BBC Two Christmas Idents 2016

I can understand ITV doing this, their Christmas idents aren't really appropriate for the news.

BBC2 Network aired the Christmas 2002 snowman sting, earlier this evening.

... which was essentially the first few seconds of the ident, including the hideously large box.

The ugly teal box also looks fuzzy on BBC TWO HD.

I think a big problem is getting them Widescreen friendly. They were done a long time ago now.

NI are not just announcers they are directors which means they have more control and they have to be multi skilled .... but they weren't able to adjust all of the idents.. some were just unwidescreenable.

It's a true shame for network viewers really but the old idents really do look better on an older TV now.

The stings are great - sadly the ugly box spoils the nostalgia. Still great and nice to watch nonetheless!

I think the glittery box works well with the snow and ice idents.

I'd have been happy with just that one set used. It's nice to have a range but it makes some things look a bit mish mash.

Surely given the style of ITV's idents, they could have easily filmed a sombre Christmas ident such as simple glistening Christmas lights maybe in a town or city centre.

ITV always seem to use a standard identify for the news at Christmas, even before the 2013 rebound they would do the same.

While the NI team have done a stupendous job this Christmas, I do think a slight trick has been missed with regards to the synchronisation of the Swan audio... YouTube link

(Thanks to D.Page for the original video capture).

BBC 2 Alba will appear at the following times:

Saturday 10 December 19.40
Monday 19th December 23.30

Just incase anyone wants to see them.

You have, indeed, made an improvement to the synchronization of the audio, to better match what appears on screen, but I cannot criticize the team in Belfast (and I'm not implying that you are), who have, this Christmas, locally given us (putting aside, for a moment, the lack of original soundtracks) the 1992, 1994, 1996, 1979 and 1984 Christmas idents, not to mention more related Christmas stings than Network and the other Nations put together.

A few days ago, I put forward a suggestion that it would be really great if a second version of the BBC2 NI 1994 Christmas ident be made (for NI's final junction before outing out each evening) which actually runs backwards, so that, when the sequence approaches the end, the 2 goes almost pitch black and the area inside the netting goes extremely shady. It would visually signify a winding down of NI's output for the evening, nostalgically harking back to the days of closedown. I can visualize this working extremely well, especially if played out with clean audio. The overall length would need to be shortened so that there would be time each evening, without exception, for it to be played in full. I would suggest maybe 15"-20", along with a hold at the end frame, so that if it should it be played beyond the designated length, there's no chance of the BBC Blocks appearing! Ideally, it would work best if played right up to just a second or so into the hold.

Something like this:



I suppose, if one thinks about these things for any length of time, you can always improve on the pres, but they are, no doubt, having to almost frantically run around trying to keep their heads above water with the stuff they need to do at Christmas as it is.

I cannot criticize them. I am very grateful to NI for pulling out as many stops as they do.