Noel Edmonds - First week on Radio 1 breakfast

Breakfast shows now are such complicated affairs. Enjoy here the brilliant simplicity of the big 1970s early show on BBC Radio 1. Noel Edmonds during his first week on Radio1 breakfast in 1973. It includes the sound, supposedly, of Dusty Springfield sleeping. Nice mechanic that.

Calm and friendly, with few features, and beautifully designed. Those lovely tandem - and half-minute - time checks; and a Noel trying to sound like a smiley disc jockey and then seemingly feeling a little ashamed of so doing. And then oscillating between casual normality and English formality.

The pressure was on though; he’d seized Tony Blackburn’s slot, and Tony was none too pleased, which made the 0900 handover a little, well, uncomfortable. For a first week, this was pretty chilled and impressive, although the accomplished Noel breakfast style was still being cultivated.