BBC TWO old programmes, old pres?

Yep, they have a ready-made present day rebrand in the millennium set.

I mostly prefer the darker early idents but there were very few, if any, rubbish idents from that ten, almost eleven, year period. Even Paper Cut Out, probably the least remembered, has a charm to it. The millenium set were great additions; the likes of Wave clearly referenced the earlier designs. I feel they were designed to keep the look going for many more years and it's tragic that they prematurely fell victim to a rebrand.

I don't think any of them from the 1991-2001 era were any less than excellent. Let me say that it is often said that Crystal Ball was a bit of an oddity as it featured only very fleeting glimpses of the 2, but, to me, it's no different than, say, Channel 4's plane scrapyard ident, where the 4 is pretty obscure as well, probably even more obscure IMO.

One thing about them, and I may be alone in thinking this, but I prefer the look, and realism, of the earlier ones, due to the use of real models, as opposed to CG.

No I agree, I think I misunderstood Larry's post as a technical question.


As we're talking about least-remembered idents, surely 'Glass' is a contender from the original set. I particularly remember the woodpecker ident from the later set as it always used to be shown before The Weakest Link for some reason.

Glass didn't last too long but I do just about remember it first hand, unlike either Crystal Ball or Paper Cut Out. I agree with D.Page about the earlier ones using models rather than graphics gave them a different feel and I do think the original set (plus Optics and Powder) were the most atmospheric and best, although some later idents, such as Diary, did well to match them.

Wave (both variants) was an actual model wasn't it? I agree those ones were better. None were particularly elaborate but neither was it obvious what exactly you were looking at (I can't have been the only one to have had an "oh right!" moment when I read online that Paint was literally paint being poured over a 2 with both camera and model rotated 90 degrees, can I?).

also Black and White Copper Cutout, and (possibly) Shadow.

Yes, there's a photo of it being filmed knocking about somewhere...

I also remember two idents was: Neon and Optics.

From the network this afternoon.

Alas, no new ones from the 1991-2001 era today, on BBC2 NI. I wonder why they like to play certain ones from this era very regularly, while others are played relatively seldomly (and a few shown once only, as of yet).

Optics I think is the most frequently played from this era, whereas Water was played a fortnight ago today, but, as of yet, shown the once only. Silk and Diary also only shown, as of yet, once only (though they debuted only seven days ago, admittedly).

They might be moved to the network instead two weeks on Monday.