Christmas Television 2011

I wouldn't mind last year's being used again, I think it was pretty good, certainly the best for many years. It worked really well as a stand alone just with the music and the flashing lights from the end.

The only problem with it was that the 'jokes' in the long versions wore thin very quickly

Yeah, I don't think I'm as fussed as I used to be about the whole 'must have a new one' and would be happy to see it back for another year, just not too early! I don't know the overall cost these days for producing an ident but I imagine it's significantly more than the old animations of the 90s and models of the 80s.

Although they've certainly got their money's worth with BBC Two, I still like it to be honest. I think they're better than most of the year-round ones. It's BBC Two itself which needs a makeover.

I think they've become too extravagant to justify annual changes, even in normal circumstances. Compare what's being churned out now to as recently as 2004, when we had kids running around in daft costumes symbolising BBC One at Christmas. Cheap but not so cheerful after 3 showings.

Add to that last year's all round package being the best since the final Balloon one from 2001, I'd argue it's the sensible thing to do, especially if they bring out the 2006 and 7 idents to support.

We can hark back to the glory years of the 90s but those days, for better or worse, are long gone. BBC Two had some bloody fantastic yearly efforts back then but they were very much of that era (short 5s form-ups, restrained animations) and benefited from the ridiculously good, easily adaptable year-round look they had going on.

A sad contrast to now where presentation has been allowed to rot away since 2008. The Gremlin's annual reappearance is welcomed if only to prevent a 'Tagging Christmas' ever coming into existence.

I agree that it's not really on spending £xxxxx(x?) on a one-off ident when 20% cuts across the board are happening.

They should have not done the Doctor Who one (since there's no chance it could be used) and perhaps the Wallace & Gromit one could have been a little more generic to allow its reuse. Still, the 2 (or 3 with the Penguins perhaps?) we have will suffice.

I'm eagerly awaiting Sky's effort, I really liked the Carousel with the haunting music and would love it if they managed to blend this in to their current scheme somehow - judging by their recent attempts I don't have much faith in them creating a new good one.

It surely can't cost much to create an ident. I'd be disappointed if BBC One and ITV1 don't do something special. Christmas pres really can set the tone sometimes for festivities.

Schedule-wise, a prediction/wish-list:

BBC One
5.50 BBC News
6.00 EastEnders
6.30 Strictly Come Dancing
7.30 Doctor Who
8.30 Absolutely Fabulous
9.00 EastEnders
9.30 The Royle Family
10.30 Michael McIntyre's Christmas Roadshow
11.30 BBC News

ITV1
5.20 ITV News
5.30 The Cube
6.30 Coronation Street
7.00 Emmerdale
8.00 Downton Abbey Christmas Special
9.30 Coronation Street
10.00 ITV News

Now that would be interesting!

Edited:

What a dull and unimaginable schedule! alas that is just like most other years with itv just showing a drama around the 8pm slot. ITV and BBC need to come up with something a bit more Fun and jolly,

It's not so much the actual monetary cost (although I doubt it would be an insignificant amount) as the perceived inappropriateness of allocating funds to something, which let's face it, is non-essential in the current climate of budget and job cuts.

With plenty of previous idents available to use, programmes should rightly be the priority.

Forgetting the BBC for a minute it's about time C4 had a Christmas ident - it's the one thing this set of idents is really missing, and considering they launch 3-4 idents late last year surely they could launch at least one for Christmas.

And talking generally about cost - would an ident really cost much more than say a specially commissioned promo (like the current Strictly one)? Also does BBC HD usually have a Christmas ident?

I've asked a similar question before and the response was such specially themed promos, idents, etc. are funded differently, ie directly from the programme budget.

And no, I don't think BBC HD has a Christmas ident. Nor does BBC Three, who's idents you'd have thought would be the easiest in the world to snowify.

Like it. Although I have to say I would love it if BBC 1 would repeat Morecambe and Wise and Only Fools and Horses alongside Dr Who and Eastenders.

I hope we see plenty of old fillms on BBC2 over Christmas this year with early morning double bills and a few Laurel & Hardy films thrown in for good measure. It's be far too long since BBC2 shown any of the Laurel & Hardy comedies. Last Christmas saw a few old movie gems being shown, let's hope the Beeb follow up with something similar this year!

They can use the short serious version of the DW ident, as that doesn't have anything to do with Doctor Who in it (in fact, they should use it, as it's far more suitable than the 2008 and 2010 ones). Wallace and Gromit's ident is completely reusable - they probably will repeat the films over the Christmas period. Penguins is part of the regular set, so I can't see that being reused, so last year's and Snowball will be the main two used most likely.