BBC2 IDENTS: 1964-1991 | The Ident Review

Episode 117

This time on THE IDENT REVIEW, we're switching over to BBC2! The presentation from 1991 onwards often gets a lot of attention, but what about the early years? So today, we're going from BBC2's launch in 1964, all the way up until that fateful rebrand in 1991! We've got a lot of interesting idents to look at, so let's get right into it!

The Ident Review began in May 2018 and since has spawned over 100 episodes and even a spin-off show, the Ident Review Extra! It remains a firm AMTV favourite to this day!

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[moreedcola]

Finally, BBC2’s early idents getting the love they deserve!

(Also, I genuinely didn’t know the 1964 logo’s trumpet fanfare was basically just saying the channel name.)

[stevedickson]

The 79-86 Stripey ident will always be the winner for me, so many memories, World snooker championships when it was interesting, schools and colleges programmes, interesting documentaries etc the list goes on

[gftyhify]

I find it hard to believe that the 1986 ident was designed by the same person that designed the Eastenders opening sequence which is far more creative, interesting and memorable

[fusionsub]

The comprehwnsive BBC2 review, what I needed but I didn't know.

[maccawtpi]

i've always had a soft spot for the 1967 ident. for an ident of that time period, i like how it also doesn't look out of place with the increasingly more simplified logos you find nowadays. i feel it has stood the test of time better than all the other bbc2 idents pre-1991.

good video👍

[channel]

The TWO ident, there's much footage on YouTube of the animated version with music, as seen in this video, but back in the day it actually hardly ever played. From what I can tell, it seems to have been used mostly to open up the channel each day. But by far the most seen version was just the static logo, no music.

[diaquallo]

Such a classic trope! I like the rotating 2 ident.

[red-trinity]

These were definentally interesting! Keep the series running!

[fairrodthecapacitor]

Speaking about BBC2 idents, there is a secret 1991 themed ident. An orange balloon ident that is reversed when it is popped

This was a special ident review. Thx you

[nighttimecoral]

It’s cool to see BBC Two’s ident history before the iconic personality of the 2’s was introduced. Great video! 🩵

[kaitlyn__L]

Something I find interesting is the same font was retained for the “2” from the cube up through to the orange and brown CG one. Although it’s less recognisable when split into two sections on the CG one.

I don’t think any of the pre-Lambie-Nairn ones have much character, but I definitely prefer the CG one over the rest. It continues the “lines” motif (which I imagine is not just stylistic but representing lines of television) from the mechanical spinner and the very first ident, while carrying it forward into the future. Plus it’s got a very late-70s early-80s colour scheme.

Also I just have fond memories of it from Look Around You 2! Peter Serofinowicz really is an excellent continuity announcer, except for how he (deliberately) stays right next to the mic for his mouth sounds.

[KRPTV]

That Christmas ident shown at 11:07 I always thought would have worked well as a standard ident because although I can't really see anything in it that's related to Christmas it is way better than the genuine ident used at the time.🙂

[chucklefun]

Great video my favourite ident in this video was the 1972 even though i was not alive then.

[kalbright]

After all, I did watched Dave Jeffery's Flash files on these types of logo animations, and I am really satisfied!

[stephl]

I have been to the tv museum in Bradford, and seen the machine that created the 1974 ident.

[GrafismosPortugueses]

Here's my unpopular opinion: Maybe it wasn't the branding that a channel like BBC2 deserved, but I actually like the 1986 design 🙃
Congrats on the video!

[wotdoesthisbuttondo]

Silent indents are likely meant for presenters doing voice overs.

[olivercuenca]

The 1979 jingle would definitely have sounded a lot better if they didn't end it on that bizarre end note. One minute it sounds like some kind of baroque, Bach-esque melody, then it's like the performer just lost interest in continuing and started hitting random notes.

[limeyosu]

Some of these would make a great t shirt design

[apeculiarmingvase]

I never thought you were not a fan of the 1979 ident like most people, but that's your opinion. I also noticed that for about 27 years, BBC2 never always had the charming idents they're known for today, with the exception of the occasional Christmas idents, but even then, BBC1 arguably have them mostly beat on that department for a while. It took until 1991 for them to get the reputation they're known for. Here's hoping that BBC2 comes up with some amazing idents for their 60th anniversary next year, hopefully better than the 100th anniversary idents, but knowing BBC2, I think they can pull it off.