The Big Breakfast known as 'The Cottage'. After renovation following a fire, it has also been used for a number of television shows. Mark Lamarr, Keith Chegwin, Paul Ross, Richard Orford, Richard Bacon and Mike McClean were "down your doorstep" outside broadcasters, often turning up live and unannounced at an unsuspecting viewer's house, while rooms within the Lock Keeper's Cottages featured the puppets Zig and Zag and video games guru Ben the Boffin. The show's style, with hand-held cameras moving around all of the set, meant that many of the crew members could be seen on screen. This led to them getting nicknames,
The Big Breakfast never again was anyone allowed to blatantly break the rules of the game. Unusually for a live British TV show at the time of its creation, "The Big Breakfast" was broadcast entirely from a real house. Located alongside the River Lea, in east London, the property became informally known as 'The Big Breakfast House'. Filming would frequently take place within the large grounds of the property and the closely surrounding area. The cottages are in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Built in 1947, the property originally comprised three cottages which housed the lock keepers, toll takers, and navigation operators