YSTV Does It Bigger

In June 2000 a number of members of YSTV including Michael Prior-Jones and Peter Bowles visited Channel 4's The Big Breakfast to take part in an item about student television.

This short documentary was based around clips of the show and the video diaries filmed by Pete. It shows the trip down to Lock Keepers' Cottage (and the drama as Michael renewed his Young Person's Railcard with seconds to go!) and some of the preparations for the slot at Planet 24's headquarters.

YSTV was competing with Bournemouth's C6 (now Nerve) for a short slot on the programme. They were each given thirty seconds in order to persuade the judges they should get the slot. Michael hosted YSTV's section (in one of his trademark bow ties), which was a variation on the WoodenSpoon format attempted twice before in 2000. Pete was interviewed on air by Johnny Vaughan to introduce the segment.

Sadly the judges chose C6 as the winners. YSTV blamed spending the weekend filming the second series of Games Disaster and so not having chance to prepare properly.

It was also one of the first shows to feature the new YSTV logo. It was shown during YSTV-am (itself inspired by the trip) and when the Video Server was launched three years later it was one of the first batch of archive programmes encoded to fill the schedules (hereafter more often known as "YSTV On The Big Breakfast").


YSTV Productions
Series • Events Coverage • One-offs