BBC Two: new idents from Sunday 18 February

No need to panic - the 2 is staying!

According to BBC2 Head of Marketing, James Pestell, on Points of View earlier: "The channel has for many years used its distinctive 2 as a branding device. The 2 will still be there, but the way it's used will evolve."

Excellent news Although it is a simple 2 it is distinctive enough to be instantly recognisable.

Wonder what they mean by evolve?

It will develop legs and walk upright

Great news that the 2 is staying!

I do hope the history of strong ident music continues.

Bounce Sombre and Invisible Walls were my favourites of the current bunch, although when it comes to really building an atmosphere, idents from the previous era like Copper Cut Out in '91, or Excalibur from 2000 still remain top of the pile IMO.

I'm hoping this evolution relates to the scenarios and situations in which the 2 is used, as opposed to giving it a set of legs or whatever - I definitely prefer it to be limb-free!

Well, it's sort of staying. In keeping with the current vogue for making every channel's branding look more or less identical, the new 2 idents will feature people in various scenarios alongside the 2, which will form part of the action. Like, for example, someone walking through a 2-shaped door (which is, for the record, a rather boring example I've just made up.)

You heard it here first!

I sincerely hope you're making this up. BBC2 is the last channel I'd expect to go down the people based ident route

All completely true, I'm afraid. Obviously I can't say how and why I know without people getting into trouble, but we'll all see early-ish next year.

Now, now before anyone starts having a go at our low count poster, lets keep in mind this could be very credible, afterall who would have though virtually all idents would involve live action 5 years ago

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad that the 2 is staying, but why oh why do we really need BBC Two to be the last channel to change to people/lifestyle idents? Can't we still keep with models or CGI, just not people? They just don't add anything to an ident for me.

Agreed on that entirely - the people often don't form the symbol, and as such they are not necessary - If the '2' wasn't there, the remaining action would have no meaning; it couldn't be linked to the channel in any clear way.

Idents always look better to me when it is simply an object on-screen in either CGI, or live action models on a backdrop that is people-free.

For now I'll just wait to see how it all comes together on screen next year - but the Scrooge in me says "Bah humbug" to the increase in people-heavy idents and weak soundtracks. I do hope BBC2 doesn't follow this route with the same underwhelming results, and that it's at least slick in execution - even if it's not really the best I could have hoped for.

The depressing inevitability of the idea is what makes it all the more plausible! I'm not one to immediately doubt low post count members, it's nearly always the insiders that don't have the time/willingness to post on here often.

this is just what i had feared when news broke that AMV BBDO were in charge. i hope its not true but i have a terrible feeling it is.