The BBC Two '1991–2001' idents were broadcast from 16 February 1991 until 19 November 2001, and again since 9 July 2014, on BBC Two in the United Kingdom. The idents, which consist of a sans-serif '2', accompanied by the colour viridian, were created by branding agency Lambie-Nairn (and later, BBC Animation & Design), who also created the Channel 4 logo.
Contents
The ident package was retained following the corporate rebrand of the BBC in 1997 with a new logo and new idents commissioned. They were taken out of service in November 2001, and were later revived in July 2014, to commemorate the 50th birthday of BBC Two.
Conception
The newly recruited BBC2 controller, Alan Yentob, noticed that the then-logo for the channel, which featured the word '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 branding was "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 Do They Do That? episode - about the idents.
I realised there was a problem almost as soon as I took over the channel [BBC2]. It was obvious that the logo [TWO] made absolutely no impact. In fact, it was something anyone could have told you. It was singularly unmemorable, and told you nothing about the personality of the channel. So we decided to commission a corporate design company to do some research.
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.
We took this '2', actually, and you think to yourself "Well, there's nothing special about this". But there is something special about this, actually. It's a very distinctive '2'. It has very sharp bits on it and it's rather nice and fat. The reason we wanted that particular '2' is because we wanted to do things with it. So, you need lots of '2', lots of body on the '2' in order to achieve that.
Idents
The idents featured a sans-serif '2' in a variety of different forms and environments usually 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 in 1999, to be replaced with 'Subtitles' following the uptake in digital television and the increased use of the new BBC Text service. A section of the TV programme How Do They Do That? that was broadcast on 15 February 1995 described how the graphics and sound of some of the idents were created.
The clock idents had been changed through years and were mainly used for closedowns and news. The first clock ident was used in February until late 1991, the second was used in late 1991 until October 1997. The clock was edited in October 1997 with the new logo. This was the last BBC TWO logo to use the clock ident.
The new idents commissioned after 1997 placed less emphasis on the use of the colour viridian and the bell/harp music. Later on, as the Internet began to grow, the URL of BBC's website (www.bbc.co.uk) was included in idents on-screen from January 2000. Two of the idents from this set, Predator and Christmas 2000, were put back in use in 2006 but were withdrawn in February 2007 due to a rebrand. From July 2014, due to the 50th birthday of the channel, multiple idents from the series were put back in use. They replaced the main Window on the World package, initially in tandem with the 50th Birthday idents.
Special
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 2001), 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 year's 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. 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'. 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; for instance, a set of snooker balls racked in the '2' shape. Animations were also created to match the theme of a year's Christmas symbol. During the 1995 Christmas period, for example, a set of short animations featuring Wallace and Gromit were used, along with a similarly themed ident.
These 'sting' animations were usually only a few seconds long and, particularly from 22 March 1993 onwards, the '2' would become a character as well as merely a symbol, an idea that was carried on for the BBC Two yellow idents from 2001.
Below is a complete list in short summary of BBC Two Stings.