Oops!: Eastenders (TX: 1/1/15)

CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN EASTENDERS FROM 1/1/15!

As we all know, celebrations and death/disaster go hand-in-hand in Albert Square - the setting of Eastenders - and 2015 has already lived up to the show's reputation. Whereas the 10th Doctor once pointed out that "This'll be the best Christmas Walford has ever had" is usually a good indication of misery under the Mistletoe, the residents of the fictional East London borough had hardly had a chance to say 'Happy New Year' to each other, before a sabotaged car hit somebody, flipped over, crashed through the Square's famous railings and then caught fire!

"When I said 'let's start 2015 with a bang', that's not what I meant. Dial 999. Again."

Now, the actual crash itself was very well done, considering how small and tightly-packed the exterior set is. Eastenders may be the master of misery as far as soaps go, but to give them their due, they certainly pull out all the stops when a stunt is required. 

If only this attention to detail extended to making sure bits of technical equipment didn't appear on screen. In one of the scenes that followed the stunt, as shocked relatives of those involved in the crash came to blows in The Queen Vic, one of the cameras was accidentally caught in shot...

Total Eclipse With A Heart

To begin this blog, I'm taking you back to 1998, when ITV was still relatively regional, although practically all of the smaller regional companies had already been taken over by either Carlton or Granada.

At this point, each regional company still had its own idents and presentation graphics, as most of the elements that made up the 1989 generic branding had been abandoned (Although Border and Grampian made extensive use of their respective variants throughout the 1990s). Of course, since that package had been launched, some of the regions had changed hands, thanks to the controversial round of franchise renewals in 1991. When the new companies took over their regions in 1993, they weren't provided with any of the idents or graphic elements from the 1989 package, thus, the individual identities of ITV started to return.

By 1998, TV had evolved, with the growth of satellite and cable broadcasting and the launch of Channel 5. Also, digital TV was now on the horizon and as the end of the 20th century was around the corner, ITV wanted to stand out as a strong brand. 

The decision was made, once again to try and implement a uniform look across the regions, together with a complete redesign of the ITV logo. Perhaps it was felt that as most of the regional companies now had the same "parents", there wouldn't be any of the problems encountered in 1989, when some companies refused outright to adopt the branding. The new ITV logo appeared on our screens during the Autumn of 1998. A complete presentation package had actually been designed and was ready to launch with the new logo, but for some reason, the idents originally designed for it never made it to air. The graphics for use at the end of trailers and for menus etc. did air in 1998. So, what had happened? 

In the years since, various clips have surfaced online, showing some of the unused idents and in 2014, the You Tube channel "TVBits" uploaded a 48-minute video containing an almost-complete set of these idents...