BBC One Circle idents

The BBC One 'Circle' idents are a set of on-screen channel identities that debuted on BBC One at 9:58am BST on 7 October 2006. They also feature on the BBC Worldwide channel, BBC America. The idents contain images of circles being formed by nature, or people and their actions.

Launch
The Circles ident package was announced on the 26 September 2006 as the replacement for the 'Rhythm & Movement' idents that had been in use since Easter 2002. The previous idents were disliked by a large amount of the population, and when BBC One channel controller changed to Peter Fincham, he hinted in August 2005 that the dancers would be changed soon. He announced at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that "It may well be that the time is coming to look at a new way of doing it. No date or direct decision has been made but it's under review".

The new idents would come into force alongside a revised schedule for the channel. The idents themselves were designed and produced for the BBC by Red Bee Media and marking the end of Lambie-Nairn's time at the BBC after fifteen years. Imran Hanif composed the original music for all idents, having been selected from a shortlist of 12 composers and bands.

Components of look
All the idents revolve around a circular theme and all feature a scene which is revealed to end in a circle formation. The circle symbol was decided upon as a 'symbol of togetherness', but also a 'nod' towards the channel's heritage and in particular, the old globe logo used for much of its history. The idents would involve people, plants or animals moving, or whose interaction causes a circular shape, which is revealed at the end of the ident. The circle would then be emphasized by white lines and a red eclipse animating around it and revealing the BBC One logo at the end. The new BBC One logo featured a large lower case 'one' in the center of the circle, with a smaller BBC logo to the upper left of the 'one'. The channel uses this logo on its idents and promotions, however uses a box logo, similar to the last look, for promotions where the BBC One logo appears alongside other channels. This boxed logo features the BBC logo above the lower case 'one' in a red box. The box closely relates to the logos of BBC Two and BBC Four.

As with the previous look, no clock ident was used, a trend repeated across nearly all other channels in the UK, however the Capes, Helicopter, and Kites idents may also be used for introduction into the news, following criticisms in the previous look that the dancers didn't have an ident suitable for this purpose.

Promotion style features the BBC One logo appear at the bottom of the screen, before switching to the centre of a shaded red end-board, with the logo appearing in the centre. Static slides, now very much a rarely seen occurrence, feature the image as a cut out eclipse in the right hand side of the screen.

In July 2008, the Kites, Moon, and Windows idents were dropped, but the Kites ident returned on 2 May 2009.

The idents were altered on 2 May 2009, when most idents were shortened to make the BBC One logo form up animation appear quicker. They also received new music, with the exception of Generic, Hippos, and Surfers. The original idents still air occasionally, albeit the edited soundtrack and quicker logo formation. On 7 October 2012, the idents had their 6th anniversary.

Special Idents
In addition to the usual set of idents used throughout the year, numerous other idents have been added for special occasions, both nationally and in the nations and regions. Some of these are included below.


 * Snowball - Christmas 2006 and 2007 - A community coming together to build a giant snowball. Filmed using various sized polystyrene snowballs, the largest of which was 6 m high. The ident first aired on Saturday 16 December at around 18:00, finishing on New Year's Day after BBC Breakfast when the original idents were restored. This ident was revived for Christmas 2007 to run alongside the Penguins which also debuted on Saturday 15 December, and was last shown introducing 'Weatherview' on New Year's Eve 2007 around 02:00.


 * Penguins - Christmas 2007 - Filmed at an ice-rink in Romford, 3D animated penguins skate round the decorated ice rink alongside normal skaters. The ident first aired on Saturday 15 December at 18:10, and was last seen before linking into BBC News 24 on New Years Day at 02:25. The ident was re-introduced in February 2008 as a regular ident.


 * Wallace and Gromit's Runaway Sled - Christmas 2008 - Wallace and Gromit were the subject of the Christmas ident this year, due to their new adventure A Matter of Loaf and Death forming a part of the schedules. Gromit is seen pushing Wallace up a hill on a sled before Wallace slides down the other side of the hill and lands head deep in snow. Gromit then takes his place, performing tricks on the sled as it slides round the circular indented hill containing the BBC One logo. Written by Rachel Webb and James Spence and created by Aardman Animations using stop frame animation, there are different versions of the ident: in one version, Wallace can be heard talking, whereas he is silent in another. A news version was also made which cut straight to the circle in view and did not feature the characters. The ident was last aired at 2:00 a.m. on 2 January 2009.


 * Doctor Who - Christmas 2009 - David Tennant, as the Doctor from Doctor Who, is the theme this year to mark the Doctor Who episode "The End of Time", which would be Tennant's last appearance as the Doctor. The ident sees the Doctor walking through a snowy forest, and using a herd of reindeer to pull his TARDIS free from the snow and to use it as a sleigh. A news ident was also created featuring a darker sky, sombre music and all traces of Doctor Who removed. The ident package first aired on 12 December at 18:45 and was last aired in the early morning of the 2 January. However, the ident featuring the Doctor was withdrawn early at 6:45 p.m. on 1 January when the second part of The End of Time was broadcast, introduced by David Tennant himself. From that moment, David Tennant was no longer the Doctor, and the idents outdated, and so the news ident was used for the remainder of the evening.


 * Christmas Lights - Christmas 2010 - An ident showing people enjoying Christmas on the streets and turning on Christmas lights on the houses in a circular cul-de-sac. Variations featuring different starting films were used, as was a news version which went straight into the circular ending. This ident was last seen in the early hours of New Years Day introducing the BBC News Channel.


 * Consider Yourself One Of Us - Christmas 2011 - The ident featured many celebrities who would be featuring in programmes on the channel that Christmas including: Sir Bruce Forsyth, Michael McIntyre, David Jason, Brendan O'Carroll, Frank Skinner, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, a Cyberman, Graham Norton and The Outnumbered kids (Tyger Drew-Honey, Daniel Roche, Ramona Marquez) in a homefront setting with a crackling fire and a chorus of "Consider Yourself" from Broadway Musical Oliver. After all the celebrities have appeared they all stand in a circle while the backdrop disappears to reveal a snowy landscape and Carol Singers and sledgers gather around them and join in the song and look up into the sky as the BBC One logo forms. The circle is blurred out and large snowflakes start to fall from the sky. In addition to this, other idents were used for the 2011 Christmas period: the news version just featured the blurred out circle and instrumental music, other variations featured shortened clips for the appropriate programme, one version focuses on a cake to make the circle. A different version entirely featured The Gruffalo as the and ended on a cake to make the circle. An entirely different version was made to promote The Gruffalo's Child''. It involved The Gruffalo sliding down a snowy hill with his daughter on his back and crashing into the snow at the bottom, making a hole where the BBC One logo appears while The Gruffalo plays with his daughter on the right hand side. All idents contained the same instrumental music used in the main ident, with the exception of the news idents on Northern Ireland which just featured snowflake sound effects. The ident package originally debuted as a trailer 30 November after programmes until the ident was first shown on Saturday 10 December. The ident is currently the longest in ident history as the actual feature runs for 1:15 before the logo appears. It was last used on New Years Day 2012 before the original idents were restored at 7:00 that evening.


 * It's Showtime - Christmas 2012- Glitter forms patterns on a red theatre curtain. There were variations in which a Christmas tree and a snowflake were formed respectively. Additions included A mute snowflake ident was used before the news, a New Year ident featuring fireworks, and idents featuring characters from the Christmas schedule. First seen at 17:30 on 11th December 2012 and last seen at 2:00 on 2nd January 2013.


 * Daffodils - 1 March 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 - A special Saint David's Day ident used on BBC One Wales only. The ident used the 'Moon' ident music from 2007 to 2009; from 2010 onwards this was replaced by the edited 'Roses' ident music, which is an adaptation of Imran Hanif's original composition and definitive three note signature counter tune that has graced all the circle idents since 2006.


 * BBC Won Wales - February 2008 - Ident seen on BBC One Wales to celebrate Wales' win over England in the 2008 Six Nations Championship. The ident uses the 'Bike' ident music and reads 'BBC Won' instead of 'BBC One'.


 * Robert Burns - 25 January 2009 - Shown to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, this ident features two mice circling on an untidy heap of manuscripts, in reference to a poem by Burns, To a Mouse. Seen on BBC One Scotland only.


 * Ashes to Ashes - April to July 2009 & 2010 - Used to promote the second and third series of Ashes to Ashes, it featured the characters of the programme seated in an Audi Quattro set in 1982. It premiered on 11 April 2009 and was directed by Tim Pope and conceived by James Spence and Joe Lee.


 * Glitterballs - November to December 2009 - Ident promoting and shown directly before Strictly Come Dancing. In this ident, the circle is centred around a glitter ball and uses a variation of the show's theme music as the ident's background music. First shown on 7 November and not seen after 12 December 2009.


 * EastEnders - February to September 2010 - Ident promoting EastEnders' 25th anniversary, it features the regular cast members looking in amazement as the Albert Square turns into Albert Circle. Written and Directed by James Spence, it was first aired on Monday 15 February on the 25th Anniversary week, and continued to air at the start of most of the programmes to celebrate the 25th Anniversary year. This ident was last aired on the 10th of September following set changes as part of a story arc, namely the fire at the Queen Vic pub.


 * House of Fun - Ident promoting the new Saturday night schedule consisting of Over The Rainbow, Doctor Who and Total Wipeout. Features cartoon versions of Graham Norton, Charlotte Church, the Eleventh Doctor and Richard Hammond representing each programme respectively. Created by Aardman Animations and launched on 24 April 2010.

In addition to the idents above, some modifications were made to existing idents to promote other programmes. A chameleon, which caught and ate a fairy, was added to the Forest ident to promote Life in Cold Blood in February 2008; and to promote the BBC One Wales series Rolf on Welsh Art, the Forest ident was again modified to have a paint like appearance. In addition to this, red noses were added to some of the hippos in the Hippos ident for Comic Relief programmes in 2007 and 2009, and an animated Pudsey Bear was added to the Ring-a-Roses ident for the BBC Children In Need appeal for 2010.
 * Wild Week - Ident seen only on BBC One Northern Ireland. A duck is the centre of the ident. Launched for the Wild Week Live season and is now a regular NI ident.


 * Planet Dinosaur - Ident launched to promote the new Planet Dinosaur documentary series. The ident uses an edited clip from the programme; a dinosaur is seen eating plants, whilst the camera zooms in on a predator whose eye the logo forms around. Used between September 11th and October 19 2011, which was the series original run.


 * Frozen Planet - An ident used to introduce and promote the Frozen Planet documentary series. A group of penguins are seen. The logo forms around the sun.


 * Planet Earth Live - An ident used to introduce and promote the Planet Earth Live. Similar to Frozen Planet, the earth is seen, before the camera zooms in, to reveal a desert with birds and elephants.


 * St David's Day 2012 - Shadows of people walking towards the sunset are shown. Only seen 1 March 2012 on BBC One Wales, in rotation with the Daffordialls ident. The soundtrack is the original unedited music from Forest.


 * Africa - Ident to promote the new documentary series Africa. The BBC One logo appears on top of an African night sky, and separately on a flock of flamingoes.


 * Love 2013 - The BBC One logo gives way to a rippling background upon which is written 'LOVE 2013'. Used between 5th and 27th January 2013.


 * Love Spring - In a similar fashion to Love 2013, the BBC One logo gives way to a rippling yellow background of flowers and plants, on which is written LOVE SPRING.

BBC America
The idents are also used on BBC America, the BBC's outlet in the United States. The BBC America versions of the idents feature the words 'One World' in the same font and position as the 'One' in the BBC One logo, before animating into their two line BBC America logo. These idents were cut down compared to the original British versions, however they retained their original soundtrack when the British versions were changed in May 2009.