Our perspective on a broadcast design/marketing project or other subject of interest.
Category: Opinion
Test card and tone – a window into the bleak world of the 70s
Occasionally inconsequential things offer a window into another world and another time. Last year I mentioned how a Sunday morning closedown from 1974 “filled” by black screen was a reminder of how Sundays were not working days.
More to the BBC Select logo than meets the eye?
Revised article published: 20th February 2021. Back in December, the new BBC Select website went live, in advance of the formal launch of the new streaming service. The BBC Select logo included an odd looking version of the BBC blocks …
Fondly remembered BBC TV idents turn 30
It was the day when everything changed but everything stayed the same.
1982 BBC business programme provides useful insights into the launch of Channel 4
A report from BBC Two’s financial series The Money Programme provides a great insight into the launch of Channel 4. It also provides a few nuggets for Pres fans.
Clean BBC One handover to BBC News Channel still the exception
Possibly the untidiest junction on UK TV – and it’s on BBC One: the nightly handover to the BBC News Channel.
UTV or ITV: that is the question
What is the name of the Channel 3 service in Northern Ireland? No, it’s not some banal phone-in question. You might genuinely need to think about it.
Channel 4’s 80s takeover day sees old trailer graphics used as idents
Channel 4’s 80s-themed presentation is a fascinating glimpse of what might have been.
Centralised ITV continuity showing its flaws
The downside of UTV’s move to network continuity was exposed embarrassingly and painfully on Monday night. Political programme The View from Stormont was referred to as “Views from Stormfront”.
The demise of BBC Schools and Colleges branding
The return of a form of schools broadcasting next week has provoked inevitable nostalgia – and not just from pres fans.
Why did STV’s expensive 1985 rebrand fall out of favour so quickly?
This week saw tributes to Martin Lambie-Nairn – the man behind many famous TV graphics. The original Channel 4 blocks, the 1991 BBC Two idents and the BBC One balloon truly deserve the word iconic. But not all of his …