ITV1-only idents - a pack of lies

OK then...if that's true, well somebody must be able to confirm when these new regionalized ITV identities are going to hit our screens...instead of just misleading everybody.  Are they going to have a purple look or the rubbishy blue and yellow look implied earlier?  Will Carlton stations remain the same?  Will Carlton stations go back to thier original names?  Will the Central PIE make a welcome come-back?  Will the GMG jingle be the same?  Will they have the regions names on or just a plain ITV1 logo?  Is there anything else planned to coincide with the new look...ie, a really MEGA smash hit programme or a complete shake-up of the schedule at all???  

All these questions need answering and if there are any people 'in the know' out there, they should reply and put us all out of our misery!  I.e...Tv execs or any continuity announcers, of which I know there are quite a few...some of whom like Chicken Tikka Massala!

Someone from Meridian who is either a continuity announcer or has contact with one deffinitly views this site. Every now and again they quietly will say or do something that relates to something mentioned.

For example, Meridian announcer, Graham James said You're watching Meridian, that's either Granada telling him to (doubt it) Him seeing this (strong chance) Him just doing it (Yeah, could be)

OK then, let's experiment.

Here's something they are very unlikely to say. If any Meridian person is out there reading this, I beg you to say something along the lines of:

'You're watching Meridian, part of ITV1 in the south of England...'

Go on...

How about opening the day tomorrow with 'Good morning you're watching Meridian for the south and south east of England and welcome to our programmes for Wednesday'.

Juicy Joe, you REALLY ought to READ properly BEFORE you jump to conclusions.

I said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about regional identities 'hitting our screens'; I was talking about guidelines for THE SPOKEN WORD.

There WON'T be anything new to SEE.  I was talking about more mentions of the local station in the SPOKEN announcements; and it's already started.

'Yorkshire' instead of 'local ITV1'; 'Meridian' instead of 'ITV1', etc, etc, ad nauseum.

I'm NOT telling you anything new IS GOING to happen; it's already happening.

No wonder there are 30 odd pages in this thread; it was probably a mis-read of something somebody said that started it all.

(Edited by Nick Harvey at 9:53 pm on Jan. 8, 2002)

No, this thread was started by somebody called CraigV a so called 'insider' who claimed that GMG stations would get a generic ITV1 ident from January 7th. Everyone was gullible and jumped on the bandwagon, hence 30 pages.

Just as a point of interest, did anyone else get to see the never-broadcast original versions of the ITV 'hearts' idents?

As I understand it, they were days away from going on air and had been sent out to all the stations. The launch would have coincided with the new [ i t v ] logo, however at the last minute they were pulled. They were then re-edited to what we have now.

They used the same live-action sequences the current idents had (eg. the swimming pool, the fairground, etc.), but the themes were developed throughout the entire ident. Also, the blue swirly hearts background was not in use - instead the ident finished with, for example, a wide shot of the two girls dancing on the sand or a train disappearing from the railway station - the two people with umbrellas now gone.

It's a while since a friend showed me them, but as I remember it, superimposed on this scene would be the station name in blue in a solid, yellow rectangle. IIRC, the station logo was in a blue square adjoining the yellow rectangle. The [ i t v ] logo was elsewhere with an animated heart motif above it - the same as used on promos and the ITV website at the time.

The music was a lot slower - and rather classy. The idents were generally rather arty, which was probably why they were ditched - probably not cheap 'n' cheerful enough for ITV.

 Sorry.

 Well that's pretty boring then.

 Well that's even worse!

Surely something far better is going to happen than this???

They sound rather smashing according to your descrition...perhaps someone could post an image to give us an idea of what they looked like?

if this has been already posted I'm sorry.

I saw one for anglia on TV Ark, I don't know if it is still there

I got the feeling that a lot of thought and creativity went into creating the original hearts idents. Maybe English & Pockett (that is their name isn't it?) were **** ed off that ITV messed them around at such a late stage - and just knocked off a cheap re-edit to keep them happy.

I've never seen them posted on any websites, and my friend is keeping them to himself given their rare status. Don't blame him myself.

Seems strange to me that ITV have a habit of making idents which never get used - take the 1989 ITV Generic look. I've got the full set on video, including TVS, TSW, Ulster, Scottish, Granada, Anglia and Channel. Such a waste of money.

I think it was a very cheap re-edit, as the 'first' idents seemed to look nicer, lighter blue background I think, I am almost certain it was TV-Ark, just before my computer exploded, so they might have put them up and never got the chance to announce it before ITV told them to remove them. If I see them I'll let everybody know!