I don't think Swan is suitable for heavy use. It looses its impact, which is "ah, a swan and cute little baby 2s". The more abstract ones, like Copper and Powder are more resilient in this respect.
Swan into the Lyce Doucet documentary wasn't the best choice - the music is a bit too jolly to go into such a serious programme. Something like Diary or Steam would have been better in my opinion.
I remember kebab being used often enough even by Glasgow for a number of jcts, mainly comedy one for some unknown reason ?
Presumably because the kebab seems like the sort of thing that is part of a lads night out, and that's who they saw the target audience for the comedy were.
Nice to see Network slowly adding to the mix. I've definitely seen Swan the most and Kebab will probably be shown just as rarely as it was first time around, I think there's one version of it that I only ever saw once!
I wonder if some of them were shot in a format that would allow a HD transfer - I guess it would rely on being able to source the originals, were RedBee/Lambie Nairn every likely to have kept the raw footage after the finished product?
The pre-1997 idents were definitely cropped and zoomed, very cleverly really. The most noticeable if you pause them side by side is the 4:3 and 16:9 versions of Fluffy Dog. You can tell by the shadow that it's been stretched on the edges.
With regards to HD transfers, Lambie Nairn have uploaded a number of the old idents onto YouTube - including rare ones like the crystal ball ident. I recall reading a comment from Lambie Nairn themselves on one of the idents that a lot of the requests would mean having to go back to the old archive, so I think it's safe to assume they still have them.
Whether it would be worth the effort to do that for idents which are apparently only going to be shown until the end of the year is another question though.
You're absolutely right Asa, Steam is definitely zoomed as that overlay proves. Doing the same it looks like Diary may have been too - they were produced at the same time I believe?
You're absolutely right Asa, Steam is definitely zoomed as that overlay proves. Doing the same it looks like Diary may have been too - they were produced at the same time I believe?
I think they both came out around 1995/6. They were both covered in the How Do They Do That feature so I'd figure they were made around the same time.
I hope that these retro BBC2 idents do indeed stay on screen into next year too, not end like everyone says they will - they certainly make BBC2 stand out again from the crowd and they have not lost their charm at all.
:-(
A former member
Just a shame, most of their programming is aload of crap.
DP
D.Page
original 1997 Copper Cutout:
recently used Copper Cutout:
I know Copper Cutout is not an ident being used for the 50th anniversary (not yet anyway!), and I don't know if this has been mentioned before somewhere, but while the subject of framing is currently being discussed, why does the recently used Copper Cutout ident not remain faithful to the original widescreen version?
(Apologies for the poor quality images used here).
