A former The Big Breakfast worker has lifted the lid on the ‘shambolic’ scenes on set – and the simple reason a show like it could never be made today.
Beverley Cuddy is the editor of Dogs Today magazine and has appeared on the show numerous times with canine-related content.
The Big Breakfast first aired in 1992, redefining morning television with its contagious energy and chaotic charm.
Broadcast live from a real house in East London, the Channel 4 show marked a radical departure from the polished presenters and professional scripts of traditional breakfast shows.
Instead, the daytime slot relied on a faster paced, slapstick humour and unpredictable antics to draw viewers in.
The show launched the careers of an array of presenters, including Chris Evans, Gaby Roslin, Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen.
Beverley Cuddy (pictured) has lifted the lid on the ‘shambolic’ scenes on set – and the simple reason a show like it could never be made today
It also featured appearances from Hollywood A-listers, like Britney Spears, Samuel L. Jackson and Beyoncé.
Speaking on behalf of Smooth Spins, journalist Beverley said the show would never work today owing to its ‘shambolic’ nature.
‘It was so wonderfully chaotic and shambolic,’ she said. ‘Nowadays, you’d have to sign so many releases, and it would be a health and safety nightmare. It was a great time in television, and I look back on it fondly.’
Beverley described an incident when her magazine was running a campaign to stop cosmetic tail docking, and the Big Breakfast producers decided to do a ‘Rear Of The Year’ segment showing dogs’ natural tails.
‘They had a massive garden, so they encouraged us to invite as many dogs as possible,’ she said.
‘The night before the segment, the man who ran the actual Rear Of The Year threatened to sue.
Beverley (pictured) is the editor of Dogs Today magazine and has appeared on The Big Breakfast show numerous times with canine-related content
‘It caused a bit of drama, and we had to scramble around and come up with a new name and rebrand everything.’
Beverley told how, once, the producers wanted her to help with a prank on journalist Esther Rantzen.
‘She was hosting a lot of shows that celebrated dogs who could do amazing things, so they thought it would be funny if we presented her with a load of dogs who couldn’t do anything.
‘They also wanted one of the dogs to be a cat, so my deputy Claire insisted her cat Nobby go on,’ Beverley continued.
‘He was stressed during the journey to the house, so he peed all over her, and then he ran off during the segment. I think Claire got so stressed, so she told the presenter Zoe Ball to f*** off live on air.’
But the show bosses embraced the chaos, and Beverley insisted the ‘loved it when things went wrong.’
‘No one was precious,’ she added. ‘The presenters were all normal and got on with everyone on set.
‘Some of the presenters, like Paul O’Grady and Mark Little, were natural comedians, so they rose to the challenge.’
The show launched the careers of an array of presenters, including Chris Evans (pictured), Gaby Roslin, Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen
But, according to Beverley, not every brain behind the show was comfortable with the madness.
‘Zoe Ball was a bit more of a traditional presenter, so she always seemed a bit stressed when things didn’t go to plan.’
Of presenter Paul O’Grady, Beverley said the ‘kind and genuine’ drag queen and comedian was wonderful to work with.
‘He was amazing as Lily [Savage, his drag persona] and so quick-witted. If anything went wrong, he handled it like a pro.
‘You could tell back then how much he loved dogs, so it was wonderful that he went on to be involved so heavily with them.’
When asked what the presenters were like off camera, Beverley responded: ‘I went on the show so much that I worked with pretty much all the different hosts throughout the years. Everyone was really lovely and charming.’
A special feature of the Big Breakfast show was the London brick house in which it was filmed.
An eccentric location for an equally eccentric programme, Beverley calls the filming site ‘dingy’ and ‘grim’.
According to Beverley, not every brain behind the show was comfortable with the madness, including straight-laced Zoe Ball (pictured)
‘I have no idea why they picked that location,’ she laughed. ‘It was a dingy house and not in great condition.
‘It was not photogenic, and the bits you didn’t see off camera were worse. It was dirty and certainly not flash.
‘I don’t ever remember there being space for make-up artists or anything like that. It was cramped, and there were so many windows that they probably affected the lighting. The location made everything harder.’
Beverley remembers one of the more memorable segments from the show where the focus was dogs that look like real people, based on a feature her magazine had run.
‘The Big Breakfast loved it, so we were tasked with finding dogs that looked like the presenters.
‘We found a red Griffon Bruxellois that looked like Chris Evans and a beautiful Afghan Hound that was Gabby Roslin.
‘We brought the dogs to the house and, during an ad break, the dogs took the place of the presenters. They all behaved amazingly well.
‘We also did this wild segment around the time of a general election, where we had to ask everyone at Crufts how their dogs would vote.
Of presenter Paul O’Grady (pictured), Beverley said the ‘kind and genuine’ drag queen and comedian was wonderful to work with
‘We had a ballot boxer, which was a ballot box in the shape of a dog, and we invited politicians to be interviewed and tell us their dogifestos.’
Beverley’s time on the show was not without its star-studded moments.
For one competition segment, she was on a judging panel with ‘someone from Pink Floyd’, and the host was Paul O’Grady as Lily Savage.
And The Big Breakfast even saw young stars before catching their big break.
‘I’m not sure if our paths crossed on The Big Breakfast, but Tom Hardy was on the show as a young model and must have seen our segments because he reached out and was desperate to get his dogs in our magazine,’ Beverley remembered.
‘None of us knew who he was at the time, but he’d call us every week. We kept fobbing him off, but then we agreed to let a work experience girl interview him. So that was Tom Hardy’s first big interview.’
It was not all glamour behind the scenes, Beverley says, and the guests were subjected to an experience as ‘dingy’ as the house.
‘Some shows have green rooms, but The Big Breakfast had a rather dingy portacabin we were all crowded into.
Lily Savage, aka Paul O’Grady, as a prisoner in Cell Block H, The Musical
‘It was quite shabby. There was no hierarchy, and you were lucky if you had a cup of tea.’
Among the eclectic mix of presenters, though, things were good. Beverley said Gabby Roslin and Chris Evans were ‘so close.’
She added: ‘They were practically like brother and sister, and you could tell they really worked well as a pair.’
As for Beverley herself, who became involved with the show through her friendship with newsreader Peter Smith, she got on best with presenter Chris.
‘We still talk even now,’ she said. ‘Funnily enough, he reached out to me a few years after he’d left The Big Breakfast because he’d got a dog who became ill and sought the help of a vet who was doing pioneering surgery.
‘He was so impressed, he asked me if Dogs Today would interview the vet. That vet turned out to be Noel Fitzpatrick, aka the Supervet. So that was a nice start to his now amazing career.’
