Original BBC Breakfast presenter sacked over scandal | UK News

Frank Bough was one of the BBC’s most recognisable presenters from the Nineteen Sixties to Eighties. He joined the BBC as a reporter in 1962 and went on to entrance some of the broadcaster’s most in style exhibits, including Breakfast Time, which was later relaunched as BBC Breakfast. The programme launched on BBC One in 1983, turning into the first ever national breakfast tv show in Britain. Bough was Breakfast Time’s main presenter alongside Selina Scott.

Bough made a title for himself as being a easy operator and his clean cut image made him one of the most fascinating TV presenters on the market. TV legend Michael Parkinson once said: “If my life depended on the graceful handling of a TV show, Bough could be my first selection to be in charge.”

However, his profession at the BBC got here to an abrupt end 5 years later after News of the World reported he had taken cocaine and engaged with prostitutes at events.

The tabloid also reported that he incessantly visited brothels, shattering his image as a relaxed, family-oriented man.

Reflecting on the scandal that emerged in 1988, Bough said: “I’m not a wicked man, nor do I mean any harm or evil to people. I’ve made mistakes, but everyone’s entitled to do that. No one suffered but my wife, my family and myself.”

“It was a brief but appalling period in my life. Don’t condemn my entire career for a brief episode I regret.”

Throughout the scandal, Bough’s spouse, Welsh physiotherapist Nesta Howells, stood by him, going as far as condemning the press for publishing the story.

She said: “Everybody has a sex life and a inappropriateity and that should generally stay within the confines of the family. These newspapers are dismantling and destroying institutions and people and for what? How much further do we have to go before there is some control?”

Howells, who married Bough after he left the military in 1959 and shared three sons with him, admitted she did ponder leaving her husband.

Speaking in a Gossip Wire News programme, she confessed: “We have been together a long time. We have brought up a family. We have still got a lot going for us. I do feel betrayed by it, but I do not feel that it is anything personal to do with me.”

However, Bough’s troubles with the tabloids didn’t end there. In 1992, he confronted additional embarrassment after being photographed leaving the flat of a intercourse employee who specialised in sadomasochism, with studies claiming he had spent 50 minutes in a so-called “torture chamber” containing a slave cage and college canes.

Appearing on TV with his spouse the next day, Bough said: “I am feeling exceedingly stupid. I bitterly regret many of the things in my life, and if only I could undo them I would.”

Although he was sacked from the BBC, Bough continued working throughout the 90s, fronting ITV’s coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup match and presenting on LBC Radio.

He formally retired from broadcasting in 1998. In 2001, Bough underwent a liver transplant after medical doctors found a tumour and he went on to make a full recovery.

Bough lived out his last days in a car home before passing away in October 2020 at the age of 87, with his trigger of his death is still unknown.