ITV Christmas Hearts era

Here is an excuse for a trip down memory lane to the last few years of the ITV regions during the hearts era, looking at what idents were used at Christmas. There were three Christmasses 1999, 2000 & 2001 during this era

Carlton

I assume Carlton used these across all three years?




Yorkshire/Granada/Tyne Tees

1999 this nice set




2000 I believe nothing just the normal hearts???

2001 this generic 'ITV1' set which caused the nashing of teeth back then



HTV/Anglia/Meridian

In 1999 HTV used a christmas version of the standard hearts ident, did Anglia and Meridian?



2000?

2001?

Carlton HTV (2001)




Others

Border (Pre-GMG 1999)
LWT?
Channel?

To confirm in 2000 the Granada North regions didn't use any Christmas idents, they did take the ITV promo package that year however.

IIRC Carlton changed the Christmas idents each year and they were different colours in each year, but they may have mixed and matched all these.

They did use this one at the end of each year, changing the year in the fireworks - 1999, 2000 and 2001 respectively:

Alot of the Carlton Xmas idents are on TVARK: http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/itvlondon/carlton-idents4.html

This is what GMG northern stations used in 1998 .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnfdBbhqKAw&t=20s&ab_channel=TVBits

Carlton's were fantastic (and their whole hearts set has aged really well IMO). Granadas on the other hand. - I think the clips speak for themselves.

ITV had a robin motif one Christmas during this era which would have made a nice ident but IIRC only UTV did use it as an ident, but I can't seem to find it right now.

I have a soft spot for Granada's, but I think personal nostalgia has a part to play in that. Though I'll admit once you look at their presentation from 1996, their standards undoubtedly dropped.

HTV used the robin in 2000.

Yes I was going to say, HTV used the robin - and you have to wonder why they bothered. Possibly the least festive Christmas ident of all time.



Incidentally, does anyone else think that the Carlton idents worked better for HTV due to the three note tune?

I seem to remember in 2001 that Channel TV had their regular ident with the eskimo mascot floating over it in a similar vein to the HTV robin example above.

Hmm. I haven't thought of that,

like this - ITV ident.

I think they were just better idents, though I do wish they'd put a bit more effort into the endcap (though we've had that conversation before).