BBC 2 Idents

Ever since its launch in 1964, BBC2 has tried to be different. Its remit was to widen the choice of programmes meeting the needs of interests not served by BBC Television and ITV. The desire to be different was reflected not only in the programming, but also in the presentation, a theme that still exists today. We therefore present our review of television graphics on BBC2, 1964 to 1998.

This page deals with the launch of BBC2 in 1964, covering the Black and White days until 1967, and the Colour idents and graphics used in the 1970s.

The Eighties saw two basic types of BBC2 image, the orange/white on black computer generated ident and the "TWO" on white ident. This page covers both of these up until 1991.

The launch of the 1991 set of 11 idents completely changed the look of BBC2.

This covers the relatively small number of idents that were introduced after 1991 but cannot be seen on screen today.

Special idents for theme nights and series. We haven't got them all, but I hope that some of these will stir the memory.

Ident sfor specific programmes. It is unusual for specific programmes to get their own long term idents, but there have been a few, which are detailed here.

As well as the regular idents, BBC2 use a large number of short 2 to 5 second animations that appear either within or in between programme trails. Blink and you'll miss them, but hopefully we've captured a lot of them here.

This special page is devoted to a special theme day and night from 1991, entitled "A Perfect Christmas"

We'll end our review with the full set of standard idents in use on BBC2 in 1998. This includes 6 of the original 11, plus a small army of extras that have been added since.

This page will not be updated with further BBC2 idents, but we have teamed up with The TV Room, who will be continuing the good work of cataloguing BBC2 Presentation.

Last Update 29 Mar 2000