In the 1980s, I have vivid memories of waking up early in the morning and watching ‘Good Morning Britain’. TV-am, the first commercial breakfast show in the UK, was broadcast from Hawley Crescent in Camden Town, London.

The only building in London with eggcups on it’s roof was built from scratch. TV-am started off life unsuccessfully as around the time it was due to launch, the BBC launched a rival service. However, TV-am went ahead and launched on the 1st February 1983.

I remember once sending in a picture of myself for my birthday as a child, because at the time TV-am were showing them! I did not get shown, but I got a letter back from them, so I suppose I’ll let them off.

A rocky start

After a while, it was evident that TV-am’s output was not successful. The viewing figures were poor, and the then controller of the output decided that a re-focusing was required.

The set got a warm repaint and the presenters were told to wear lighter colours (to project summer every day at TV-am), but Roland Rat hit onto our screens. Roland Rat drew in the masses of children, and in turn, their parents.

Turning a corner

TV-am was becoming successful. Figures were up, everything was starting to look very rosy.

The station pottered along quite nicely until 1991 bar the odd few employee strikes etc, when Margaret Thatcher introduced a new ‘franchise’ system to allow the awarding of local ITV franchises for commercial operators. This system was also introduced to award breakfast franchises.

The beginning of the end

Little did TV-am know that this ruling would bring the operation to an end. Because the market was not known, nobody knew how much money was going to be involved in these new franchises.

TV-am put in their bid - some 14 million pounds. TV-am were confident: the cost of upkeep of their dedicated studios reflected against this bid but when they had the pink champagne on ice ready to celebrate the re-awarding of their franchise, a fax came through from the ITC.

A new player in the market called Sunrise Television (later to become GMTV) had outbid them by several million pounds. Stunned silence descended upon Hawley Crescent.

The final curtain

And there, TV-am bows out.

The premises at Hawley Crescent are now home to Viacom International (including Channel 5 and MTV Europe) and even after a fire a few years ago the building remains fairly true to form, still proudly displaying the TV-am eggcups on the roof.