CBBC Birthday thread

How's it too clean to be from a broadcast? If it was from a broadcast quality recording of CBBC's studio output then why wouldn't it be clean? There were plenty of broadcast quality clips in the documentry, especially of Studio A & 9 output (and even a few of the broomcupboard clips), it's not like all that survives of CBBC's output is in VHS form.

Okay but a lot of the continuity was not routinely archived, and a lot of it that does survive, particularly from the Broom Cupboard era, survives purely by accident and via off-air recordings.

When they started doing CBBC on Nickelodeon (or Nickelodeon on CBBC whichever way round it was), the links had to be pre-recorded for it so it probably became routine after that.

One whole hour!

That's interesting as it appears the continuity and presentation is going out in widescreen. I thought CBBC One only went widescreen with the refresh in the autumn? The first ident looks like native widescreen but the closing ident is definitely 4:3 stretched to fill the frame (and then cropped to 14:9!).

The Red Nose day continuity in 2001 was in 16:9 IIRC, then it went back to 4:3 until September. Why it was in 16:9 for that one day, I don't know, maybe a dry run for the full switch?

This clip though shows that Studio 9 was 16:9 capable from day 1 (before several other TVC studios were), even though it was over 4 years until the continuity went out that way:

The first day CBBC went to widescreen, idents were re-edited and the slots were split to 2 categories: pre-school, and 7-12.

You can see in that video they were basically prototyping the split CBBC/CBeebies format that would launch in the new year. The ident soundtrack for the younger children's programmes on CBBC Two is noticeably different to those used in the afternoon on CBBC One. The idents also inexplicably now feature a badly aligned logo.

Really does make you wonder why they invested in a brand new set when they were going to do it up all over again within a few months. Wouldn't happen now!

I'm pretty sure that video isn't from the day CBBC went Widescreen, it's from the following Monday. The day CBBC went widescreen, the breakfast & lunchtime slots were still in 4:3 (though with the new idents) and out on the Blue Peter garden as they were putting the finishing touches to the new studio. The afternoon slot opened with them unveiling the new look studio.

The reason for the mis-aligned logo is because, as I said a couple of pages back, they just cropped the 4:3 idents to 16:9 (even though 16:9 versions do exist).

Interesting to note that the trailers there were made in 4:3. Pre-September 2001 the trailers tended to be made in the aspect ratio of what they were trailing (though cropped to 4:3) and you could tell whether a trailer had been made in 4:3 or 16:9 as the little box with the idents on the strap was closer to the edge of the screen on 16:9 produced trailer, and the boxes in the bumpers which topped and tailed them (which you can see in that video at 1:44, 4:31 and very briefly at 13:23) were further spaced out on the 16:9 produced ones.

These screenshots (which I've grabbed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjiYCxl6bo4) will hopefully show what I'm getting at- the top two from a trailer that was made in 16:9, the bottom in 4:3:

No, I don't think that's the problem - as you say, it appears as though they've just cropped the 4:3 animations, but I'm certain the logo is newly made. It's odd, because on every other piece of presentation they still used the correct logo, it's just whoever edited the idents did a bad recreation.


The BBC logo is too big in relation to the 'C' and 'ONE' (or 'TWO') surrounding it:



Correct logo:

Yes it was widescreen - possibly dry run for September, but it's mostly a programme rather than continuity, and there were bits from other widescreen studios throughout so might have made more sense to produce the whole thing like that. Having the continuity 4:3 was ridiculous by that point as virtually every programme was 16:9, and they were also unable to credit squeeze/transition to anything that was widescreen because of whatever way they got it to air meant the usual squeeze wasn't possible. (although this was better than CITV's solution whilst still 4:3, which was to letterbox everything whatever platform you were watching it on)

Interesting bit at about 7 minutes which basically show how the L&K series 8 gunge tank worked, a plastic tank on top of the gantry where the kids would normally stand. Which explains why there was normally one of the presenters up there too on Saturday morning (to stop the kids messing around with it)!

Easy to forget now but the government approval process for CBBC/CBeebies, BBC Four and BBC Three took a hell of a long time as the Labour government wanted to make clear to the commercial broadcasters that they were taking their concerns seriously, and the 2001 election and a change of culture secretary didn't help either. The process clearly far longer than the BBC had thought it would as elements of the new channels began creeping on screen - 60 Seconds in summer 2001 and much new original production that autumn on BBC Choice, and here you can pretty much see the CBBC/CBeebies split take place in all but name. I agree the studio change is probably one that wouldn't happen now but they couldn't avoid the widescreen one I expect, hence the mini-revamp of the idents. In that clip you can also see a similar "slick" style begin to be used in the older-kids sections that would also be a part of the Feb 2002 relaunch when the continuity was aged-up in style and tone.

Somewhat ironically I think the government decision was finally announced around mid-September 2001, although BBC Three wasn't approved for another year which is why it didn't launch until Feb 2003. For another example of changes being made on-screen before a decision has been made/approved: see the closure of, er, BBC Three...

BBC Choice also got a new set of idents in 2001, which were recoloured in 2002. Seems strange now, but it happened.

Come to think of it, the BBC Knowledge ident couldn't have been more than a couple of years old when it was retired.