It became very apparent when I was in my teens and I realised I was very much alone in my interest in this thing we call "the bits between the programmes". Mainly because the people in my life at the time didn't give a shiny s**t. But thanks to the internet and places like TV Forum, those with similar interests can congregate and discuss whatever they're into. What started from trying to find images and clips of the 1991 BBC Two idents turned into the realisation that it wasn't just me who had a thing for this type of stuff.
I think we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't think our kink for telly stuff was "niche", to put it lightly. It comes in a little handy occasionally, when an innocent person is on something of a nostalgia trip, and your hours of trawling through TV Ark means you can very quickly give them an answer when they ask who that woman was who presented Going Live with Philip Schofield, or you snatch the pen off somebody at a pub quiz when you're asked to identify the theme to Challenge Anneka. But it's got me thinking - what is it about this kind of stuff that we find so interesting?
I know this forum has people from various backgrounds, to graphic designers to industry veterans to people who just really like logos. I've tried to figure out my own reasons, and even as I type this, I don't know where to start. I've grown up, however, and gotten a little wiser. I know most people I encounter in everyday life isn't going to give a toss why Strike It Lucky became Strike It Rich, nor will they think of the TV company before the river when they hear the word Thames. But I do poke fun at myself for what I know is a very obscure interest, so much so a close friend of mine was clearing out his mother's kitchen, only to discover a Granada mug that was hiding in a cupboard, and left it aside because he "knew I'd like it". I was unironically grateful to him. So here's my question to all of you...
Why are you here, why do you like this sort of stuff, and how do you try and explain it to other people?
Comes to something when the bits between the programmes are more interesting than the programmes themselves.
Of course there are certain programme highlights, such as when the OP got revenge on Nick Frisbee whacking him round the head with a club on multiple occasions.
Of course there are certain programme highlights, such as when the OP got revenge on Nick Frisbee whacking him round the head with a club on multiple occasions.
I knocked him out with a studio light on the last episode
Of course there are certain programme highlights, such as when the OP got revenge on Nick Frisbee whacking him round the head with a club on multiple occasions.
I knocked him out with a studio light on the last episode
Good for you. And then you joined TV Forum. Proving once and for all that you're not a puppet.
I'd always been interested in TV station branding, presentation etc. for as long as I can remember; maybe seeing a shiny spinny stick with a funny wiggly shape or coloured flying blocks after the adverts I also loved is where it all started.
I enjoyed spotting the various ITV company logos on screen (seeing them all together in Look-in was a mind-blown moment to young me), and I *just about* remember pre-programme idents in use.
I recall a tinge of excitement seeing the output of other ITV companies, and how it compared to my native region of Ulster Television.
When I was young, we could pick up RTÉ easily, but on moving to another part of Northern Ireland, we couldn't get a signal at all, so anytime I had a chance to see how RTÉ looked - or changed - I grasped it.
It was never something I thought others would share a passion, or nostalgia, for.
When I was in my first year at university, around March 2000, I discovered websites like the MHP, The TV Room and Television Ark as it was then.
It was a revelation to see the history of TV presentation being documented by other people with that same interest, especially from eras before my time, and from parts of the UK and the world I'd never seen before.
It allowed me, through the text, the stills and the primitive video files of the time to confirm memories and quash myths I'd picked up.
I joined MHP Chat briefly, but the volume of correspondence was a lot to sift through - with no Internet at home, I'd spend many hours on a Sunday night in the uni computer labs reading hundreds of e-mails. Perhaps forums were an easier option?
I've certainly toned down my participation in TV Forum et al down the years, but I still like to be involved in the threads which I find interesting and relevant.
Thankfully, I've made some great friends who share the same interest down the years; I've even discovered other members of my extended family are fellow TV presentation fans. It's been an experience to see new generations of TV presfans emerge, never mind the evolution of what defines nostalgia...
...as for how I sell this to others, I just say 'If we all liked the same things, the world would be a duller place.'
For me, it's an interest that I've had almost all of my life, and I've no idea why.
My earliest memory of noticing TV presentation was aged about four, when there was a special outside broadcast episode of Playschool which had different titles to normal – the usual early 80s house form-up animation, but keyed in blue over some live action. I was genuinely excited about it, and slightly disappointed when it went back to the usual titles the next day.
I also have strong memories of the launch of Central – in fact I can still remember the ITN bulletin in which they showed the idents of the new contractors on 1st January 1982, even though I'd only have been five at the time.
I particularly loved anything computer generated through the 80s, and was obsessed with the Central cake. I'm sure I spent a significant amount of my spare time drawing the cake logo in felt-tip.
I think I knew it was a bit strange to be so interested in such stuff, and kept a lot of it secret from my family. I don't think to this day they know that I had [correction, still *have*] a VHS tape of every set of news programme titles that I could pick up, which started in about 1985 and continued (albeit with a switch to recordable DVD in the 00s) until everything became available in full quality on the internet, rendering personal copies a bit redundant.
Whilst my interest in pres has continued to this day, I can't say I get as excited about it as I used to. I think that's mainly because there's *so* much of it these days. A change of idents was a big deal in the past, but with dozens of channels available, and each having multiple idents, we're a bit spoilt for choice. Also it's hard to get as excited about some images of tea-making as it was a shiny new computer generated globe.
My interest in tv presentation started when I was around 6/7 when the family went on holiday to Kent and for the first time I saw the TVS logo and was instantly interested in how they produced their bumpers and trailers compared to Thames and LWT in London.
Recently I found my Primary School achievement folder and was surprised to see drawings of the TVS and LWT logos as part of activity drawings. For some reason I didn't do the Thames one!
During the 90s as a teen, my interest in tv pres was put on the back burner although I was still interested in broadcasting as a medium such as how far signals travelled, but as soon as I discovered the internet in 2000, my interest returned and when I discovered TV Home as it was in 2001, I felt I could share my hidden interest with other like minded people, with most having a wider knowledge of how it all works than I do!
I'm not that interested in presentation but I've always been fascinated by the behind the scenes aspect of television from a show is made from a technical point of view to the commissioning process.
Grew up with the Lambie-Nairn Anglia and BBC 2 idents of the 90s and used to be fascinated with how they were produced. I loved days off school when sick - watching BBC Schools, with all the interstitial programming was one of my favourite things to do as a kid. It all seemed so basic yet exciting.
All these years later, I ended up working in TV (despite wanting to be an Airbus pilot), and very much enjoy being a part of the whole process itself now. I worked at the BBC for a few years before joining ITV almost 10 years ago.
I think I've always been interested in it for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.
My wife knows about it ("why are you watching BBC World news bulletin opening titles from the 1990's, Mark - again?") as do my family and the lads but they think it's typical of someone who, in their words, "tends to do his own thing and go his own way".
When I do talk to my lovely missus about it, I tend to bang on about the authoritative and sexy virtual 1990s virtual news studio and, in a sign I am now middle-aged, "things used to be better when I was a young man!".
I remember always hating Tyne Tees' presentation (until it briefly became C3NE which I though was great branding, personally). When deciding to go to university, I wanted to go to a university outside the North East so I could see the idents and news programmes of another ITV region.
I met this lovely girl at uni - Katie. We're no longer together (and haven't been for nearly 20 years now!) and I remember her being completely baffled by my asking to watch Granada's idents and news programmes when I went to stay with her family in Lancashire. I loved the News 24 flags when it launched and I remember being insanely jealous of her parent's having analogue cable and being able to watch the channel. I seem to recall that we visited her folks more inbetween Nov 1997 and Dec 1998 (when I got an ONdigital box) and feeling the urge to watch the flags and the headlines at the start of each hour when at her folks'.
When they got rid of the flags for that awful first iteration of the News 24 pips and beeps era (99-03), I remember feeling gutted when I turned on the TV and my precious flags had gone (as well as that awful "elephant in pain" sound at the start of the titles). I felt the same "gut wrenching hurt" (OK, I am overegging the pudding here) when they get rid of the BBC1 balloons and the 97-02 BBC2 idents. I have told my beautiful wife about this and she thinks that I have some mild form of Asperger's Syndrome (she is a psychologist and she knows more than me).
The thing that really kicked it off though was "Network 7" on Channel 4 - first series more than the second. It looked like television from the future and I loved the look, design, and branding of the program.
I briefly wanted to be a TV journo but pursued a marketing career instead. I think my love of TV idents is a strangely-focused love of everything that is beautiful and elegant visually - classy but understated which is a little bit clever and a little bit teasing.
Well, my earliest memory of TV was in the late 60s, and the acres of test card broadcasts there used to be. I used to get the telly on in good time for Play School (like a couple of hours early!). I was fascinated by the BBC 2 clock that normally led in to Play School, and I'd watch the colour test films they used to show (albeit in b/w until 1971 for us) and soon stumbled across the BBC Service Information bulletins (didn't stumble across the IBA Tuesday Morning show until 1977 though!) I had a similar obsession with radio. I wanted to be involved in with the engineering side of broadcast, and I'm very lucky that I have. Not with a broadcaster though, with manufacturers and SIs (Systems Integrators), which over 37 years has taken me to scores of TV stations, all over the world. Never worked at a radio station though (yet! )
