Thread by @jonkay01

🧵 A couple of weeks ago I put out this appeal ahead of our programme’s 40th birthday… 📣#BBCBreakfast #BreakfastTime 1/

This is what I wanted to find… The red leather sofa from the very first edition of #BreakfastTime (as it was called back then). The show started on January 17th 1983 at the BBC’s Lime Grove studios in London. 40 years ago today ⏰ 2/

Over the years, sofas have come and gone, but that first red one pretty much set the tone for decades of BBC breakfast television… 3/

And - of course - we still have one today. But it’s not leather. 4/

Back in the 80s the most famous politicians, pop stars and presenters all sat on our #BreakfastTime sofa. Forty years on, could we find that iconic piece of TV furniture? 🕵️‍♀️🔍🧐 5/

Several former presenters offered inside information.. @Fern_Britton @BowenBBC 6/

Sofa stories also came thick and fast from former members of the production and technical team… 7/

A man with a website dedicated to TV seating (really) got in touch. @That_Chair_Guy was able to give me the make and model. Turns out the sofa was modular, came in several sections and a similar one was once used in a Bond film. 8/

And Ron Neil - the first boss of #BreakfastTime - told us the original sofa was made in Switzerland and bought from Harrods. But did he know where it was now? No. 9/

There were quite a few theories. But nothing stacked up.. 10/

And - let’s be honest - quite a few of you didn’t really care… 11/

Anyway, just as I about to remove my anorak and give up, I got a call from @LukeDealBBC who presents the breakfast show on @BBCSuffolk. As a kid, he had a film review slot on #BreakfastTime (alongside a teenage Jude Law - but that’s another story 🤯) 12/

Luke is a lifelong #BBCBreakfast superfan. He told me that most of the sofa was scrapped in the late 80s due to damage - but some sections were auctioned for Children In Need. And he’d heard a rumour that one piece was given to a former presenter as a leaving gift in 1986 👀 13/

Hmmm… Former Miss Great Britain Debbie Greenwood presented #BreakfastTime until 1986 when the programme replaced the sofa with a desk. Could she be the presenter who was given the sofa when she left? 🧐 14/

A few more calls… It turns out @DebGreenwoodTV is now a wedding celebrant in London. And she’s lovely. And she says she might be able to help… Sofa, so good. (Sorry) 15/

So last week I went to Debbie’s house. And it’s all true. Debbie Greenwood has a section of the original BBC #BreakfastTime sofa! 16/

OK, it’s only a small section. One seat. Debbie normally keeps it in her spare bedroom. But she puts it in her sitting room for us to film. “It means the world to me. That sofa changed my life. I’d never get rid of it. Imagine all the famous bottoms that have sat on it!” 17/

And then Debbie lets me sit on it. On the actual #BreakfastTime sofa. The one I watched as a kid. It’s a bit squashy - and very squeaky. And the colour has faded a bit over the years. But - hey - we’ve found it. The red leather Holy Grail of breakfast tv. 18/

And the best thing? Forty years on, @DebGreenwoodTV still sits on that same sofa every morning to watch @BBCBreakfast 19/

And here’s the proof! @DebGreenwoodTV watching us this morning from the original #breakfasttime sofa as we celebrated 40 years of #BBCBreakfast 20/

Hi Debbie! 👋👋👋👋 with thanks from the whole team on the current #BBCBreakfast sofa. @DebGreenwoodTV #oneofthefamily #partofthefurniture