ARCHIVE: TC2
The first use of a globe device as a BBC TV channel ident.
Video content
[00:00:00] IDENT: this symbol is believed to have debuted on 30th September 1963. It remained in use until the launch of BBC Two in April 1964.
Chris Bowden-Smith got in touch to tell us that he believes there were two versions of the ident: the initial design is thought to have featured a single-colour (grey) background; it was later modified to the two-colour arrangement shown here.
Chris was a little surprised at our September date for the launch of this ident. He thought the ident had been in use for a year or more.
The date was supplied to us many years ago, as part of research into the use of the early BBC idents, by a well-informed source.
However, revisiting the subject again now, what other avenues are available to us, to help narrow down the date? Well, we got in touch with our friends at The TV Museum, who have a number of off-air recordings from 1963, spanning January to early August. Their records show the UK map ident in use during this period.
The next available recording in The TV Museum archive is November, when the globe ident shown on this page was used.
Al Dupres has been able to narrow down things a little further. Al confirms the first on-air evidence of this globe – in surviving footage in the BBC Archive – is in the junction leading into an edition of Panorama on 7th October 1963. And the last known recording of the globe in use is in a link into an edition of Panorama on 13th April 1964.
So, although still not absolutely definitive, surviving video footage comes very close to confirming our start date of 30th September 1963 and end date of 19th April 1964.
However, Al added that he has only been able to locate one version of the globe in the BBC Archive.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Chris Bowden-Smith, The TV Museum and Al Dupres for their input.
PICTURED: BBC TV ident. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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