ESP8266 Wifi Client not reading

[Johnl52]

I'm trying to add a ESP8266 wifi module to my pico. I found an example on YouTube, it must be right :). Via the Arduino IDE and using the programming board I was able to load the example "WIFIClient". While still connected to the USB board the serial monitor prints out the quote of the day. Now I've connected the module to my pico using UART1, I have some I2C devices on UART0, using the following code.

#ESP328266 wifi test
from machine import UART, Pin
from time import sleep

uart1 = UART(1, baudrate=115200, tx=Pin(4), rx=Pin(5))

while True:
    rxData = bytes()
    while uart1.any() > 0:
        rxData += uart1.read(1)
        
    if len(rxData):
        print(rxData.decode('utf-8'), end

It should also print out the quote of the day. This is just to confirm that it's working, which right now it is not. Should be relatively simple but simple often escapes me.

The board is connected as follows

3.3v to a separate power supply, it was mentioned in the video that the pico could not supply the power
GND to ground, power supply ground is also connected to pico ground
Tx to GPIO 5
Rx to GPIO 4

Do I need to install something on the pico?

Thanks for the help and comments
John