BBC One 'Circle' idents

I do think the balloons could easily have lasted until the circles were introduced - all they had to do was slap the red box on them and they had already moved towards more action type scenes than just landscapes, so they had evolved in a similar way to the 2's.

I still can't understand how anyone was stupid enough to agree with Heggessey when she said the globe wasn't "inclusive" enough and that dance would sum up the channel much better. At least with the circle it does somewhat hark back to the globe and does kind of sum up "one".

P.S. If they wanted cheap but new they could do a lot worse than adapt the old BBC America Union Jack idents - though I suspect the Union Jack is too British for the BBC!

I can see why those of a certain persuasion would use the term 'political correctness' as a stick to criticise the dancing idents but it's not really a fair criticism.

There was a range of people featured in them but how else could it have been done? The reason that there were ones featuring (gosh) foreigners and other minorities was because they'd soon have run out of dance styles otherwise. Besides most didn't fall into that category at all

I rather liked the dance idents. Capoeira was stunning.

As much as the balloon idents were nice, the later additions to the set were pretty awful. I mean, that bungee jumping one was dire.

The dancers were underwhelming with what came before, but there was also a mix of the channel's longest running symbol being dropped and the channel controller vocally saying the balloons were rubbish that added to that feeling.

On their own they are quite good, especially the soundtracks.

later Balloons did not helps its case and the controller was right, when it come to them. The Market was dire.

I seem to recall the Dead Ringers take on that ident better than the ident itself (where Greg Dyke was in the balloon and cut the bungee). The 2002 package was well designed and the theme was very strong, but the fact it followed the balloons, they were the first post-globe idents, they were a product of Heggessey's BBC1 and the fact that the Queen Mother died the day after they were introduced did them no favours at all.

I think they could have got a couple of more years out of the balloons, but not much more, they were nice to look at and were visually stunning (I'd imagine they'd look great in HD) but they were suited to that era of Television and not todays, they weren't quirky, where as BBC2's 1991 set were and hence why everyone's enjoying the nostalga at the moment with the idents back on the air.

I don't mind the current set, but they are starting to feel dated, it's getting to that point in time where we were in 1997 when you simply don't notice the idents any more and the fact they're just there, they'd only get noticed more when they eventually get dropped. As it stands with the BBC and their funding and the whole licence fee in question, now isn't the best time to rebrand BBC1 at expense, it maybe worth hanging on until after the next general election and charter review, which will probably see these idents 10th anniversary. BBC2 needs a rebrand more so than BBC1.

Having said that there's no harm with a change in style of promos, fonts, endboards etc. It hasn't done BBC3, ITV and Channel 4 any harm.

If they can't afford to rebrand now they're not going to be able to afford it post charter review. Unless the BBC start standing up for itself and rallying support it's looking inceasingly likely it will be severely damaged.

How about some new simple idents? there is no nation themed idents to any of them, How about a Scottish, a welsh an london ident?

There is plenty of ideas which could be used if there through about it. Here is one such gem....



What about places around the UK ??

Remixed would be good, like the CBBC stuff


I also agree with bring back some of the current older unused package like Windows and Moon and is the Football one been dropped now too?

I do think they need a new package but keep the logo, but can't see it happening for a while.

It's a shame the Daily Mail dictates what the licence fee payer has to put up with. In reality a new ident set need not cost any more than an elaborate promo campaign (and even the BBC have been known to put more effort into some promos than their identity), or at worse losing as little as an hour of drama to fund them - another repeat of New Tricks wouldn't be noticed!

I think the bigger issue is probably that the BBC's branding issues go beyond BBC1 at the moment and to fix issues with BBC1/2 they might need to look at the branding as a whole. If they've realised that and are working towards a major refresh across the BBC they aren't going to be wanting to refresh individual channels until the brand is ready to go.

I echo much of what has been said about the Dancers. They lacked a symbol like the globe/balloon but were well produced and the soundtracks were brilliant - you heard that music and you clearly knew you were watching BBC One. It's something idents really lack today - BBC One's three notes motif is probably the best out there at the moment, but even that's quite weak. Sound is often neglected IMO in television branding.

I also agree there needs to be a more wider rebrand with logos etc for the BBC, which would translate better to online, smartphones and cross promotion.

That was the idea behind the boxes. But it fell apart when BBC One and then BBC Three refreshed.