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 It was withdrawn from use for a number of weeks last autumn and returned in a slightly modified form: the black background was now a light grey colour and the intensity of the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.
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:
Hopefully someone in London will realise these two idents are still there and they’ll be brought into regular service soon.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC Two Northern Ireland ident: Gripping. SUPPLIED BY: The TV Room. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
