Doorstepping, acting, picking fights with ageing pop stars... it's the best of Keith Chegwin
With news that Cheggers is joining Daybreak in March, we take a look back at some of the veteran TV presenter's best on-screen moments
After years spent cavorting around in the nude (on The Naked Jungle), being stalked by serial killers (in Kill Keith) and debating the best way to commit suicide (with Les Dennis and Barry from EastEnders on Life’s Too Short), Keith Chegwin is heading back to breakfast TV.
Cheggers, who famously worked on the likes of GMTV and The Big Breakfast throughout the ‘90s and noughties, will become part of ITV’s Daybreak team from Monday 4 March, when he’ll be “knocking on doors and surprising mums in their nighties all over the country.”
His first job on Daybreak will see Keith delivering messages from loved ones to mothers from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
Keith, who can currently be seen skating up a storm on Dancing on Ice, said: “I love morning telly. It’s fantastic and I can’t wait to be on Daybreak.
"It’s going to be really lovely surprising the nations’ mums with messages from their families - I think it might get a bit emotional but hopefully they’ll all be pleased to see me!
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“It will be just like the old days going out knocking on doors again, I used to have such a blast doing it for GMTV and I’m sure it’ll be the same for Daybreak.”
Good news indeed. So, to celebrate Cheggers’ return to early-morning TV, let’s have a look at some of his best small-screen moments:
Rude awakening
Here’s Keith at his early-morning best – dashing around and doling out £10,000 cheques to startled women for GMTV. This is what you’ve got to look forward all over again to in March.
Knowing Keith, Knowing You
There’s no word on whether or not Keith will be doorstepping anyone famous when he makes his Daybreak debut, but even if that’s what ITV’s bosses demand of him, he won’t be fazed. Check out this clip of Cheggers doorstepping a hungover Steve Coogan from many, many years ago:
Is that Cheggers? You Betcher!
Of course, there are many more strings to Keith’s bow than just early-morning cheeriness and deftness with a microphone. Here you can see a very, very young Cheggers (aged 14, to be precise) in the short film Betcher! by Bafta-nominated director David Eady.
Cheggers Plays Pap
And here’s our man installed as the host of a light entertainment talent show format, Sky Star Search, in 1990. If you thought Simon Cowell was a cruel talent show judge, just wait ‘til you hear what Barbara Windsor has to say about a pitiful would-be crooner about 17 minutes in…
Cheggers Mind the Buzzcocks
And here’s Cheggers causing mayhem on BBC2’s anarchic music quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, picking a fight with old-school rocker Tom Robinson. As Sean Hughes says at one point, it's almost like an edition of Cheggers Has a Pop:
Life’s Not Short Enough
While Ricky Gervais’s sitcom Life's Too Short, about the dwarf actor Warwick Davis, failed to capture the public’s imagination, this scene from the show featuring Cheggers, Les Dennis, Sean Williamson and Warwick’s accountant discussing the best ways to kill themselves is a hoot. No, honestly, it’s far funnier than it sounds:
Cereal Killer
Of course, Keith doesn’t need to worry about killing himself, not with celebrity-murdering maniacs like the one from Kill Keith on the loose…
Welcome back, Cheggers! We've missed you.
