Daybreak for Daybreak
“Dawn is happening, day is breaking behind us” said Christine Bleakley as an orange glow lit St Paul’s Cathedral and the River Thames behind her providing a spectacular backdrop for my 6am wake-up call.
“The Sun is up, and thank goodness, we spent good money bringing you this view” joked her co-host and screen husband Adrian Chiles, “thank goodness you can see it.”
And so the scene was set, this was going to be classic Chiles and Bleakley, you could tell from the off. It was clear that not even a 3am start was going to get in the way of their magnetic, infectious and unexplainable TV chemistry. As the show began to ‘kick in’ I got that warm fuzzy feeling that The One Show used to deliver me in abundance … I emitted a tired but satisfied sigh of relief and settled in.
Daybreak laid its cards firmly on the table early. It was going to give you everything GMTV delivered, but with more bells and whistles.
The ‘5-a-day’ feature recurred throughout the show, offering the viewer a snapshot of news, politics, sport, showbiz and weather, just enough information to keep you in the loop, but not too much to bore mum and dad whilst they scrape the burnt bits off their toast and pack little Johnny off to school.
The weather featured live cameras from Scotland to Cornwall, showing the day breaking across Britain (nice gag) and whenever the sports bulletins happened, Chiles, with his football background ambled across the impressive new studio to have a chat.
“This is where he walks and talks now, good luck” joked Bleakley as Chiles began the ten step endeavour. He made it one piece you’ll be pleased to know.
Other ‘fun’ features included a £100,000 cash giveaway (with the cash in a slightly grubby glass case in the studio), and ‘Daybreakers’, three funny videos that viewers could vote on the website to find out about later in the show.
Although irreverence and wit were at the heart of the show, it did manage to deliver enough serious news, through John Stapleton’s Fairpack investigation and regular authoritative bulletins, to just about fulfil its mandate as a ‘news and current affairs magazine programme’.
In essence, if you want the hard facts in the cold light of day, watch rolling news with your corn flakes … this aint that.
Daybreak is about Chritine Bleakley saying things like this:
“We’ve survived, what 60 minutes?”
And Adrian Chiles replying with things like this, “But have the viewers, that’s the question”
You get my drift?
The arrival of Tony Blair on the sofa near the end of the show made for an interesting segment. Neither Bleakley nor Chiles looked out of their depth with the former Prime Minister in tow, and although they didn’t exactly grill him, they got in a few interesting questions and almost got him to admit he was going to call off his London book signing.
Overall, as far as two and a half hours of bleary eyed television, I was impressed. It woke me up gently, told me enough of what was going on in the world that I was interested, but not so much that I wanted to hide back under the covers and go back to sleep. Showbiz, entertainment and sport was well fused with serious news, politics and fun … basically it was a pretty lightweight and entertaining magazine format …
… job done I reckon.
Daybreak is on ITV1 (and HD) every weekday 6am – 8.30am
