New look UKTV Gold

I think he means the idents from years ago that used a gold ingot. Fantastic idents.

Thanks for the scans russnet, yes the days when UK Gold actually meant what it said, then the Thames element disappeared and then Flextech came in and it became what it is today, a lot of balls

Thats a good idea, or perhaps UK Golden Balls maybe just UKTV even, whatever it is it has to be in line with what it shows now, I dont think Gold is right somehow.

Sounds like something Camelot should do for the National Lottery!

maybe I should pitch the idea to Camelot and get £10 million for it

Just going off topic briefly, whats the point of the celeb/host/Joe Bloggs pushing the button to start the draw when if you look in the background, its the Camelot official which starts it on the actual machine itself a millisecond afterwards.

Maybe UKTV Gold can branch out into other channels. They could do G1, G2, G3 and by the time they get to G4 they can dedicate it to sh*tty pop idol/x factor style shows.

The idents first went downhill in 2002 when they started doing all the live action shots of things like a bath being filled with water, a kettle boiling or a bakery's window. They were cheap and meaningless - nothing whatsoever to do with Gold.

The logo from 1997 was alright, even if it was almost exactly the same as the BBC one, but that went in 2001 to a different one, and then to rename it UKTV Gold? Stupid.

The schedule started off well in 1992 when they were showing older programmes from BBC and ITV, many not shown at all now. For the 1997 revamp, a lot of those were dropped and emphasis was put on comedy repeats (Fawlty Towers, Porridge, Only Fools and Horses etc.) and though not as good, it got more viewers and was quite successful. That was until about 2002 again, when they were showing more modern programmes which had just been given an airing on the BBC anyway.

The gold stripes/bars weren't great either, and neither are the space hoppers. Goldie was the first sort of element of Gold in an ident, being an animated Golden Retriever, then it was stylish gold bars, then the various objects falling and bouncing off the gold ribbon before a gold one fell through. And after that it was fireworks, which I still think are good.

Live action idents are awful and I don't know how TV bosses get talked into thinking they'd be good for their channel. I'm with you on UK Gold's idents being good up to the fireworks, what came afterwards was utterly depressing and soulless. The idents peaked for me when they used the gold bar, some excellent idents in that package. Not sure about these space hoppers at all.

Only one reason - money. Easy to produce and easy to show. Computer generated fireworks or gold bars now cost money, so they won't do it. Shame on them.

Surely if saving money was a factor we'd still have the old 'gold screen' idents which disappeared the other day.

I don't think the 'cheap' option applies to BBC anyway. Just from memory, I think it was £800K for the Dancers, but over £1mil for the current Circles. But they still have an element of live action, and aren't really that great. That's not to say live action is the reason for the poor quality - look at the BBC ONE Ballet dancers; that worked because it was shot right and the music was spot on to convey the right mood. And the balloon itself prior to that was live action business.

So I think what we're getting at here, is live action with people doesn't *tend* to work too well unless there's a) some level of physical skill and grace as opposed to just some people pratting about and b) it's backed with the right music, that's polished, varied and tailored to fit the scene.

Neither of the above apply to the new UKTV Gold lot. I think it looks a tad amateurish, in comparison to what came before and also compared to what other pres we have across the channels these days. Nothing wrong with a bit of comedic value, but lacking visual polish isn't a requisite of that.

I notice in those schedules that BBC programmes are still in half hour slots, even though presumably they had an ad break in the middle ? How did they achieve that ?

Now of course, all former BBC half hour programmes are in 40 minute slots presumably to allow for extra advertisements. The old schedule was a lot tidier.