ITV is showing a special documentary to mark Lorraine Kelly’s 40 years on breakfast television which started back in 1984 at TV-am.
Lorraine joined TV-am as Scotland Reporter based in Glasgow after working in newspapers and at BBC Scotland. She spent more than four years covering every kind of news story for TV-am News and Good Morning Britain. During that time 1988 would prove to be the most difficult - reporting on the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in which 165 men died, and then just before Christmas being sent to the Scottish border town of Lockerbie where Pan Am Flight 103 came down killing 243 passengers and 16 crew.
1988 would also see Lorraine’s first appearance as a London studio presenter, standing in to front The Morning Programme between 6am and 7am on TV-am, and a few days later sitting alongside Mike Morris on the Good Morning Britain sofa for the very first time.
Through 1989 Lorraine continued to report from Scotland but was asked to do more and more presenting in London.
Lorraine’s big break came later in the year when she was asked to take over as main presenter of Good Morning Britain following Kathy Tayler’s move to host After Nine.
When TV-am lost the breakfast tv franchise, Lorraine was determined to stay to the very end and hosted the last TV-am show with Mike Morris on December 31st 1992. It was an emotional occasion.
Like many TV-am staff, Lorraine moved to London’s South Bank in 1993 to join the new GMTV as presenter of Top of the Morning. It wasn’t long before she was hosting the main GMTV programme alongside Eamonn Holmes.
Over the years her ITV breakfast programme has had many titles, but it is now simply called “Lorraine”. The programme marked her anniversary with a special edition on Wednesday 2nd October 2024, hosted by Christine Lampard and Ranvir Singh. ITV1 and ITVX will show “Lorraine Kelly - 40 unforgettable years” at 9pm on Wednesday 2nd October 2024.
Lorraine Kelly and Mike Morris say “Good Morning Britain’ in 1989
Below: watch how ITV Breakfast celebrated Lorraine’s 40 years on our screens