BBC Two 'Personality' idents

The Personality Idents were a set of idents used on BBC Two between 19 November 2001 and 18 February 2007. The idents were produced by the Lambie-Nairn branding agency, who had created the previous look. The idents feature an ivory sans serif '2' in a yellow environment and performing a variety of tasks, and a purple boxed BBC Two logo.

Conception
Ever since 1997, BBC Two was changing it's programming style. The channel was becoming less factual and more light hearted. This problem had already been posed to the last ident package, and they had responded by adding some newer lighter hearted idents, such as 'Swan' and 'Zapper'. However by 2001, the channel was becoming even more entertainment based, and the old idents were no longer appropriate. A thorough rebrand was needed, and one that would equal the popularity gained by their predecessors and be light hearted in face of this new programming. This daunting task was set to Martin Lambie-Nairn, who set out by continuing a theme began in the previous set: that of making the '2' a person.

Another new part of the presentation was the logo for the channel, as the simple "BBC TWO" logo that had been used previously would not be accompanying the channel following the rebrand. The solution was by putting the logo in a box, with the BBC stacked on top of the TWO.

Idents
The idents were produced entirely on computer and featured a constant ivory '2' on a yellow background. This aspect never varied in the majority of their usage. Also accompanying the new look was a new style of logo for the BBC, that of a box. This new style was a variation of a logo but still retaining an overall look. The box was purple in colour and was always located in the bottom right corner of idents and presentation.

A notable occlusion of the look was that of the clock. When the channel rebranded, no clock design was made for the look. Idents continued the use of the 'Subtitles' DOG in the top right corner from the last look, but also included the BBC Two website URL as a DOG in the top left corner. This was removed in 2003.

Special
BBC Two, for the first time, decided to reuse some of their previous Christmas idents in the years during this era, instead of a new, annual ident. The Christmas idents are as follows:
 * Christmas 2001 - The 2 holds out his hands, produces a fairy which then zooms up and forms a Christmas tree from her trail.
 * Christmas 2002 - A 2 moves left in the screen, and as the camera pans round, we see a snow covered floor. The 2 then makes a snow 2, complete with sticks for arms. This ident was used in conjunction with the Christmas 2001 version.
 * Christmas 2003 - The 2 is trapped in an ice cube that slides around all over the place. This ident was used in conjunction with the Christmas 2001 version and the Christmas 2002 version.
 * Christmas 2004 - The idents from Christmas 2001, 2002, and 2003 were reused.
 * Christmas 2005 - The 2 is formed out of stars with light trails zooming around the screen against a dark yellow/black background. Variations included one of the strs hitting the screen and the trails tying themselves up in knots. No previous idents were used.
 * Christmas 2006 - Last years ident was reused.

Near to the end of the period, special idents were used to introduce special programmes.
 * As part of BBC Two's Pedigree Comedy strand, three new idents featuring the fluffy 2 from 1993 interacting with other dogs were used. The fluffy dog also appeared in promotions.
 * A special ident to introduce The Armstrongs featured a leather style 2 being looked after by the title characters.
 * A series on homes produced 2s in two very distinct living rooms - one was a stately home with huge amounts of decoration with a decorated porcelain 2 on a pedestal, another a drak blue and green nature inspired room, with the 2 as an outline on the wall.
 * For BBC Two's 40th anniversary in 2004, a number of idents were altered so that the logo rotated to display '40 Years'. The Invisible Walls ident was also altered, so that as the 2 passed between the walls, previous BBC Two idents were projected onto the 2.
 * In 2003, BBC Two was made channel of the year. In response,a number of the idents were altered so after a few seconds, the BBC Two logo would rotate to display 'Channel of the Year'.

Another special ident was created in 2002, following the launch of BBC Four. This special variation of Logo involved the 2 rotating the box to display 'BBC Two' as normal, before rotating it again to display the BBC Four black box logo. This was used before the "BBC Four on BBC Two" strand. Another variant included the BBC Three logo for their programming displayed on the channel, however this was rarely used because BBC One repeated a lot of BBC Three's programming.

Criticisms
The new look has been criticised many times by a number of people. The first of these was the fact that there is significantly less choice. At the time of the launch of the last look had 11 launch idents, as compared to four launch idents with the personality 2s. This was especially noticed by the announcers, and the network director apparently complained to anyone who would listen about the lack of choice. In addition to the lack of choice, the yellow background and ivory 2 made the idents look similar, and as a result made them tedious to watch after a little while.

A common criticism of the look was the lack of an appropriate ident to introduce serious programming or news items. The Invisible Walls and Bounce Sombre idents went some way towards this, however the bright yellow colour scheme diminished the effect of any serious outlook it was trying to convey.

Another common criticism of BBC Two itself is that, since the launch of BBC Four, BBC Two has been transferring arts and serious programming to the new channel which some viewers can't receive. This was rectified in the BBC Four on BBC Two strand, and to mark this distinction, a special ident was made.