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BBC ONE

The original ''BBC Television Service'' launched in November 1936, was taken off the air on the outbreak of war in September 1939, and relaunched in June 1946. As the only public television service in Britain, and initially in the world, there was no need for a station ident in the early days. However, with the imminent arrival of commercial television in Britain, 2 December 1953 saw the arrival of the first ident, nicknamed the "Bat's Wings". This was an elaborate mechanical contraption constructed by Abram Games, which featured a tiny spinning globe in the centre, surrounded by two spinning "eyes", with lightning flashes to either side.

By the early 1960s the Bat's Wings had been superseded by the "BBC tv" logo within a circle, beneath which would appear a map of Britain showing the BBC's broadcast regions.

From 30 September 1963 a globe became the channel's main identification - an emblem which would remain until 2002. In the 1963 incarnation, a continuity announcer would speak over the spinning globe, then the BBC tv caption would appear while the announcement "This is BBC Television" was made. On 20 April 1964 the channel was renamed "BBC1" on the launch of BBC2.

On 15 November 1969 BBC1 started transmitting in colour, and introduced the first version of the "mirror globe" ident (this style was often used within '' Monty Python's Flying Circus ''). The inclusion of the word "colour" in the station ident could be viewed as a subtle reminder to the vast majority of viewers, still watching in black and white, to buy a colour tv set and the much more expensive colour TV licence which financed the BBC! The "mirror globe" ident was revised in 1972 to use a more ornate font. From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s the BBC1 ident comprised various fonts reading "BBC1" below variations on the mirror globe, with a deep blue background as is illustrated by the clock below.

By 1985, computer graphics technology had progressed sufficiently that on 18 February the mechanical mirror globe was retired in favour of the "Computer Originated World" or COW which showed a semi-transparent blue globe with golden continents and gold "BBC1". Between 16 February 1991 and 3 October 1997 an ident nicknamed the "Smoky Globe" developed by the Lambie-Nairn design agency who had first made an impact with Channel 4 's original 1982 ident. The "Smoky Globe" prominently incorporated the number "1" within the globe for the first time, above the BBC's corporate logo – the bold italic letters B B C within three rhomboids, above blue red and green flashes.

On 4 October 1997 the BBC1 globe was dramatically updated when it left the computer to take the form of a hot-air balloon filmed over various landmarks throughout the UK (and occasionally in other countries e.g. over Sydney Harbour during the 2000 Summer Olympics). Over the next two and a half years, no fewer than 59 different variations of the BBC1 balloon ident were produced. From June 2000, BBC Online 's URL was included in all BBC1 and BBC2 idents. A change of management at the BBC however resulted in the "balloon" idents being the shortest-lived of the colour TV era. On 29 March 2002 the BBC1 globe was ditched after 39 years. All BBC TV channels adopted a common style of ident logo - the channel's name in words, i.e. ONE, beneath the new BBC corporate logo, with a seperate background colour for each channel – red in the case of "BBC One". The logo now appears in the lower left of a number of short films collectively entitled "Rhythm & Movement".

  Image:BBC-one-1962jpgThe BBC Television Map In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1962" class="copylinks">1962
  Image:BBC-globe1963jpgThe BBC Television Globe From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1963" class="copylinks">1963 (mockup)
  Image:BBC-one1969jpgBBC One Once It Became In Colour In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1969" class="copylinks">1969
  Image:BBC-oneclock1981jpgThe Clock Used On BBC One Before News Programmes In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1981" class="copylinks">1981
  Image:BBC-one-1985jpgA Computer Generated Globe, Started In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1985" class="copylinks">1985 , known as the 'Computer Originated World' (COW)
  Image:BBC-one1991jpgA BBC One Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1991" class="copylinks">1991 , created by the '''Lambie-Nairn''' design agency and nicknamed the 'Smoky Globe'
  Image:BBC-one-1997-gatesheadjpgOne Of The "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/BBC_One_Balloon_Idents" class="copylinks">BBC One Balloon Idents , this showing a football game in Gateshead
  Image:BBConeskatejpgOne Of The "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/BBC_'Rhythm_&_Movement'_idents" class="copylinks">BBC 'Rhythm & Movement' Idents , started in 2002 - this showing skaters in a dockyard
  Image:BBC-two1964jpgThe BBC Two Ident From The Channel's Launch In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1964" class="copylinks">1964
  Image:BBC2 Colour Logo 1967jpgThe BBC Two In Colour Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1967" class="copylinks">1967
  Image:BBC-two-1974jpgThe BBC Two Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1974" class="copylinks">1974
  Image:BBC2 Logo 1979jpgThe BBC Two Ident Used From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1979" class="copylinks">1979 until '''1986'''
  Image:BBC-two-1986jpgThe 2 Style Was Replaced In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1986" class="copylinks">1986 with the word Two as part of an initiative to make the channel more stylish and "high brow"
  Image:BBC-twopaintjpgFrom "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1991" class="copylinks">1991 until 2001 there were many idents such as the Paint ident shown - the first and last of the set to be shown
  Image:BBC2widentjpgDuring The Evening, BBC Two On Digital Terrestrial TV In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Wales" class="copylinks">Wales has an entirely different style with no moving 2s, instead there are two boxes or "2W" branded clips
  Image:BBCthreeblobsjpgThe BBC Three "blobs" Created By "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Aardman_Animations" class="copylinks">Aardman Animations and used since the channel's launch in 2003
  Image:BBCfourimprovisedident2002jpgOne Of The Idents From The Channel's Launch In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/2002" class="copylinks">2002 , created to improvise their appearance based on the backing music or programme announcers voice
  Image:BBCfourpoolident2005jpgThe Pool Ident, One Of Four New Idents Introduced In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/September" class="copylinks">September 2005
  Image:BBCnews24ident1997jpgThe Flags Ident, Used From The Channel's Launch Until "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1999" class="copylinks">1999
  Image:BBCnews24ident1999jpgThe Major Relaunch In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1999" class="copylinks">1999 to bring all of the BBC's News programmes in line with a cream and red theme
  Image:BBCparliamentident1998jpgThe Original BBC Parliament Ident Used From The Channel's Relaunch As A BBC Channel In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1998" class="copylinks">1998
  Image:BBC Parliament IdentjpgThe BBC Parliament Ident, Used Since "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/2002" class="copylinks">2002
  Image:CBBC1988identjpgThe Children's BBC Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1988" class="copylinks">1988 when CBBC was Children's BBC
  Image:CBBC1994identjpgThe Children's BBC Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1994" class="copylinks">1994
  Image:CBBCident1996jpgThe Children's BBC Ident From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1996" class="copylinks">1996 with a brighter colour change
  Image:CBBCfrogPNGA CBBC Ident When It Was Rebranded In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/1997" class="copylinks">1997 to be in keeping with the new BBC corporate image
  Image:CBBC-xmas-identjpgA "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Christmas" class="copylinks">Christmas CBBC ident
  Image:CBBC2001identjpgA CBBC Bumper From "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/2001" class="copylinks">2001 incorporating four idents at a time
  Image:CBBCpngThe "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/CBBC" class="copylinks">CBBC "blob", used since the launch of the CBBC Channel in 2002
  Image:CBBCident2005jpgThe Recreated CBBC Ident, Launched In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/2005" class="copylinks">2005
  Image:CBeebiespngThe Ident, Used Since The Channel's Launch In "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/2002" class="copylinks">2002