From Good Morning Britain to Loose Women: Go behind the scenes at ITV

For years now, ITV has provided us with our regular weekday viewing, starting at 6am with Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, before heading over to Lorraine Kelly for her show.

Lorraine is followed by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning, then the morning is rounded off with a natter from the Loose Women.

But have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your favourite daytime shows? We took a look around the ITV studios and found out some of the secrets of the shows – and the good news is, you can do a tour too!

Good Morning Britain

As you enter the Good Morning Britain studios, you can’t miss the desk behind which Piers and Susanna sit. But did you know they have computer screens built into it, so they can keep up to date with breaking news? Although we’re told they prefer to look at Twitter during the ad breaks…

When we visit, there are a few Barry M nail polishes behind Susanna’s seat, as well as a bottle of Calvin Klein Euphoria perfume. Kate Garraway is always first to arrive – at 3am! Susanna gets in at 4am and Piers strolls in at 5-5.30am.

Susanna, Kate and co-presenter Charlotte Hawkins have their hair and make-up done, then eat apples and peanut butter for breakfast, while, apparently, Piers insists on Yorkshire Gold tea.

But it’s weather presenter Laura Tobin who arguably has it the hardest, arriving early to research the weather and phoning meteorologists before she goes on air. She’s the only one to memorise her scripts, and she doesn’t use an autocue.

The only non-human member of the team allowed in the studio is Richard Arnold’s dog, Clemmie!

Loose Women and Lorraine

Loose Women and Lorraine share a studio – and it’s the same one that’s used for Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch and ITV’s politics show Peston.

Every weekday at 9.25am, once Lorraine is over, a host of runners, set dressers and producers rush to transform the studio from the relaxed, sofa-based arrangement of Lorraine to the panel desk with live audience format reserved for the gossip and debates of Andrea McLean and her colleagues, in time for 12.30pm.

MORE: ITV announces BIG change to This Morning

The changeover usually takes about an hour, but the record currently stands at just 35 minutes! Loose Women is the only ITV daytime show with a live studio audience and, with capacity for 80 people, there’s no reason you shouldn’t apply to go and see the ladies having a heated debate for yourself.

This Morning

The first thing we notice as we walk onto the set of This Morning is just how big it is compared with the others. It feels as though you’re walking into a fancy apartment – and Holly and Phil’s big sofa stretches right across the middle.

As well as the famous sofa, the studio – in which Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers have both been filmed – holds the kitchen where Gino D’Acampo and other chefs come to cook delicious meals. While standing in the kitchen we learn some bizarre facts, including that the dining chairs have doilies on them to prevent presenters and guests from slipping down.

On a shelf behind the dining table there’s a row of mugs, each of which has the initial of one of the presenters printed on it. These are switched around depending on who’s presenting that day.

In the kitchen, we also find a self-portrait comedian Keith Lemon drew when he was a guest on the show – and it’s very good!

But the most surprising thing about the set is that there’s no green room for guests to wait in before their appearance. The sofa where you see them waving to camera ahead of their turn on screen is on the main set itself.

Tickets are available from daytimestudiostour.co.uk.

Or, download the This Morning app and visit the shop. Have fun!