"Let's Just See That Again"

April Fool's Day - that pointless 12-hour period at the start of April, when people and media outlets come up with unfunny, easy-to-spot "jokes", "pranks" and fake stories, then have an embarrassing tantrum when nobody falls for it.

Alright, so it's obvious that most of the silly/outrageous stuff you encounter on April 1st is going to be an April Fool's "gag", but the lack of creativity often seen makes it extremely dull and annoying (as does the way some people react if their prank dies on its arse).

Very few April Fool's Day pranks have made me smile and only two have made me laugh. One was in Doctor Who Magazine a few years ago and involved a person by the name of Augustus J Honeybun and the article made some references to the South West of England. For those of you who don't know, Augustus J Honeybun was the full name for Gus Honeybun - the Children's Birthday mascot for ITV's South West companies Westward and TSW. Then again, for most of you reading this, you probably know that...

The other April Fool's incident to make me laugh is actually still doing its job 26 years after it was broadcast.

30 Years on: The Sacred COW

As we saw in the previous post, the 1980s brought about a huge change in TV idents and presentation, as many broadcasters embraced computer graphics, leaving behind cell animation, mechanical models and sometimes, a static caption card, which had been the tried and trusted methods of on-screen branding since transmissions began.

In the 1980s, computer animation was starting to advance to a degree in which it was of a broadcast standard and although it still wasn't cheap, it was possible to produce short, high-quality pieces of animation for a reasonable price.

When Channel 4 burst onto UK screens in 1982, the highly impressive computer-animated idents had to be animated in the USA, as at the time, no computer animation company in the UK had the processing power to produce such smooth-flowing images with believable texture and lighting. Computer animation has always been a rapidly-evolving medium and this was especially true during these early days, as by 1983, the BBC had started work on creating a new ident for BBC 1 - their first computer-generated symbol.

The outcome of their research and hard work finally made it's debut at 7pm on the 18th February 1985 - 30 years ago this week, heralding a new era for the channel in more ways than one...

HTV: Blocking Out

In 1987, HTV, introduced a new presentation package, which retained the 'aerial' logo design, but rendered it in 3D. At the centre of the redesign was a new ident, which used the latest in 3D computer animation techniques and was accompanied by a synth-based jingle. This replaced the original 'aerial' ident, which was a classic, but after roughly 17 years service, was starting to look quite dated...

The original HTV 'aerial' ident. Uploaded by YouTube user "BelfastGav"

The new ident had 3 versions, just like the previous design.

• One with "HTV WALES" branding
• One with "HTV WEST" branding
• And one with just "HTV", for any occasion when both HTV regions shared their output.

HTV Wales' version of the 1987 ident, uploaded by YouTube user "jkmac1973".

As you can probably guess, the only difference with each version are the words

(or lack of) that fly in to join the logo at the end.

At the end of the day, it's quite a nice ident, even if the music isn't as good as the its predecessor. The only thing I have against this ident, is one small flaw in the animation. Actually, it's quite a big flaw. Did you spot it? Watch the video again, then read on...

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...