BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Seriously, if they do revert to old idents, it's not just a joke but an utter disgrace. BBC One is supposed to be the flagship channel of the corporation (and some would say, the country!). The fact they don't want spend out on a decent package to last 5 years seems a little strange. You think the amount of airtime and exposure the idents get, across 5 years they pay for themselves.

As for BBC Two, I'm all for a trip down memory lane but using idents which are nearly 30 years old is getting a bit long in the tooth now. The idents are not really fit for the types of programmes the channel airs in 2017, may have been OK in 1991.

The presentation across the whole family of BBC entertainment channels is disjointed and pretty poor. You've got BBC Three (online) and CBBC using one style, BBC Two and Four using another style of boxed logos, BBC One with its own font and not boxed and CBeebies which seems to have a life of its own. They all need to be brought in line and up to date (and need to, more importantly, look like they come from the same organisation).

I know the BBC is a huge beast, but you'd think they'd get their act together with their television presentation output, as Martin Lambie Nairn once said 'they do a lot of that'.

I know idents are not the be all and end all, but it's not like it's just a little problem here or there - the whole network visually looks like something from a local TV company.

Sure, the idea of the UK's premier television channel reverting to old idents is a bit baffling - but in this case, it's more tolerable than what we have now. The problem is that the BBC would essentially admit defeat with trying to reform the branding of BBC One, just as it did with Two - that it can't bring itself to overhaul its presentation.

The current presentation packages of the three main BBC channels (One, Two and Four) are well beyond past their sell-by date, among other reasons:
- The presentation style is very disjointed compared to competing groups of channels
- BBC One's Oneness campaign is now seen as unpopular, and poorly received; it also continues to utilise elements of the 2006 pres package
- BBC Two's reversion to 1990s idents, while excellent, seems to also show that they have admitted defeat with regards to creating a revitalised pres package.

Although seeing old idents is a nice touch - an important aspect of channel branding is keeping up with the current ethos of the channel. BBC One and Two today are markedly different beasts compared to that of 20 years ago.

A completely revitalised image of all three channels, presentation-wise, is desperately needed, but be careful for what you wish for - as one member said, change for change's sake isn't entirely necessary....

If they insist on keeping 'oneness' running into next year they could perhaps improve the existing idents just by adding some backing music, and axing the background noise that was recorded at the time. May be even add it a couple of clips at the start that are used in the stings.

The Christmas day idents last year showed how much better the concept of showing members of the public could have been executed. The dancing ident where you hear someone say 'action' is particularly poor in my opinion. It makes me wonder whether that got left in due to having to cut something worse off at the end, which meant they had to leave the start in.

It's perhaps telling that the new Strictly ident opted for the circles theme, rather than being a 'oneness' clip of members of the public dancing.

Nice to see the NI football idents getting an airing on BBC One NI this evening. A bit of the circles era lives again.

Someone here recut one or two of the idents early on using the stings and they were significantly improved.


So special idents for the football live on Sky with highlights on the BBC.

They were used to point to the Radio Ulster commentary.

Mountain Rescue to lead into Remembrance Sunday The Cenotaph. Thoughtless selection. Where's the conveyance of gravitas and poignancy in that one? Should have been Forest. Although this one conveys neither, at least it conveys a sense of calm and tranquility.

Mountain Rescue does also nod to public service and selflessness too.

They should have had an ident like Forest but shot in a poppy field.

It's not the first time the BBC has missed a sense of gravitas and poignancy leading into a moment of silence. Even had this not been cocked up, it's still a questionable ident choice in my view:

Yet there made the one Manchester ident. Plus for two years running had poppy sting

Any chance of this tonight for BBC2's repeat?