BBC1: Magical Things - Idents & Continuity (2006)

This selection of BBC1 idents and continuity slides is taken from the branding package created by Red Bee Media* which first began airning in October 2006.

It is based around the notion that 'magical things happen when people come together', with the circle element that runs throughout, representing 'togetherness' whilst at the same time, hinting at the channels previous idents (most of which incorporated a globe of some kind).

In addition to the circle, other key elements of the imaging include the BBC corporate logo, the channels official colour (red), musical motifs composed by Imran Hanif and the word 'one' rendered in a bespoke font commissioned by the channel from Fontsmith .

Recently, the main idents have been re-edited so the circle resolve appears much earlier in the sequence (about 2 seconds in) and remains on-screen for the duration of the ident. Although the intention may have been to help reinforce the overall BBC1 brand, it has resulted in less variety and more repetitiveness within each ident, and lacks the depth and interest of the originals. The channel does still occasionally broadcast the full-length versions, and 2 are included in this selection, which runs in the following order.

Helicopter (2008)
Mission Control (2007)
Football (2006)
Cyclists (2008)
Kites (2006)
Lawn Circles (2007)
Dog Display (2008)
Surfers - FULL (2006)
Hippos (2006)
Ring-a-Roses (2006)
Magical Forest - FULL (2007)
Wallace & Gromit (2008) *
Neon (2007)
Ashes to Ashes (2009)
Bikes (2006)

For the most part, the play-out of idents is generated at random, but specific ones are often selected ahead of certain programmes, such as the football ident which precedes 'Match of the Day' and the neon ident used almost exclusively during Saturday night prime-time. There are also occasional examples of specific idents being chosen on a more one-off basis, such as the surfer ident used to lead in to the movie 'Point Break'.

The lack of access to clean idents (without voiceovers) means I have had to overlay the original audio with a separate music track, which seems to work quite well against some of the idents, but less so on others.

With the exception of the 'Wallace and Gromit' Christmas 2008 ident, created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations.