BBC TWO old programmes, old pres?

Do you have a source for that or is that idle speculation?


I presume the choice of which ident to air comes down to whoever's there at the time. Water is one of the duller ones.

Water has a great soundtrack IMO, but it takes time to develop and, so, needs to be played to an extended length to appreciate it properly (time, which I fully realise they often have a limited amount of), and also a continuity announcer who doesn't insist on dipping the volume level too much either, when they start to speak!

(below is Water, the Reflection variant, but the soundtrack is the same, here clean and in full - and also, imagine how much better it would sound in Stereo):



I hope they don't consider Silk or Diary to be dull, and, therefore, not worthy enough to be shown again. They're both fantastic !

I'd also add that, surely, in anybody's book, Water is not that dull at all - if you compare it with, say, the 1979, 1983 'Daytime' or 1986 idents, all of which are shown occasionally, during Afternoon Classics on BBC2 NI.

I've always liked Water. It mesmerized me as a kid. Was never quite sure what the diagonal line was in front of the two. In the later years, I wouldn't see it for a while and suspect it had been withdrawn, only for it to appear again.

No, but then there's not much variety to choose from with those ones. I don't mean to say that Water is dull, merely duller than its other 90s counterparts.

I agree very much that it scores well on the 'what am I looking at' factor which I feel really made the initial set special.

I like Water, very serene (the Reflection variant has a bit more going on) and therefore a bit set apart from the others.

There are far too many to choose from and they'll have their favourites too.

I always thought it was a ribbon fluttering across the 2. Mind you, these idents disappeared when I was 10, so very much a childhood interest in these - and I did find them interesting. Fascinating visuals.

Yes, a ribbon was what I thought at first too. I was 8 when it first appeared on screen and almost 19 when it went away, so a good part of my childhood and felt like it was around forever.

Paint, Powder, Optics (and Swan, before Vintage Antiques Roadshow at 5:15pm) yesterday on BBC2 NI, the most regular four (Fluffy Dog hasn't been shown for about a week). I am a little puzzled as to why Water, Silk and Diary have not yet made a second appearance by now (especially Water, as it has been over two weeks since it debuted). I do hope these last three will be shown again, along with more BBC2 1991-2001 era idents, in due course.

Doesn't all this vintage pres highlight how poor BBC Two's standard identity is at present? The set wasn't that good when it first launched and consequently now is just so tired. The "window on the world" concept was all well & good but it disassociated the connection the '2 as a character' created to the brand.

They really could give the channel its mojo back & create something of a talking point, all at very little cost, if they started reusing the 1991-2001 idents permanently again alongside a refresh of the of the rest of the channel presentation. It's all there ready-made and waiting to go.

It's been my experience that the general public (i.e. non pres geeks like us) only really notice brilliant pres. Dog came up in conversation in the pub a while back (can't remember in what context) so that era is remembered even now.

Could they bring back the 97-01 idents but just move the green box to the side?

I wonder if these will get used during their 50th celebrations. Especially when NI seems to be having all the fun...

I sent them this request a couple of weeks ago. Fingers crossed, eh.