The new BBC2 idents

I haven't bothered to read 10 pages of this, but I'm guessing that Matt's post above sums things up quite nicely.

BBC, you gobsh*tes, what the hell were you thinking?

I told Parent B to look at the ident before TWL, and she managed to miss the point completely, with the words 'Is that it...?'. Awful, just awful.

I wasn't expecting much, very little infact, but I at least had some hope that they'd be quite clever and interesting. They aren't.

What they are is, dull, uninspired, unoriginal, too bright, too boring, cheap, tacky, not at all representative of the channel they serve. Just downright rubbish.

Get rid of them.

Erm...why? These idents (sad as I am to say it) aren't going anyway. You're going to have a lot of opportunity to tape these idents.

Trouble with these idents is that I just can't see how anyone can say they're remotely *better* than ones used until yesterday - either in their style or their branding capabilities.

Cheers, Asa

I said that at the beginning, but as they say, tiny acorns grow mighty oaks etc... Imo, the promo captions are pukka, and the idents are quite convincing to be a hit over time... Give it time, and record all the idents before xmas on your special xmas tape!

On the subject of xmas, does anyone know when the promos'll start?

Indeed, I thought the 2's were awful when I first saw them in 1991. Paint being thrown onto a number 2 - how ridiculous, I thought!

But I really can't see these lasting anywhere near as long. Domino and Logo may be quite amusing on first sight, but will they still be on their hundredth showing or their thousandth showing?

One of the strengths of the old ones, were that they were all different. Wacky ones like Dog and Car, moody ones like Steam and Silk, and so on. The new ones are all wacky(ish), yellow and are going to get boring very soon.

And everything that was good about the 1997 revamp has been lost. At least this classic presentation style has survived on the other BBC channels, albeit not for much longer.

Change for the sake of change, no other reason.

Good question! Here's why...

1) I've got a thing about taping things on their first showing (i.e. while they're fresh!), so to avoid any loss in quality. Pretty sad, but that's how angry I felt when I saw the amazing original 'Styled 2s' masterpeices from 1991 - why the **** wasn't I 15 then?

2) You know the way BBC2 idents are added/removed! As soon as I get TV capture - which I'll have to earn for - I'll get my own idents site on the web, for future generations to gawp at!

(Edited by Conrad at 7:05 pm on Nov. 19, 2001)

I was 15 in 1991 - recorded all the original 2's...and then taped over them

The oldest stuff I have now is from 1995, which luckily includes most of the originals.

Learn to break the tab off the tape, so there won't be any fatal accidents!

It's too late, I already inadvertantly taped over one of my very few recordings of Steam the other week! I realised my mistake as soon as I started recording, but still managed to lose most of the ident. Typical - my favourite one, and one that had been taken out of use as well.

I agree with RW that the 1991 idents are moody. I watched the video of crystal ball, and that is a fantastic eerie and very nice ident!

These computer generated peices of scum will not last more than a couple of years I think.

That purple box has to go!

I've just found out I've recorded over the first ever new ITV2 ident today with a BBC Two one! The itv2 one with it's own special new look announcement!

BTW has anyone heard all of the Silk audio? (Which earlier this year I happened to find on an old Xmas 1998 tape!) It starts off with you thinking 'This is the same as Neon' but about 4 seconds after the 'gong',it get preeety creepy...

(Edited by Billy Hicks88 at 7:27 pm on Nov. 19, 2001)

Well I'm going to hold my hand up and say I like them. By that I mean they're not any worse than any previous incarnations, and, what few people have mentioned is the music: I love it!

There is a problem here, and it seems to be the one you are all experiencing:

This is the first time they haven't completely redesigned the nature of the logo. This is essentially a re-hash of a popular, but 10 year old image. It means that no-matter what the hell you have the '2' doing, its just a variation on a theme. Not really a re-brand at all, more a fresh lick of paint.

I've been through the transitions from the stripey '2' to the 'TWO' of the 80's and now the last lot. They all took a bit of getting used to each time. This lot aren't as drastic, because it would be commercial SUICIDE for the BBC to have dropped such an iconic image. I can't blame them.

Whatever you think of them, good or bad, they certainly are fresh. I'll go back to what I said at the start, I like the music (what I've heard so far) and prefer it to the weird ambient sounds of some of the last ones. I didn't think the graphics looked cheap in any way myself. And at £30,000.00 per ident then I think we can be assured that they are in fact probably beautifully rendered.

Looking forward to the next...erm 3 is it?

As far as I am concerned, there are two major flaws:

• VARIETY: It is difficult making a transition from tens of idents to just 4! People are going to get bored very quickly, especially when the four are very similar in design (i.e. yellow!)

• COMPATIBILITY: The purple box theme doesn't fit at the moment with any other channel. It is the odd one out. As someone said earlier, it is odd when it appears on News 24. It is also a strange transition from BBC ONE promos to BBC TWO promos.

So DAS says: 'Wait and see...'