BBC Two '1991-2001' idents



BBC Two '1991-2001' idents were broadcast from 16 February 1991 until 19 November 2001 on BBC Two. The idents were created by branding agency Lambie-Nairn (and later, BBC Animation & Design), who also created the Channel 4 logo still used to this day. The idents consist of a sans-serif '2', enlarged in the middle on-screen, accompanied by the colour viridian and synthesized bell music.

The ident package was retained following the corporate rebrand of the BBC in 1997 with a new logo and new idents commissioned.

Conception
The newly recruited BBC2 controller, Alan Yentob, noticed that the then logo for the channel, which featured 'TWO' in red, green and blue within a white background and the 'O' being white, was affecting the reputation of BBC2. Surveys commissioned realised that most viewers thought the new look "dull" and "worthy". He then decided to commission a worthy successor capable of displaying the personality of the channel, revealing his thoughts in the How Did They Do It? episode - about the idents.

The idents were designed by branding expert Martin Lambie-Nairn, and first aired on the same day as the BBC1 virtual globe ident, also designed by Lambie-Nairn as part of a corporate rebrand of both channels.

Idents
The idents featured a sans-serif '2' in a variety of different forms and environments accompanied by an element of the colour viridian and accompanied by a static corporate logo DOG below the '2'. Another DOG often used with the look was a small '888' legend in the top right of the screen. This meant that subtitles were available to accompany the programme on Ceefax page 888. Following the 1997 rebrand, the BBC logo was changed, with the word TWO added after the logo at the bottom of the screen. The '888' legend was also phased out, to be replaced with 'Subtitles' following the uptake in digital television and the increased use of the new BBC Text service. The new idents commissioned after 1997 also placed less emphasis on the use of Viridian and the bell music. Later on, as the Internet also began to increasingly grow, the URL of BBC's website (www.bbc.co.uk) was included in idents on-screen in January 2000.

Special Idents
Since 1974, BBC Two has aired special idents for use at national celebrations such as Christmas. The Christmas idents were changed annually throughout this period (except for 2001 where the channel would have rebranded prior to Christmas of that year), and were seen as a Christmas tradition for BBC's 1 and 2 to produce a new Christmas package on an annual basis (This tradition was broken in 2003 when BBC One reused the previous years ident, and in recent times when the same ident was used alongside BBC Two for 4 Christmases consecutively). In contrast, Halloween and St. Valentine's Day idents were only produced between 1991 and 1997.


 * Christmas 1991 - A wrapped up 2 set against a cloudy night sky with stars and the moon interacting and looking.
 * Christmas 1992 - A red 2 appears as fairy lights on a Christmas tree.
 * Christmas 1993 - A metallic coloured 2 is hoisted up atop a Christmas tree by hobbit like creatures.
 * Christmas 1994 - A large yellow 2 in a dome against a tundra landscape.
 * Christmas 1995 - Wallace and Gromit accompany a 2 covered in fairy lights while sat at Christmas dinner.
 * Christmas 1996 - A wizard walks on clouds in the sky, before spinning and turning into a 2 made of stars.
 * Christmas 1997 - A white 2 in a snowglobe with the faces of BBC Two's Christmas lineup appearing as reflections in the snowglobe.
 * Christmas 1998 - A green fairy moves back to reveal the 2 atop a Christmas tree with surreal white and green colours.
 * Christmas 1999 - A similar theme to last year, and the first ident to feature the bbc.co.uk URL. The 2, complete with wings, knocks the fairy off the tree before taking her place.
 * Christmas 2000 - Two small white 2's skate on top of, and fall off, a huge ice-covered 2. This ident was reused for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

As well as the Holiday idents, many other special idents were produced, mainly to introduce themed nights of programming on the channel, or specific programmes.

Stings
During the run of the idents, there were also quick, usually humorous short animations shown before the trailers known as 'Stings'. Such examples included a 2-shaped pancake landing in a frying pan, a '2' performing stunts on a bicycle, or a set of spinning plates in the form of the '2'. These were sometimes themed to suit a particular event, such as sport coverage. Examples include a set of snooker balls racked in the '2' shape (of which — like some others — there was more than one variant of the scene). Animations were also often created annually to match the theme of that year's Christmas symbol; for example, a set of short animations featuring Wallace and Gromit were used during the 1995 Christmas period along with a similarly themed ident. Blink and you'll miss them.

Today, these 'sting' animations are not remembered as prominently as most of the idents. They were usually only a few seconds long and, particularly from 1997, the '2' would become a character rather than a symbol, an idea that was carried on for the BBC Two yellow idents from 2001.

Below is an incomplete, short summary of some of the stings.

Snooker Ball A 2 is made from snooker balls.First aired 1993.

Crash A rusted 2 is stuck between a group of wheels.First aired 1995.

Mad The 2 is bouncing on the TV.First aired 1999.

Puzzle A puzzle is finished to reveal a 2.First aired 1991.

Ghost A 2 is seen behind a sheet like a ghost.First aired 1991.

Further references

 * The 1991-1997 version of Powder was aired in the titles of the 3rd National Television Awards on 8 October 1997 on ITV1. This was the final broadcast of this version, and it had ceased to exist on BBC Two some days before. It was only a second long clip of the ident.
 * An Internet meme based on making mock-versions of the BBC Two '1991-2001' idents has appeared. Some various mock idents include Blade II, Spin, Transylvania, Starfield, and Water Splash.
 * The B.F.T. titles from Children's BBC in 1991 featured a small recreation of the Blade ident in the opening titles.
 * 'Glass' appeared as part of a spoof BBC Two programme menu sequence in 1994 comedy series The Day Today, which aired shortly after the ident had been removed from regular network use.
 * A British Pizza Hut advert from 1994 parodied the idents greatly. The advert started with the Paint ident. A man appeares, persumably the "painter", and tells the viewer about a new offer at Pizza Hut. This then changes to a family eating in Pizza Hut as a big '2' falls down from nowhere and pierces into the table (a parody of Blade), and the family say "that could take someone's eye out". The advert closes with a version of the Powder ident with the Pizza Hut logo replacing the '2'.
 * The '2' features in the opening titles of BBC Two shows Top of the Pops 2 and BFT2