He currently presents the midweek drivetime show, 4 til 7 Thang on Radio X, but was catapulted into the limelight in 1997 as the host of The Big Breakfast.
And, Johnny Vaughan, 54, returned to the Big Breakfast House on Tuesday, for the first time in 19 years as he reminisced about the many mischievous antics on the show, as well as the time David Bowie was the soundman for the day.
The TV and radio host revisited Lock Keepers Cottages in East London, which has recently gone on the market for £5.74 million, where he reflected on his favourite memories from the much-loved show.
Nearly two decades on! Johnny Vaughan, 54, returned to the Big Breakfast House on Tuesday, for the first time in 19 years as he reminisced about the many mischievous antics on the show
As Johnny toured the house where the show was filmed, with Radio X and ITN for ITV London News, he admitted: ‘David Bowie being our soundman is one of my favourite memories here.
Explaining how the musical icon became part of the crew, he said: ‘David Bowie said that he just wanted to come on the show, because he used to get the show sent out to him when he lived in America because he really liked it.
‘And we heard that he wanted to come on our Christmas show, not particularly to be interviewed, but just because he wanted to be part of the crew because they look like they have so much fun.
‘And so during the Christmas show I was sitting there and suddenly I see – holding a sound boom over the crew – was David Bowie, and he just wanted to be our sound man for the day and join in and be shouted at like everyone else, it was just absolutely mad!’
From TV to radio: He currently presents the midweek drivetime show, 4 til 7 Thang on Radio X, but was catapulted into the limelight as the host of The Big Breakfast
Johnny – who’s father to Tabitha, 19, and Rafferty, 16, with his first wife Antonia Davies, and three-month-old son Milton with girlfriend of three years Vanessa Howard, 36 – also admitted one of his fondest memories was when: ‘Ray Liotta turning up in his own mini cab that he’d evidently taken everywhere around London.’
Getting emotional at the end of the tour, the radio host admitted to having ‘great memories’ of a place where perhaps the cast and crew ‘weren’t meant to have that much fun.’
He said: ‘So many great memories, but it’s kind of hard to connect it with the house that’s here now because it’s just so beautiful and so enclosed. When I was here, you really had the sense of just canal and two cottages, but it’s a bit like…
‘Being here today reminds me a bit like when I drove past a school I used to go to and the woodwork and metal work-shops have now been turned into these quite luxurious properties.
‘They’d been converted, and I get the same sense that in both this building and that building, places where perhaps we weren’t meant to have that much fun, but we really did. So, quite an emotional visit, in its way.’
Fond memories: Getting emotional, the radio host admitted to having ‘great memories’ of a place where perhaps the cast and crew ‘weren’t meant to have that much fun’
Johnny also joked that Tom Hardy is still bitter about he and co-host Denise Denise Van Outen ‘snubbing’ him after he won The Big Breakfast’s Find Me a Model competition.
Standing at his beloved shed (which has been turned into a herb garden), the presenter said: ‘Probably on this spot as well actually, Tom Hardy won the Find Me a Model Championships.
‘Something that he’s still very bitter about today, saying that Denise and I ‘snubbed’ him afterwards and didn’t perhaps give him all the credit he deserves for winning a nationwide modelling competition.
‘But there we go, well done Tom!’ teased Johnny, with a wink.
No way! Johnny also joked that Tom Hardy is still bitter about he and co-host Denise Denise Van Outen ‘snubbing’ him after he won The Big Breakfast’s Find Me a Model competition
Speaking of another A-lister which he had an awkward encounter with on The Big Breakfast Show, Johnny revealed that Oscar-winner Tom Hanks once ‘attacked him’ with yellow spray paint.
‘This is also actually the shed where – suddenly, after I interviewed him – Tom Hanks attacked me with some spray paint, but he also sprayed the shed with his signature.
‘It must be one of the only bits of merchandise like that, a Tom Hanks-signed shed, which a [viewer] won.
‘But I had to throw the jacket away because it was pretty ropey after that. He actually sprayed his name on it, which I thought was quite dog-like at the time. I suddenly thought “that’s really, like, top dog behaviour”.
‘Spraying me with yellow spray on my clothing, you know? It’s like, down here, I don’t know, I get our careers have taken different paths, but at that time, I really feel I had him on the run.’
What!? Johnny also revealed that Oscar-winner Tom Hanks once ‘attacked him’ with yellow spray paint during a guest appearance on The Big Breakfast Show
Johnny also revealed he once locked American jazz singer Curtis Stigers in the cupboard and the crew forgot about him so he stayed in there for the rest of the show.
He explained: ‘Just there was a cupboard that I once locked Curtis Stigers into for shouting out of turn during the show.
‘And everyone forgot he was in there, and he remained in there until the end of the show.
‘It wasn’t until we were packing up and his PR people said “where’s Curtis?” and we said “Oh, damn, he’s in the cupboard!”‘
Tune into Johnny Vaughan on Radio X, weekdays from 4 – 7pm