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 a mix of news, weather, interviews, audience phone-ins and general features, with a light tone which was in competition with the more serious GMTV and even more serious BBC Breakfast programmes. "The Big Breakfast" was launched at the end of September 1992 to replace "The Channel Four Daily", which was Channel 4's unsuccessful first dip into the breakfast television market between 1989 and 1992. The "Daily", launched at huge expense, had possessed an analytical style, focusing largely on current affairs, news bulletins and cerebral quiz shows; however, this format had failed to attract enough viewers, and consequently Channel 4 opted