The history of BBC television idents begins in the early 1950s when the BBC first displayed a logo between programmes to identify its service. As new technology has become available, these devices have evolved from simple still black and white images to the sophisticated full colour short films seen today. With the arrival of digital services in the United Kingdom, and with them many more new channels, branding is perceived by broadcasters to be much more important, meaning that idents need to stand out from the competition.
This article describes the development of the BBC's main television channels' identities.
BBC Television Service/BBC One
Pre-1969
The original BBC Television Service was launched on 2 November 1936 and was taken off the air at the outbreak of war in September 1939, returning in June 1945. In December 1953 the first ident, nicknamed the "Bat's Wings", was introduced, an elaborate mechanical contraption constructed by designer Abram Games, which featured a tiny spinning globe in the centre, surrounded by two spinning "eyes", with lightning flashes to either side. The model was temperamental, and broke down shortly after it was filmed.
By the early 1960s the "Bat's Wings" had been superseded by the "BBC tv" logo within a circle, beneath which would appear a map of Britain split into the BBC's broadcast regions.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" being made.
The Noddy System Mechanical Globe (1969–1985)
On 15 November 1969, BBC1 began transmitting in colour, and introduced the first version of the "mirror globe" ident. The word "Colour", identifying this new feature, was included in the station ident, and separate, more expensive colour television licences were offered. Originally, the mirror globe had a blue logo and landmasses to enhance the clarity of the image on black and white screens. The BBC1 ident was later revised with the "Colour" identification being italicised. The globe was changed one last time on 5 September 1981 to the double striped BBC1 logo, sitting below a lime green and blue globe on navy blue background.
The Computer Originated World (COW) (1985–1991)
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". It was created by the BBC graphics and computer departments with work starting on it in 1983, following the success of the electronic BBC2 ident and the clocks. The COW globe went down well with the public, and changed the perception of the channel. Also, for the first time, holding slides, trailers and promotions included the BBC1 golden logo, bringing the brand together. The COW globe also used the same clock face as before, with some changes.
The Virtual Globe (1991–1997)
The Computer Originated World was replaced on 16 February 1991 by a new virtual globe, designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn's branding agency, Lambie-Nairn, who had first made an impact with Channel 4's original 1982 ident. The idents were based on a filmed model but the composited and enhanced on a computer. They were played without a soundtrack off a modified Laserdisc player. The ident consisted of a figure "1" inside a rotating transparent globe surrounded by a swirling smoky atmosphere above the BBC's corporate logo – the bold italic letters B B C within three rhomboids, above three flashes.
The Balloon (1997–2002)
On 4 October 1997 the globe was updated, and took the form of a hot-air balloon filmed over various landmarks. The idents featured the new name of the channel: BBC One, renaming which continued across the rest of the BBC's channels, and also featured the new BBC corporate logo.
Rhythm & Movement (2002–2006)
A change in controller at BBC One saw the balloon globe icon become the shortest-lived ident package of the colour television era. The new controller, Lorraine Heggessey, described the Balloon idents as "slow and distant." She ordered a review of the current branding which replaced the globe style by new idents featuring a new multicultural 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 arrangements of Peter Lawlor's theme. These proved to be unpopular; with some viewers accused the BBC of being overtly politically correct, as one of the idents involved disabled dancers in wheelchairs, while other viewers were disappointed that the longstanding globe motif had been abandoned 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.
Circles (2006–2016)
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 largely 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".
The idents are based on a circle motif, with content much more diverse than the previous: swimming hippos, motorbike stunt riders, children playing "ring a roses", lit windows, surfers, football players, the moon, kites, and a red arc circling the logo. The first of the new idents shown was 'Kites', appearing at 9:58 BST on 7 October. According to former channel controller Peter Fincham, the new circle motif is both a link to the classic globe icon used since 1963, and a 'nod' to the channel's heritage, as well as a symbol of unity, in the way the channel brings people together. The "Kites", "Moon" and "Windows" idents were dropped in July 2008, but the "Kites" ident was reinstated in May 2009. On 2 May 2009, the circle idents were edited with shorter video sequences and new soundtracks (except "Generic", "Hippos" and "Surfers").
This was the longest set of idents that was used by BBC One, as they lasted for 10 years.
Oneness (2016–2022)
A new set of idents themed around "oneness" was softly introduced on 4 December 2016, and officially introduced on 1 January 2017. Commissioned by the BBC's in-house creative agency, it shows groups of people coming together through their activities in everyday life. A set of "lockdown"-themed Oneness idents were introduced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consisting of themed collages of activities taking place in multiple locations across the United Kingdom. The ident package was initially retained following the corporate rebrand of the BBC on 20 October 2021, with the new BBC logo being placed at the top of the screen, while "ONE" was moved to the bottom, with the font being changed to BBC Reith Sans. The idents remained in this state for nearly 6 months, before being retired from use at 6pm on 1 April 2022.
Lens (2022–present)
The Lens idents were introduced on 1 April 2022, at 7pm, leading into The One Show, replacing the Oneness idents. Each ident features a large community space, being utilised for a variety of different purposes, with a lens 'revealing' the space being utilised for different activities, or at different times of day. The identity was developed by BBC Creative and branding agency ManvsMachine. The 2021 BBC logo is still at the top of the screen, while "ONE" remains at the bottom.
BBC Two Launch Ident (1964–1967)
BBC Two is the second BBC channel and the third to air in the UK. Following the success of , the third channel was awarded to the BBC. Following this, the BBC planned a brilliant night's entertainment for their opening night. However, the opening extravaganza was forced to reschedule 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 blue 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. The jingle that accompanied the ident was a fanfare based on the morse code translation of 'BBC TWO', composed by Freddie Phillips. This logo lasted three years until the introduction of colour to BBC2. Along with the ident, there was also a flip card with a larger 2 on it that was used as a sting in many ways. Continuity was also frequently live in vision, with the announcer in a studio with BBC2 branding.
The Cube (1967–1974)
For the introduction of the first British colour broadcasting service in 1967 there was no new ident, but a new logo: a 2 with a dot inside the figure. There was originally a test period where the original presentation was used with possible electronic colour added. However, it was rejected and a new ident used. This ident was formed from the 3 light spots that come together to make the central dot. From there, a 2 is drawn around the dot. Once complete, the colour legend appears below before the 2 starts rotating slowly. The blue 2 rotates to reveal a red 2, green 2 and a white 2. The ident would continually spin after this. In 1969, when BBC1 launched its own colour service, the ident was updated to match BBC1's presentation. The 2 was now all white on a blue background, with the BBC2 logo underneath the 2. The clock that went alongside this look was originally a traditional clock face with Roman numerals before it was changed to a light blue clockface on a dark blue background with BBC2 legend below. This clock also had the 'polo' mint centre and was filmed on BBC2's NODD, black and white camera filming the clock with colour added later on.
The Stripes (1974–1979)
A facelift occurred on 28 December 1974, with the "2" being formed of blue and white lines, the different colours leaving and entering from opposite sides of the screen. This was formed from a mechanical model of 23 discs, each with an alternating colour line on them. The model was then run so that each disc spun a different way to the disc above and below it. This was the last mechanical model used on BBC2. The clock for this era was the same as the last era.
The Computer Generated 2 (1979–1986)
In June 1979, BBC2 adopted the world's first computer-generated ident, with the logo being drawn live every time it was played. This version of the 2 had orange double lines either side and the 2 itself was cream double lined. This stripy 2 had been used on promotions and holding slides for years prior to its launch, and now it was part of a bigger branding package. For the first few years of the ident, it would be accompanied by a fanfare as it scrolled onto the screen. There were versions of the ident where the ident scrolled on, scrolled off and remained static. The clock used alongside this high tech 3D ident, was anything but. The old clock filmed from the NODD room survived, with a new 2D logo and sporting black and orange colours. However, in 1980, BBC2 got its own electronic clock including 3D legend and centre dot.
The TWO (1986–1991)