Still no idea why generic BBC branding at the time had to be so bloody sinister.
Isn't that just because of the one time it was seen on air? Without that it's a perfectly nice bit of branding
I meant anything that wasn't some kind of subsidiary with its own brand. The idents on BBC1 and BBC2 were lovely, but when the BBC logo was alone, like on the BBC Video ident, it was inexplicably morbid.
That whole era of BBC pres from 1991 to 1997 was so classy. I imagine it looks hopelessly stuffy compared to contemporary design but I can't help but admire it.
Yep. Always really loved the way the way on those slides across the channels there'd be elements of the bar on the left that would intergrate with the rest of the design and others that would be seperate.
Yep. Always really loved the way the way on those slides across the channels there'd be elements of the bar on the left that would intergrate with the rest of the design and others that would be seperate.
I always thought it was a shame when BBC2 adopted a permanent black bar on the left of the screen after a year or two, whilst BBC1 had just as many versions as BBC2 originally. The only time they broke with with the black bar was at Christmas.
If Thames were networking this film, it would've been interesting to see if other regions rejoined it on time, after the ad break, or if they too had to wait for Thames to get things sorted.
When a region, like London (as both Thames and LWT) were networking something, should something serious have gone wrong, like a power cut, could another region, with a spare copy of what was being networked, carry on, where possible, from the point the failure happened?
If you were networking a film the parts would start at the previously agreed time, there would be no delay in starting a part due to local operational difficulties. If you were only part networking a film to just a couple of companies then you might ask if they would go along with a delay ( we’re dealing with reasonable people here) but if not then it would just go to the schedule. Companies did not routinely have backup copies in case of failure.
If the "local operational difficulty" was Thames losing power or evacuating, would each company put out their own filler or would (say) Central step in and play out a filler to the network? I guess the practicality is that BT would need to establish circuits which would take some time.
I don't know if this correctly phrased but how dependent were the regions to London could say YTV have stepped in to provide a local emergency service?
The regions could certainly do their own thing. There was a concept called the Nominated Contractor which was usually the London station on air on the particular day, who coordinated timings for network programmes etc. To save BT switching fees for some sequences other companies fed their programmes via Thames/LWT. ATV/Central were reputed to be the backup Nominated Contractor should the London station be unable to do it (eg through strikes, disaster).
In the "good old days", the fact that every station on the network took Coronation Street at 7.30 on a Wednesday night was by agreement. If Border decided they didn't want to show it that was entirely their perogative.
Back in those days, of the London weekday/weekend split, should say LWT have been unable to transmit, could they have dashed up to Euston Road, and used Thames facilities? Obviously, Thames, at weekends, wasn't "dark", they were still making programmes, just not broadcasting.
