Long before I found the internet I remember being completely obsessed with MLNs 1991 BBC 2 idents. Started very young, probably four or five years old, so obviously had no real idea what they were but I got so obsessed my grandad used to record them for me, bless his heart. I wasn’t too bothered about the presentation of other channels, although I did briefly develop a similar fascination with Channel 4’s blocks in space.
I also remember being terrified of Test Card F, or more specifically Bubbles. It was a clown thing I think. Couldn’t believe the BBC would transmit something so terrifying!
Fast-forward a few years, I was probably 11 or 12 when I found, after some furious AltaVista-ing, Darren Meldrum’s MHP site. As I’m sure it was for others, it was the rabbit-hole I’d been searching for. I just couldn’t believe there were others who were ‘in to’ this same odd activity. Probably took me another six months to build up the courage to join MHP-Chat where a very kind person (I wish I could remember who) sent me a VHS tape full to bursting with old idents from right across the ITV network, and a load of BBC ones thrown in for good measure. I really, REALLY wish I could find that tape again although I think I lent it out to a friend for his autistic brother who (very young at the time) essentially really just enjoyed colours and shapes, and never got it back. Perfect tape for him really. It was that same friend who I first saw the ‘personality 2’s’ with, sat in his bedroom waiting for the Simpsons to start. Funny how these things stick in your head.
From MHP the next obvious step is to start exploring Transdiffusion, and from there seemingly TV Ark and TV Home, via Sub-TV (whatever happened to that site).
It’s very rare I actually post on here, but I do still read through regularly. I built a pretty poor reputation for myself when I was much younger for terrible mocks and not really adding much to the conversation so I withdrew. It’s strange to think there’s all these names and avatars of people who’s posts I read all the time, and yet I never actually say anything back.
Must say thank you to all of you though, and my biggest thanks to Mr. Meldrum for opening my eyes to this weird and wonderful world. I’m thirty years old now and yet still get a bit of a tingle at the thought of a rebrand!
