32. History of BBC and Channel 4 Idents

History of BBC

1964 - This is the first BBC ident, it consisted a globe rotating on a white background. The caption used to be BBC T.V but they changed it in 1964.

1966 - This ident now had a watch strap theme, where the globe was in the middle of a strip, which appeared to be a watch strap. The caption changed to BBC 1

1969 - This is the first colour ident that was introduced to BBC. A blue and black mechanical globe rotated, and behind it a curved mirror made up the ident image.

1972 - Pretty much the same as the 1969 BBC ident, however, the caption was now italic and rounded.

1978 -  The theme of the globe rotating with a backboard of a 2D map of  remained but the colour scheme changed to yellow and blue, it was added using electronics and the caption was bold.

1981 - Yet another colour change was introduced, but the theme stayed the same. Green became yellow, and the font of BBC 1 changed to a double line.

1985 - In 1985 the BBC ident changed significantly, calling it COW, which meant, Computer Originated World, it was the first time BBC had abandoned the use of mechanical object for their ident.

1991 - The COW globe was changed to a new on-screen image designed by Lambie-Nairn. The design was a swirling world of shadows and reflections.

1997 - The new style of BBC ONE ident was a hot air balloon which was a globe. It was filmed flying over 10 different British locations.

2002 - This BBC ident is rather revolutionary in terms of the fact that it isnt a globe, but a gymnast doing a set of moves with some silk.

2013 - This is the newest type of ident for BBC one, with a new theme of circles and strange things making them, in this particular example, it is hippos swimming around and then forming a circle.

History of Channel 4 Idents

1999 - This was the start of a new ident era for Channel 4. With the orange background and the signature 4 with the specific font. There were other idents that were the same but with different backgrounds, such as a Red road, Cyan water, Purple trees, Red pulse and Red.

2002 - This was the signature ident for the 2002 Channel 4 idents. Containing a roaring dinosaur over a green background. The font of the 4 stayed the same as before.

2008 - This ident comes away from the generic style of ident, focusing more on the animated side of it, with the town of Springfield in the background with the number 4 moulded onto it.

2012 - This ident is one of the most recent idents. It contains what appears to be a large 4, which mirrors the surrounding skyscrapers that forms from separate pieces coming together over the ident.

By Ben Davis