BBC News 1985 Rebrand

I've got a few questions about the 1985 rebrand for the Six and Nine O'Clock News programmes, and the 1986 (?) relaunch of the News After Noon as the One O'Clock News. I'd appreciate whatever detailed info anyone with a good historical knowledge of this can provide. Thanks in advance!

Firstly:
(1) With the Chinese latern look only four years old, why did the BBC decide to rebrand its news programmes? Was the network ident refresh in 1985 the prime motivator?

(2) After deciding to rebrand, why did BBC News scrap the uniformity of their 1981 corporate news branding? Was there a decision to differentiate between the three bulletins to the extent that they would be seen as very different? And, by extension, were presenters assigned to work on only one bulletin? And if so, why?

(3) Why were the titles for the Nine allowed to be so very over the top? The 1980s rock music and cheesy computer graphics are really quite showy without really having much to do with BBC tradition or identity. (With the only exception that the font looked a lot like the one used circa 1972-1976.)

(4) I know that the titles for the 1, 6 and 9 were clearly different and the formats relatively different, but were editorial decisions also made in segregation?

(5) Why was the Nine rebranded again in 1988, after only three years, and the One and Six allowed to retain their mid-1980s titles well into the following decade? Don't get me wrong, I think the 1988-1993 titles for the Nine are really good, but I don't understand why that programme itself (and the generic BBC News titles) required an image update and the others didn't. What was that decision based on?

To answer 5, it is my understanding that the BBC wanted to refresh the nine as it was performing poorly against news at ten. The other bulletins were doing OK, so they weren't refreshed.

But others may correct me on this.

But ITN also refreshed the News at Ten in 1988. Was it a graphic artist's version of "tit for tat" ?

And if it was, why didn't the BBC refresh other bulletins? ITN certainly did during this period.

Not sure of the exact reasons - but although I love the "flying fish finger" titles used on the last double-headed Nine - I think they were seen as a bit ridiculous (especially as they kind of overemphasised the size of the UK in the map!) The rebrand also allowed them to move to single-headed presentation - which has stayed the case to this day (apart from the introduction of a sport presenter - which happened with the move to Ten ISTR?)

Very good point. Seems strange that corporate branding was completely forgotten during this period when it existed before and after.

Perhaps it was because the 1, 6 and 10 were seen as individual programmes in their own right (remember the 6 was replacing a news bulletin & Nationwide) rather than just news bulletins of the chinese lantern era.

Just a couple of points... The 'Chinese lantern' look wasn't altogether abandoned with the mid 80s revamp of the 1, 6 and 9. It actually continued (albeit with the pink background changed to blue) for weekend and Bank Holiday bulletins.

Also, just to pick Moz up on one point, Sixty Minutes was actually the replacement for Nationwide, but it wasn't popular, and so the 6 then replaced 60 Minutes. Sorry to be a nit-pick!

I thought (and still do) that the theme and titles were one of the best I have seen from BBC news.

"So very over the top"?

Nah.

I do too. Fabulous laser beams shooting off into space with laser sounds 'n' drums... classic. Even today that idea could still be used, say with the lasers coming from all around the world as it spins.

Fish fingers forever!

It's very easy to knock something that's almost twenty years old when styles have changed so much.

I remember when it first came on screen it really made you go 'wow'. For computer animation at the time it was very advanced and impressive. It's a bit like laughing at silly fashions from the past - at the time they don't seem silly!

Could news moving from Lime Grove to TC have been a factor in the changes? Just a guess, I don't know when it moved