The Worst of Regional ITV

Yup, totally agree Tes.

At the end of the day, the real evil TTTV ident was that horrible grey thing, along with the abomination that was the replacement for the C3NE ident. The C3 ident itself wasn't all that bad really.

TTTV had a very bad decade for pres in the 90s. It all started with the 1991 ident, which I am now reliably informed was a reject from 1988 when the flowing rivers ident was introduced -- TTTV management wanted to push the Tyne Tees brand to the fore when going for their new licence, but didn't cough up the money -- so a series of rejected variations were hastily re-edited and used on-air, which also explains why (1) it looked so 80s (because it was!!), and (2) why it took TTTV about a month before they updated the rest of the graphics to match the new ident. Very poor show by them it must be said.

Then came the grey thing, designed by YTV's graphics department and a truly abysmal thing it was too. The C3NE was almost a relief at the time it was introduced -- the grey thing sufficed when it was rarely seen (IVC taking its place most of the time) but for the six months it was used as a pre-programme ident after the Newcastle closure its shortcomings became all too obvious.

Definately Carlton London for me, they replaced an excellently designed logo (Thames Television) with a Gill Sans font with a small T so it could morph from CARLtON to LONDON

The start of all poor TV presentation IMHO, although they did redeem themselves in 1999

Remember that the "grey thing" introduced by TTTV was to get rid of the corporate music and style of the then-defunct 1989 ITV corporate image (since everyone had moved back to their own idents by then).

I thought it was quite nice when I lived there. There was a definate move towards stark white or grey-gradient backgrounds (Granada & LWT for example) and the development of CGI for a logo.

Just think of what we have on the main digital channels now and think back properly. Just because a child of 10 is capable of knocking up a similar or better animation on a PC now doesn't mean that the graphic designers of the day were being remiss.

Along with a wavy palm tree shadow and...........

"...This is Carlton. Televison for London" Fireman, 37, Bexlyheath.

Bluergh!

What I disliked about the logo wasn't so much the implementation, but what it stood for.

Like C3NE, it was produced by YTV in Leeds, who took the opportunity to wipe out the old logo in the process. Some would possibly say that it needed updating, but did it have to be so damn inelegant? It was huge, looked out of proportion on the screen, and was too far removed from the original, whilst lacking the originality to stand by itself.

In essence, it was the C3NE prototype. It was cold, unfriendly, and totally at odds with the company's former image.

You can't have a prototype appearing afterewards. That doesn't make sense.

I liked the "grey" version of TTTV, It was clean and fresh. Took a step away from the 1989 corporate image and yet retained the essential parts of the old one with the stacked TT-TV symbol.

The early 90s was actually a good era for TTTV, because it's when they introduced the South sub-region. OK the amalgamation with Yorkshire during this time as the "Network North" news programme didn't last, but it was an attempt. You can't blame them for trying!

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jamiebro/SOU_0002.jpg

What can be worse then this boring animation with that "my cat is ill" jingle?

I agree,

"dingy-dingy-dingy-ding-dong"

Terrible. Just the sort of ident to be greeted with in the mid-70s with the 3 day week and the strikes and so on.

The grey TTTV was 1992; C3NE was 1996. Therefore, the grey TTTV was the prototype of C3NE. Don't see the contradiction here.



TTTV had already taken a step back from the corporate image. They hadn't used it for 19 months before the grey logo took over. The grey logo was the first example of YTV meddling with the TTTV brand. Hence, evil in spirit, like C3NE.



Network North was a result of the YTV merger. It was yet another example of YTV meddling, as it co-incided with an attempt by YTV to replace the editorial staff at the Teesside news operation (which had existed in Middlesbrough for 25 years previously, and had provided separate news bulletins long before YTV arrived on the scene) with their own staff. YTV had planned NN to be a pan-regional thing, under Leeds's control -- that is well documented, and led to an official warning by the ITC. Only then was control effectively relinquished to Newcastle.

As a casual viewer you may not have been aware of the vicious internal politics going on in the company at the time. As someone who was in contact with the staff, I saw what was going on. YTV wanted to close TTTV completely -- the idents were just one symptom of a wider disease. I'll never forget that dull Friday in April 1993 when virtually the entire board of TTTV left on-mass, allowing the hatchet-man John Calvert (who had already axed 300 YTV jobs the previous year) to take over.

The Southern logo has never made any sense to me. It looks like some sort of compass, which is fine. But all points on the compass are equal, making it seem like it should be a Central ident or something. The symbol doesn't emphasise the south.

Even sillier when you consider that it did have a larger southern point in the black-and-white days:

http://freespace.virgin.net/mymail.athome/channels/compass/southern/files/page20_1.jpg

Why did they suddenly forget, when colour arrived?

The Southern point is slightly larger, but not massively so.

Wasn't the Southern ident the only one to survive the crossover to colour? Must be something right about it. That, or Southern had other motives for leaving it as it was.

I think the Southern ident was OK, it was simple and unpretentious, and all the better for that. Problem was, I don't recall ever actually seeing the animated version on the network. It was always static when I saw it.

Well Yorkshire have been using the chevron since its launch, in the B&W days, others: Grampian, UTV, Border