The BBC Two Personality idents were a set of idents used on BBC Two from 19 November 2001 until 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 white '2' in a yellow environment and performing a variety of tasks, and a purple boxed BBC Two logo.
Contents
Conception
Since 1997, BBC Two was beginning to change its 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 re-brand was needed, and one that would equal the popularity gained by their predecessors and be light-hearted in face of this new programming. This 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.
At the same time, the BBC Two programme controller changed and the BBC Two channel was directed differently; it wanted to broaden its audience, it wanted to be much lighter and so the identity we had produced for it before became completely wrong. It was based in the art world, if you like, and so we made the 2 into a character.
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 putting the logo in a box, with the BBC stacked on top of the TWO.
After this was running for about four or five years, we then had some new programme controllers come in, and they were not at all sympathetic of having the system 'BBC' and then their brand after, same as their colleagues next door. They wanted a logo like proper television channels and proper companies ... we were then called back in, and they said we want a logo. They quite simply said you do it or we get someone else to do it. So I said I would do it, in case someone does something horrid, and so I just put them in a box.
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 which was removed on 1 January 2005.
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:
Near to the end of the period, special idents were used to introduce special programmes.
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. The only known time this was used, was to introduce a simulcast of the first two hours of the launch.
Criticisms
The package has been largely criticised. The first of this 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 this, the similarities in style between each ident resulted in them becoming monotonous over time.
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 rectifying 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, following the launch of BBC Four, BBC Two had been transferring arts and serious programming to the new channel which some viewers couldn't receive. This was rectified in the BBC Four on BBC Two strand, and to mark this distinction, a special ident was made. This problem was eventually solved completely with the advent of digital switchover.