Richard Bacon
Richard was draughted onto the show following his Blue Peter drugs scandal. With Richard returning so did Down Your Doorstep.Items such as Streaky Bacon and Bacon's Tours as well as Bacon's Amazing Stories have all featured on the show since he began. Although he has been branded the Alan Partridge of breakfast television he's had some glorious moments. New Year's Eve 1999 saw a complete streak, he's had his nipple bitten by a pig and his week stint in JV's place showed he could be a promising candidate for new presenter. (The fact that he always steals JV's clothes is irrelevant.)
Twenty-four-year-old Richard Bacon joined The Big Breakfast on 8th March 1999. He started his media career by making tea at Radio Nottingham. Richard graduated to become a news reporter for the station and he quotes two high points of the three years he spent there as being interviewing Nicole Kidman and reporting on sunburnt pigs!
He'd prefer to interview a real person than a celebrity any day. "Members of the public have far more comic value!"
In February 1996 Richard joined LIVE TV as a reporter/ presenter. When he turned up to cover the State Opening of Parliament with News Bunny he was promptly banned!
Damon Albarn once threw beer over Richard for trying to interview him leaving a nightclub at 2.30am.
Richard's career reached new heights in February 1997 when he became Blue Peter's 24th presenter where he tried his hand at barefoot water skiing, exploring the Artic and making a DVD-player out of a cardboard box, piece of string and some sticky back plastic. Which makes him perfectly equipped to handle anything on The Big Breakfast!
Richard became a firm fan favourite after steering the show through its final year. By the time of the last show Richard's presenting style had developed to where he is now thought of as one of the best three BB presenters along with Evans & Vaughan. Richard is currently doing a lot of presenting work for five including 19 Keys, Back To Reality & will soon get a late night show on radio station Five Live.
Bow Locks caught up with Richard in the summer of 2001...
Isn't yours the least enviable job in Britain?
Well, I'm not the full-time host anyway. I'm doing the host thing most of the time at the moment, but not all the time. We're all sharing the job really. I'm happy to do it on and off for a while. I've been on the show for two years now, so I feel at home
So would you like to be the permanent host?
I don't know really. Like you say, it can he a very difficult job to do. But I think the new direction of the show is good... it's funnier. But I'm not entirely sure if I'd want to he the host every day, all the time.
What exactly happened with Donna Air being shunted to a bathroom?
They did built a bathroom set for her, so that she could do interviews there, it's now being used for Rat TV.
But is it true she was being kept away from the other hosts so she didn't keep interrupting?
Er, I think the reason was that if you look back a couple of months ago, when Johnny was still there, she had a good little section of the show which was kind of her own thing. And I think they wanted her to have that again. To have the bathroom as her own little world. And to some extent Donna is in her own world.
Did you get on with her?
Yeah. I think she's had a lot of criticism but I think she can he genuinely very funny. For a while they had three of them presenting together, and maybe they all got in the way of each other. It was unfair that she got all the criticism.
What happened with Paul Tonkinson's departure?
I don't know. It was weird for me because I went off to film some stuff for a week and When I got back he had gone. I think he decided to go himself; you'd have to ask him why. But I do think he's a really funny, smart guy.
You go out with Blue Peter's Konnie Huq...
[Smiles] Ye-ess... but she kills me when I talk about her. In fact I just spoke to her on the phone, and told her I was doing this interview, and she said, "Don't talk about me."
But why did you keep the relationship a secret for so long?
Well we didn't exactly keep it secret. It wasn't a case of covering things up. We just kind of avoided it really. It just seemed the best thing to do.
What is your dream job?
I'd love to host a good gameshow or panel game, not a cheesy one. I've done something like that for BBC Choice, which I really enjoyed doing and I'd love to do more. So if anyone from the industry is reading this and is looking for a gameshow host - I'm the man!
