Anglia & Meridian 1999/2000

Hi all, hoping to glean some knowledge from your collective brains from Anglia and Meridian pres, way back in 1999/2000...

Firstly, does anyone recall how long Anglia ran its 40th special knight/flag ident and whether this was used for a time before all programmes, or just for instance regional ones?

Secondly, does anyone know if Anglia and Meridian ever used the blue/purple and blue/yellow full form up versions of the ITV Hearts branding (the non film/live action idents) in conjunction with the film ones? For clarity, this is when they were still ITV, not the ITV1 changes that came when they only used the blue form up version having ditched the live action idents. I can't seem to find any evidence on line, but perhaps someone who lived in these regions may know?

Thanks in advance!

Good questions. Instead of answering them, though, could I ask another... Do we know the start / end dates for when Anglia and Meridian (and perhaps others) added an 'itv' logo to their pre-hearts idents?

These seem to be very rare online - I've only ever seen screenshots.

For the Anglia flag, the tiny 'itv' logo was added to the top left of the flag.

Logically this would have been the same time the Carlton hearts idents, which also had the ITV logo on them...

For the Anglia 40th ident where they took the flag ident and added the rotating horse and a '40', I believe this was used for all programmes (a bit like Christmas idents). But I'm happy to be proven wrong!

I know that Anglia were doing it by early July 1999 because I was at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone that year (with a pocket tv) and they had it on then.
Don’t think they ever had the 1989 logo on their idents so it would have been sometime between October 98 and July 99. That doesn’t narrow it down a lot sorry! I have seen it online, however I can’t seem to find it now

As for Meridian, there is this video from November 98 featuring their ident without an itv logo:




but this one which seems to be late August 99 has the logo.

Anglia certainly mixed the live action films with the animated form-up when it was still using the [itv] logo underneath. I have a blue/purple form-up ident on tape from Sunday 19-Dec-1999 into the Weekend News.

My page on the hearts idents says it was in early Nov 2001, when "itv.com" was added to the idents, that the live action sequences were dropped by most regions.

Thanks for the info.. Any idea how long it lasted on screen for?

Thanks again! I can't seem to find any examples online of Anglia or Meridian ever using the lines form-up, only either the live action sequences or the 'ambient' spinning hearts for shorter or 'serious' links, pre 2001/ ITV1.

That tallys with my memory. Remember watching Anglia in December 2001 and they were only using the lines ident. Meridian was the same when I was down that way in July 2002.

The ITV logo on the previous idents appeared sometime in Summer 1999. I have July in my head. I remember watching Anglia in June and there was no ITV logo on the idents.

I think it was only about a week.

Despite the fact I’ve definitely seen examples of the Anglia Flag ident with the 1998 itv logo on it, I can’t find any now. Pretty sure there was a video with several different versions, the longest of which had the itv logo appearing at the same time as the last section of flag. The later versions had it onscreen throughout.

This video from early April 1999 doesn’t have the itv logo present, so so it must have been introduced between early April and early July of that year:



I don’t think the addition of the itv logo really worked IMHO - it stuck out, unlike with the Meridian ident.

Not early April - I have a video from April 24th 1999 and the [itv] logo isn't on the Anglia flag then, either...



The logo sticking out was a design feature taken from the new idents that never launched. It was continued onto the promo endboards (where it stuck out on the right-hand side) that year with the black background, large [itv] logo in the middle and the Christmas versions that had red hearts.

I've now uploaded a 17-minute video of adverts from Anglia recorded in December 1999 that includes a lines form-up Anglia hearts idents at the end. (Also has Christmas promo and standard promo examples.)(Plus a 'blink and you'll miss it' appearance from David Mitchell in an advert for mobile phones complaining about how bullies burned his teddy bear in the dormitories.)

Amazing - thanks for that!