Best and Worst Regional Titles and Themes

I think those were dreadful title sequences in general. Those bevelled squares looking like something out of the 80s, and each regional sequence (apart from the Channel version) ending with a map of the whole UK rather than the specific region.

When you consider some of the quality the titles replaced:

Yes, for a while but then they changed it to a different theme which I hadn’t heard elsewhere. This survived the ITV takeover but then it has became the same as everywhere else in 2013.

I liked Channel’s ident at that time too - generic music, but the logo (which still included the Heart discontinued elsewhere) of a spinning globe with just the Channel Islands on it.

IMHO the current look is all slick and lovely but the name “ITV News Channel TV” is atrocious! Surely “ITV News Channel Report” would have been fine. It’s similar to what Granada do and they usually just call it “Granada Reports” without the “ITV News” prefix. I presume that the name is to try and avoid call it something which implies that it is the now-defunct “ITV News Channel” but it still sounds odd.

Completely agree and I recall thinking they looked rather naff even upon introduction. Having said that, they were still a HUGE improvement on the hideous titles used by Calendar at the time:



The present regional titles are possibly the best they've had.

They were brilliant!

Yes blantently someone said, “we’ve been a greeny bluey colour since the late 80s, let’s go mad and change it to red” - those titles and set were the worst they’d ever had, and it looked much better when it changed to blue with the corporate look. The music wasn’t a bad remix of the Calendar theme though.

You all have terrible taste

I quite like them too. I think we are the only two people in existence who do. I like the music the best, though.

Cue people accusing us of being the same Phil.

I actually like his style. I thought her response was rather stilted and over rehearsed

I am pleased you linked to this and agree with your comments. One of the best themes for me. And works well with the corporate titles as you say

Here's the other theme Channel Report used in the late 00s.



The brass notes actually sound a bit like the ITV News theme I think.

Channel's version of the "four squares" titles was better than the official effort. The only difference was a change in music (retained from their previous look) and keeping the regional map at the end, rather than the British Isles. Two small differences that resulted in a huge improvement. I also think it supports the idea that the regionals, if they have to look the same, should at least have a theme tune distinct from the network news.

I also agree that ITV News Channel TV is a clunky name and the change from the well established Channel Report brand gained nothing positive; again, all in the name of corporate sameness. It was similar for the likes of London Tonight and Meridian Tonight also; which were both also long established titles.

One that I thought even back in the day that was mindblowing, and not in a good way, was the South Today title sequence of around 1981, which had four rotating cubes or triangles with fairly random pictures with a brown background.
It looked as if someone had access to the latest digital gadget and wanted to use it to the max.
I cannot find it online anywhere, but a later slightly tamed down version, featuring the coastline is here at 25 seconds in to this montage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGieHjUuPVo