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BBC Two idents: the unwanted pair

Posted on 22nd October 2019 by The Voice Last updated on 22nd March 2021 Filed under Opinion

After many years in the branding wilderness, BBC Two’s Curve idents were a breath of fresh air when they arrived on our screens in September last year.

During their first year, a number of idents seemed to have been sidelined – restricted to infrequent late-night airings. In late-summer 2019, many of the lesser-spotted sequences were being used more often and there was a better mix of idents in the daytime schedule too.

But two idents remain elusive: Gripping and Thought-Provoking – both of which launched last autumn. According to the TV Home website, Gripping has only been aired 10 times to date – its last outing being 14th June 2019.

Thought-Provoking has apparently only clocked up 22 broadcasts and was last spotted in mid-July 2019. It was withdrawn from use for a number of weeks last autumn and returned in a slightly modified form: the black background was now a light grey colour and the intensity of the white stripes was reduced.

Quite why these idents are so neglected by the marketing people in London remains a mystery. Both idents seem to appear a little more frequently on BBC Two Northern Ireland.

VIDEO: BBC Two Northern Ireland ident: Gripping. Announcer: Paul Reid. TX DATE/TIME: 22nd October 2019, 1pm. COPYRIGHT: BBC.

Although perhaps more basic looking than the other idents, Thought-Provoking is still visually captivating, with a nice soundtrack too. This is the modified version of the ident:

VIDEO: BBC Two ident: Thought-Provoking. Announcer: Dean Lydiate. TX DATE/TIME: 13th January 2019, 10pm. COPYRIGHT: BBC.

Hopefully someone in London will realise these two idents are still there and they’ll be brought into regular service soon.

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FEATURE IMAGE:

PICTURED: BBC Two Northern Ireland ident: Gripping. COPYRIGHT: BBC.

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Tags: BBC, BBC Two, Dean Lydiate, On-Screen Presentation, Paul Reid

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