine being a real ball ache (and dangerous as the lights got hot in those days). They also had to stick black material on the outside of windows if they were filming in a specific part of the house and the sun was too bright. For all its faults the 1996 revamp made the house more TV friendly from a technical point of view.

[@97channel]

The lighting fixtures in the 1996 revamp were neat, I liked the look of them. Although they did give a bit of a stark, cold light. The tinted windows had a more pleasing look, too. It's funny, I hated the 1996 house at the time but I ended up really liking it long after the show ended and I watched old clips back.

[@stevek6432]

@@97channel i remember the had a huge clock fixed into the wall as well, must have been fun to avoid that in pre records

[@97channel]

@@stevek6432 I remember a point where Chris Evans, for some reason, had to wear a noticeably a different pair of specs for a few days. Maybe he'd broken his others or something. But the Zig & Zag pre-records all contained him wearing his familiar frames. It was worked around with a slight tongue-in-cheek reference each time, where he'd say something like "Gaby, you carry on. I'm just going upstairs and putting on my Crunch glasses.". One of the biggest giveaways to an item being pre-recorded were the TV sets they had in each of the rooms. If the item was live, you'd see the same clock in the corner as the one on you own telly. In a pre-record, no clock. The two consistent pre-recorded items broadcast as though live were The Crunch and Paula Yates' on the bed interviews. From memory, forgive me if this is slightly inaccurate, In Chris Evans' autobiography he mentions how Zig and Zag would pre-record their stuff every Saturday afternoon, as the guys lived in Ireland and couldn't continue to spend so much time working in London. They would appear live on the show every other Friday, and sometimes on other days for special occasions. Planet 24 rented an apartment for them to stay in whilst they were working on the show.

[@kevinmcgrath6628]

@@97channel Tuesdays and Wednesdays every fortnight were often when the Crunch pre-recs would happen. I was in one myself one Wednesday afternoon in July 1996.

[@birdy100]

Did they ever use that Sonic decorated room prior to Master Blaster? I know they used that room for Master Blaster with Ben the Boffin but as you mention the room has been decorated by then.

[@97channel]

It's confused me a little, actually. Because I do seem to have seen the room with that Labyrinth Zone decoration, but I'm also quite sure they never used it for any item before Master Blaster and the redesigned look. Ironic that it had the perfect design for Master Blaster.

[@MatgoStyles]

@@97channel The room (with this decor) was used for Master Blaster. It was a launch item - Ben was in the pilot.

[@97channel]

@@MatgoStyles I only really know the show from mid 1993 onwards, but I'm confused about the Master Blaster timeline because the very first edition featured Master Blaster as part of The Crunch with Zig and Zag in the bathroom. The earliest I've seen Ben the Boffin in an edition is the New Year's eve show.

[@MatgoStyles]

@@97channel Zig & Zag would occasionally do Master Blaster on a Monday, but Ben would do it every Thursday from his own room. I'm not sure why but it was the early 90s so we weren't short of game releases!

[@RossPatzelt]

wow never seen this before. Was that Chris at the table near the end?

[@stevek6432]

certainly looks like him