BBC Two 'Computer Generated 2' ident

The Computer Generated 2 was an ident used by BBC Two between c.March 1979 and 31 March 1986. It was the first computer generated ident in the world and was a revolutionary new step for television presentation.

Launch
The ident package was launched at approximately the end of February and the beginning of March 1979, and was completely revolutionary. The ident was aired through a solid state computer device, not unlike the one used later for BBC1's Computer Originated World, built by BBC engineers, and designed by Oliver Elmes. The concept of the double striped '2' had been around for a long time: following the two television channels dropping corporate branding, a similar look was adopted by both channels featuring double striped numbers and BBC letters. The doubled striped '2' had been in use on programme promotions since 1977 and on holding slides since 1978.

Components of Look
The ident itself featured a cream, double striped numeral 2, with two orange lines either side going off screen. The whole ident had the illusion of three dimensions, with orange shadows, all on a black background. The ident would either remain static, scroll in from the left hand side or scroll out to the right. The form up ident was accompanied by an electronic fanfare, which was dropped in 1983. A subtitled programme would be accompanied by the additional caption below the numeral stating 'Ceefax 270' and later following a change of page 'Ceefax 888'.

The clock which accompanied this new look was a huge contrast, as the previous mechanical clock was used. It was located in the BBC Two NODD room and comprised an orange clock face with counters of ever increasing thickness and with a 'polo' mint centre upon a black background. A plain orange and white 2D striped '2' logo was placed below the clock. The use of this old clock was due to the fact that the technology did not exist for an electronic timepiece, and would not until 1980, when an electric timepiece was finally obtained for BBC2. This new electronic clock had no second hand judder and had a changed design, featuring two dashes at the quarter hours and single dashes elsewhere. The polo mint centre was abandoned in favour of a simple centre dot, and the 3D striped '2' logo adorned the bottom of the screen, although it was unanimated.

Promotional style wasn't uniform, but generally featured the striped '2' in the promotion in one form or another, whether at the beginning or appearing on the end slide. Programme slides featured a large white 2 with programme title overlaid the bottom of the image.

A variation of the look was used during the Daytime on 2 strand showing schools programmes, which featured the ident with an orange gradient background. Regional variations of BBC2 featured the region name below the 2.

Special Idents
Some special versions were produced for public celebrations such as Christmas:


 * Christmas 1979 - A revolving perspex snowflake rotates over a white version of the logo at the bottom of the screen.
 * Christmas 1980 - Similar to last year, a more colourful perspex snowflake rotating above a futura BBC2 caption
 * Christmas 1981 - Three red translucent candles spinning around with the caption Christmas 2
 * Christmas 1982 - Three green perspex Christmas trees with a hand-drawn, angular BBC2 caption.
 * Christmas 1983 - Another similar theme to last year. Three metallic Christmas trees spinning against the Christmas 2 caption.
 * Christmas 1984 - A pink ball with the '2' on it remains stationary while a stylised ribbon spelling 'Christmas' rotating around it.
 * Christmas 1985 - A blue tinted Christmas scene rotates around the '2'.