Sophie Raworth interviewing Sir Ian Mckellan

Richard Porter, the programme editor says:

There's no magic formula to what's a story. We'd look at a number of things...is it interesting, relevant...important...is it news...has it been in the news for sometime...is it fresh and we would then pull all of those things together in deciding whether it should run in the programme.

The day team would then put the calls out to get the right cast list for the programme

The night team come on at 9pm. They put together the nuts and bolts of the programme. They edit the stories with a team of night editors.

a producer editing on "omnibus"

They also cut some of the material themselves on a news editing system called "omnibus".

The presenters come in at 4am. They go through the briefs for all the lives of the programme.

When there's a breaking story it can be especially challenging, as producers have to work fast in phoning the right guests.

So what is Breakfast's mission statement?

Richard Porter, programme editor says

Primarily Breakfast wants to demonstrate BBC values, we are at the heart of BBC News, we want to be accurate, impartial, honest...we want to represent the viewer in asking the important questions to people we interview.

To watch our Behind the Scenes film on the programme, click on the video icon on the top right hand corner of this page.