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History of BBC television idents
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The history of BBC television idents starts in the early 1950s, when idents were first used by the BBC to differentiate each of their channels and create separate identites for them. As new technology has become available, these idents have been able to evolve from simple still black and white images to sophisticated full colour short films as seen today. In the United Kingdom, branding has become much more important with the arrival of digital services and with it many more new channels, meaning each need to have identities that stand out from the competition.
This article deals with the development of each of the BBC's main television channels identities.
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The original BBC Television Service launched in November 1936, was taken off the air at the outbreak of war in September 1939, returning in June 1946. As the only public television service in Britain, and initially in the world, there was no need for a station ident in the early days. However, with the imminent arrival of commercial television in Britain, 2 December 1953 saw the arrival of the first ident, nicknamed the 'Bat's Wings'. This was an elaborate mechanical contraption constructed by Abram Games, which featured a tiny spinning globe in the centre, surrounded by two spinning "eyes", with lightning flashes to either side. Unlike later idents, this was filmed, rather than live. The model was temperamental, and broke down shortly after it was filmed.[1]
By the early 1960s the "Bat's Wings" had been superseded by the "BBC tv" logo within a circle, beneath which would appear a map of Britain split into the BBC's broadcast regions.
The channel's most famous emblem, the globe, appeared in its first guise on 30 September 1963. The first such ident featured the continuity announcer speaking over a rotating globe while a "BBC tv" caption would appear with the announcement, "This is BBC Television" was made.
The launch of sister channel BBC2 saw the channel renamed BBC1 on 20 April 1964, although the name was not changed on-screen until the introduction of the "watch-strap" globe in 1966. The reason the change was delayed was due to coverage of BBC2 being limited; BBC1 remained BBC tv in the meantime.
On 15 November 1969, BBC1 began transmitting in colour, and introduced the first version of the "mirror globe" ident (this style was often used within Monty Python's Flying Circus). The inclusion of the word "colour" in the station ident could be viewed as a subtle reminder to the vast majority of viewers, still watching in black and white, to buy a colour TV set and the much more expensive colour television licence which financed the BBC. The "mirror globe" ident was revised in 1972 to use a more ornate font, from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s the BBC1 ident comprised various fonts reading 'BBC1' below variations on the mirror globe, with a deep blue background. The idents were generated by the Nexus Orthicon Display Device, or NODD for short, which worked by filming an image in black and white and electronically adding color before the image was aired. This made it very easy for technical crew to manipulate the colours of the image for whatever reason (like a logo revamp) and meant black and white cameras could easily swing to photograph a different picture with the touch of a button.
By 1985, computer graphics technology had progressed sufficiently that on 18 February the mechanical mirror globe was retired in favour of the new "Computer Originated World", or 'COW', which showed a semi-transparent blue globe with golden continents and gold "BBC1".[2] It was created by the BBC graphics and computer departments with work starting on it in 1983.[3] The globe was originally planned to launch on 1 January 1985 but was delayed until 18 February that year by the then controller of BBC One, Michael Grade, in order to make part of a new look for the channel as ratings began to slide. From start-up until 6:00pm that evening, the older 'NODD' mirror globe was used. From 7:00pm until closedown that night, the newer 'COW' globe was used. The first ever programme to be introduced by this new globe was Wogan, a chat show presented by Terry Wogan.[4]
The Computer Originated World was replaced on 16 February 1991 by a new 'Virtual globe', designed by the Lambie-Nairn branding agency who had first made an impact with Channel 4's original 1982 ident. The idents which were computer generated and had no soundtrack consisted of a figure '1' inside a rotating transparent globe surrounded by a swirling smokey atmosphere above the BBC's corporate logo – the bold italic letters B B C within three rhomboids, above blue red and green flashes.[5] The idents were "unveiled" on that week's Going Live!, the Saturday morning magazine show on Children's BBC at the time, by Philip Schofield and Sarah Greene, although the globe already officially debuted before then.
On 4 October 1997 the globe was dramatically updated when it left the computer to take the form of a hot-air balloon filmed over various landmarks throughout the UK (and occasionally in other countries e.g. over Sydney Harbour during the 2000 Summer Olympics). The idents featured the new name of the channel: BBC One, renaming which continued across the rest of the BBC's channels. Over the next two and a half years, no fewer than 59 different variations of the BBC One balloon ident were produced. From June 2000, the URL of BBC Online, later bbc.co.uk was included in all BBC One and BBC Two idents.
A change in controller at BBC One saw the balloon globe icon become the shortest-lived ident package of the colour television era. After 39 years, the globe style was replaced on 29 March 2002 by new idents featuring a new mutlicultural theme. The relaunch also saw a new logo for the channel based upon that of BBC Two, though the logo was instead the BBC logo and the word 'ONE' below it within a red box. The box style later became a common style for the BBC's channels.
The new idents were collaboratively called the 'Rhythm and Movement' idents and featured dancers at various locations dancing to different musical styles. These proved to be hugely unpopular, some accused the BBC of being politically correct regarding some of the dancers involved: disabled dancers in wheelchairs on a basketball court, while fans of the globe and traditionalists were dismayed that the longstanding motif had left the BBC after 39 years. This was also the first new presentation package not to include a clock though one had been designed - it had become difficult to transmit the time accurately, given the delay introduced by satellites and digital transmission.
After four years, the idents were replaced themselves by a new set introduced on 7 October 2006, abandoning the overtly red colour scheme yet retaining the colour slightly less obviously as the main colour. The relaunch brought about a new channel logo once more with the box replaced in favour of a lowercase name, effectively appearing as "BBC one". A circle motif now features as the main theme of the idents, while the content is much more diverse than previous: swimming hippos, motorcycle stunt riders, children playing "ring a roses", lit windows, surfers, football players, the moon as well as kites.[6] The first of the new idents shown was 'Kites', appearing at 10:00 BST on 7 October. According to former channel controller Peter Fincham, the new circle motif is both a 'nod' to the channel's heritage as well as a symbol of people coming together, in the way the channel brings people together.
BBC2 as it was originally styled, was forced to reschedule the planned opening extravaganza from 20 April 1964 to the following evening, as the result of a massive power failure in west London. The channel's first logo was an animation where white and grey stripes flew in from the left and right before a "2" and the BBC corporate logo flew in from the top and bottom. For the introduction of the first British colour broadcasting service in 1967 there was no new ident, but a new logo which was a 2 with a dot in the hook of the 2. Prior to this, there was a test period where the original presentation was used with possible electronic colour added. The static "2" logo became a rotating dotted "2" ident with each face a different colour – blue, red, green, and white in 1969 when the BBC1 colour service started and the 2 channels were synchronised in their presentation. This ident changed to being just blue in the early 1970s. A facelift occurred in time for the channel's tenth anniversary in 1974, with the "2" being formed of blue and white raster lines, the different colours entering from opposite sides of the screen. In 1979, BBC2 adopted the world's first computer-generated ident, with the logo being drawn live every time it was played.
The channel's association with the Lambie-Nairn branding agency began in 1986, with a new ident, the coloured letters T W O emerging from and disappearing back into a white background: an effort to make the channel appear more "highbrow".[7]
In 1991 this ident was replaced by the start of the highly successful[8] series of idents involving the number '2', some of which were animated, especially for special events such as Christmas. These survived the 1997 rebrand and simply displayed the new logo, while more idents were added to the batch, including many for theme nights, weeks or seasons.
After nearly eleven years, the channel received a new look in 2001 with a set of new figure robotic figure 2s, each displaying individual personalities. BBC Two also became the first BBC channel to receive the new style of logo, in its case this was a purple box with the BBC logo stacked above 'TWO'.[9] At the time, the channel stuck out as being different, because all the other channels still had their 1997 branding. Also, rather than a variety of backgrounds seen in the previous presentation package, idents now had a universal yellow background while the figure 2 became 3D and white.
The general style of white 2 and yellow background was occasionally replaced by previously withdrawn idents from the 1991-2001 package, but also by some specially produced idents to highlight particular shows or programming strands. [10] Examples included an updated dog 2 to advertise the channel's "pedigree comedy" trailers while previously withdrawn idents have included "Venus fly-trap", as well as the Christmas 2000 ident which resurfaced to introduce coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics.[10]
The most recent relaunch of the channel's presentation package came on 18 February 2007, with the introduction of idents designed by advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and produced by Red Bee Media, costing £700,000 in total. Controller of BBC Two Roly Keating said, "These new idents embody all of BBC Two's distinctive humour, creativity, playfulness and surprise – and they're also beautifully-executed pieces of film-making in their own right".[11] [12] Entitled "Window on the World"[12], these new idents feature a cut-out '2' made from various materials behind which different scenes can be seen. In addition to these new idents, the on-screen presentation system and the BBC two website have also been altered to reflect the new theme.
The young-adult oriented BBC Three was launched on 9 February 2003, as the successor to BBC Choice.
A 'demolition' of the channel's orange box idents, using a wrecking ball, began in December 2002, marking the channel's final months. Idents soon depicted a building site, complete with two builders, where large upper-case letters spelling the word 'three' could be seen under construction. The site's safety fence displayed a countdown in weeks to completion starting on 19 January 2003.
The Lambie-Nairn branding agency had created both the previous BBC Choice identity, together with the transition building site design and also created those for BBC Three. The official launch night revealed the towering three-dimensional figure "THREE" populated by small computer generated "blobs" designed and created by Stefan Marjoram at Aardman Animations.
Marjoram's "blobs" are given voices from sound clips from the BBC's vast archive while the launch theme music "Three Is The Magic Number", based (only the lyrics are copied) upon Schoolhouse Rock! plays in the background.
Channel trailer animations show one blob standing in front of the figure 'THREE' shouting "Three!", before another 'THREE' rises up from underneath the original, toppling it.
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007) |
The BBC's "cultural" channel BBC Four was launched on 2 March 2002 as a successor to BBC Knowledge. The initial series of idents were generated "on the fly" reflecting the frequencies of the continuity announcers' voice or of backing music and were designed by Lambie-Nairn. As a result, no two idents were ever the same.
Red Bee Media designed a new set of idents introduced in September 2005 that appear to be one image but eventually break into four quarters.
 One of the improvised idents, used between 2002 and 2005. |
 Mountains and sea, one of new idents introduced in September 2005. |
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007) |
BBC News 24 launched at 5.30pm on 9 November 1997 as the BBC's domestic 24-hour news channel and sister to BBC World. Between 1997 and 1999, the channel used the same fictional flag idents designed by Lambie-Nairn as BBC World with only the channel's name as a difference.
The major relaunch of all BBC News output in 1999 saw the channel adopt a common theme with the rest of the BBC's main news bulletins. A new cream-and-red colour scheme designed by Lambie-Nairn was introduced together with a variation on the "drums and beeps" musical composition by David Lowe.
A third relaunch came in 2003 with a refresh of the common BBC News style and a departure from Lambie-Nairn in favour of in-house productions for news titles.
A fourth relaunch on 22 January 2007 coincided with a new look for all the main bulletins on BBC One, which saw titles not wholly dissimilar to the previous set being introduced. A new set of on-screen graphics was also introduced.
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007) |
BBC Parliament took over from the cable-only Parliamentary Channel in September 1998. BBC Parliament transmits sessions of the House of Commons, House of Lords, Scottish Parliament, Welsh National Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly (when not suspended), together with various other programmes of political interest during Parliamentary recesses. BBC Parliament is a somewhat unusual channel in that for several years after it was founded the digital terrestrial television platform had insufficient bandwidth to allow the channel to transmit pictures, and it was restricted to sound-only transmissions with a fixed caption.
The channel took on a variation of the corporate BBC News theme in 2002 with a new ident designed by Lambie-Nairn and accompanied by music by David Lowe. The model was designed to be a motor, an interpretation of the inner workings of Parliament.
 The original BBC Parliament ident used from the channel's relaunch as a BBC channel in 1998. |
 The BBC Parliament ident, used since 2002. |
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2007) |
BBC World, the BBC's international 24-hour news and current affairs channel launched in 1995, following the split of the previous BBC World Service Television.
Since launch, the channel has shared a common appearance with domestic news channel BBC News 24 since 1997. The channels, based within the News Centre at BBC Television Centre in West London, swapped studios in 1999 and have remained in their respective studios ever since.
Following the major BBC News relaunch in 1999 across all output, the channel received an individual style based upon the theme introduced with graphics created by the Lambie-Nairn branding agency and music composed by David Lowe.
A subsequent relaunch of BBC News bulletins came in 2003 with new graphics and titles, produced by designers within the BBC itself.
The most recent relaunch, again produced by an in-house BBC design team came in 2007.
 In 1997, BBC World was given an almost identical look to BBC News 24, with similar set designs and graphics. |
 A new in-house ident sequence was created in 2003. |
| 1985-1991 | 1991-1997 | 1997-2002 | 2002-2005 | 2005-2007 | 2007- present |
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CBBC, originally Children's BBC, can trace its roots back to the "Children's Hour" of the original BBC Television Service. As a strand of programming for children aged 6-13 with distinctive programme presentation on BBC1, "Children's BBC" first appeared in September 1985. These idents were generated live on air by a BBC Micro computer.
Children's BBC was officially renamed CBBC in October 1997, with the production of appropriate idents. The idents all had a yellow background, with the black outlines of the various cartoons. Many idents were created up to 2002 - 'Snail', 'Cat and Mouse', 'Octopus', 'Dragon', 'Fish' and 'Mouse', to name a few.
When CBBC was given its own channel of the digital terrestrial platform on 11 February 2002, the CBBC "blob" ident was created. These animated 'bugs' were designed by Lambie-Nairn, and were always green in colour. Idents included 'Karate', 'Multiply', 'Dance' and 'Splat'. The blob was later refreshed and given a 3D appearance in 2005.
In December 2006, CBBC moved from Studio TC9, its home since 1997, to TC12 within BBC Television Centre. The use of a set was replaced by a new virtual set consisting of presenter standing in front of a bluescreen while only a fixed camera is used.[13] CBBC relaunch again in the Autumn of 2007, with new logo and idents.
CBeebies launched on the same day as the CBBC Channel - 11 February 2002, with an original age range of pre-school children only. Following changes within the BBC Children's department, this changed to ages up to 8, with CBBC targeting ages 8 to 12.
The idents for the channel, designed by Lambie-Nairn, are the same as at launch and consist of yellow blobs, the opposite to the green blobs launched with the CBBC Channel with a much younger feel, as befits the target audience.
Continuity links are presented by the CBeebies presenters but are recorded rather than broadcast live.
- BBC One 'Balloon' idents
- BBC One 'Rhythm & Movement' idents
- BBC One 'Circle' idents
- BBC Two 1991-2001 idents
- ITV television presentation
- ^ Elen, Richard G. (1 December 2003). Oh, that Symbol.... Baird.
- ^ Luxton, Simon. BBC1 – Idents 1985. TV Ark.
- ^ Wiseman, Andrew (3 April 2006). BBC 1 1985 – A Computer Originated World.
- ^ BBC1 Pre 1991. TV & Radio Bits.
- ^ Luxton, Simon. BBC1 – Idents 1991. TV Ark.
- ^ BBC Press Office (26 September 2006). BBC ONE launches new channel identity.
- ^ BBC2 Pre 1991. TV & Radio Bits.
- ^ BBC2 1997-2001. TV & Radio Bits.
- ^ BBC2 2001-07. TV & Radio Bits.
- ^ a b BBC2 2001-01 – Goodbye to yellow?. TV & Radio Bits.
- ^ BBC Press Office (13 February 2007). BBC Two's new "Window on the World".
- ^ a b TV on the television: The new BBC Two idents. idents.tv (19 February 2007).
- ^ CBBC. TV & Radio Bits.