BBC Two 50th Year Presentation

Whilst lovely to see, this surely does nothing more than highlight how great these old idents were, and how absolutely dire the current batch is?

It would be great to see some of the later additions (Wave and Catalyst) in broadcast quality, as they got comparatively little airtime first time round and stand up so well aesthetically today.

Strange that they would use Paint Pot without Paint, you would think?

This is wonderful. Thank you, all who are responsible for this.

Could not agree more.

I wonder if there's a retro fault caption ready to go or if they'll just use the standard SeaScape one?

And how they should be brought back permanently.

Shown on BBC TWO NI at 12.20am.

I was going to mention last night's showing of Fluffy Dog, shown before The Men Who Made Us Spend. Didn't manage to catch the junction before, leading into Dragons' Den - hope I didn't miss any more NI ident debuts!

I was about to post almost exactly the same thing. BBC Two used to have an "identity" separate to the idents themselves. I remember classic viewing and staples of the channel that made it something, the 6pm Simpsons / Star Trek, sci fi nights, comedy nights, and it was good. Now all we get it the same cheap to make daytime stuff, just in the evenings as well.

Looking at tonight's "prime time" for example we find

Hairy Bikers (repeat)
Natural World (repeat)
Antiques Roadshow (repeat)
Eggheads (repeat)
Flog It
Antiques Road Trip
Hive Alive
Coast
Sarah Millican (repeat)
This World (repeat)
A Cabbie Abroad (repeat)

So in 9 hours of output there are only 4 new programmes and these I could easily see on BBC One, and nothing marks them out "as BBC Two shows" if you get my meaning with that.

Now comedy nights, and even 50th birthdays seem to last for months and months and this causes them to lose their uniqueness in the schedule and things get lost amongst regular and repeat programming.

The presentation is I would say as dull as " T W O " was and whilst it's nice enough, it's just "stuff happening with a hole in a 2" far less dynamic and adaptable to programming as the 1997 set, even the yellow 2's were very restricted in what they could show, be and do.

It's not just the idents and presentation that needs shaking up but the whole programme schedule. Whilst some could say that alot of content you would have seen on BBC Two now finds a home on BBC Three, with that closing I think BBC Two has a good opportunity to become a good channel again; with a mixture of content for all ages and appeals, from documentary to comedy.

tl;dr The 1997 idents to me are thought of so fondly because the channel itself was better back then, better programming and more creativity with its output in content and presentation. Kim Shillinglaw you suck.

It also does not help BBC 3 and 4 has taken alot of its content. so where back to the same old question What its the purpose of BBC two?

I think BBC Two is stronger than it was 5 years or so years ago. Drama and Comedy have improved and it still produces some distinctive documentaries but the good stuff sits uncomfortably alongside a of barrage of middle of the road lifestyle and factual stuff that really belongs on BBC One. Shifting all that to BBC One and folding BBC Four's arts/culture/specialist output back into BBC Two would be far more effective than shutting BBC Three.