BBC Two: Difference between revisions

'''BBC Two''' is the secondary channel of the BBC. The channel was established in response to the 1962 "Pilkington Report" which claimed that ITV programing lacked any cultural relevance and therefore, the UK's third TV service should be run by the BBC. The channel launched on the 20th of April 1964. The launch was infamously plagued by a major power failure in London that night, meaning the first proper program wasn't shown until the following morning. BBC2 was technically ahead of the existing stations in the UK, broadcasting on a higher resolution 625 lines UHF system instead of the standard 405 line VHF system. In July 1967 BBC2 became the first British TV channel to regularly broadcast in color, with the switch coinciding with that year's Wimbledon tournament. BBC2 became known for airing high class programs and dramas, though in more recent years it has aired more mainstream content as BBC Four fills its original role. Notably, the most popular program on the channel for many years was the 2002 reincarnation of ''Top Gear''.

*There is an in-credit version used on ''Match Of The Day'' with the BBC logo extended with the number "2" in a fourth parallelogram.

'''Logo:''' Three dots, colored {{color|green}}, {{color|red}} and {{color|blue}} respectively, appear on a black background. They shrink and merge into one white dot just above the center of the screen. A {{color|blue|blue} "{{color|blue|2}}" is then drawn around the dot, and when it is completed, the word "COLOUR", in white, appears below. The "2" then starts rotating around, and one at a time, three more "2"s (in the same style) appear, colored {{color|red}}, {{color|green}} and white respectively, before the {{color|blue|blue} "{{color|blue|2}}" reappears. The rotation continues for the rest of the logo.

*Accompanying clock ident: Same as before, but the entire thing was chroma-keyed to cyan, and the "2-cube" with the BBC 2 logo and "COLOUR" below it tacked on to the side. This was used from 1967 to 1969. From then, they just used the BBC 1 clock with the BBC 2 branding and colors.

*Circa 1972, the logo underwent considerable change. All the "2"s, plus the dots in them, were colored light blue; the font for "COLOUR" was altered in the same manner as for BBC 1's mirror globe logo of the time; and a white horizontal line was added between the word and the "2"s.

*By 1973, further changes had taken place, with the background color now dark blue and "COLOUR" and the horizontal line in light blue to match the "2"s.

A final change took place during 1974, with the "2"s in bright blue against a navy background, and "COLOUR" and the horizontal line reverting to white. This variant was briefly brought back in 1993 during BBC 2's 70's season and again in between 2012 and 2016.

**Christmas 1972: The same "2-cube" is seen rotating in the screen. Separated by a line, the text "CHRISTMAS in colour" is seen below, and the sides are covered with several stars. Unknown how it was colored.

**Christmas 1973: A variant of the logo lacking the large dot from the "2", with stars comming from inside the cube and a caption that stated the day ("Christmas Eve", "Christmas Day" or "Boxing Day") underneath the 2-cube. Unknown how it was colored.

'''Music/Sounds Variant:''' The 70's season variant used the jingle to the "Silk" ident in the 6th logo package.

*Accompanying clock ident: Much like before, it uses the BBC1 clock at the time, but with the BBC 2 branding and colors.

**Christmas 1976: A shiny and multicolored sequined layout of the striped "2", which constantly moves.

**The logo was remastered in widescreen and HD for BBC Two's 70's season in April 2012. It was also used for Afternoon Classics between October 2013 and December 2016.

*Accompanying clock ident: From April 1979 to February 5th, 1981, it had the standard clock for the time in orange, with a flat and larger version of the BBC 2 logo at the time with longer stripes, and sometimes the 2 in orange. The clock would be replaced with the new digital one in 1980, and the logo was changed to the standard logo, but smaller and longer stripes.

**Christmas 1979: A revolving perspex snowflake rotates over a white version of the logo at the bottom of the screen. The clock was also changed to be white with a green 2.

**Christmas 1980: Similar to last year, a more colorful perspex snowflake rotating above a different Christmas BBC2 caption.

**Christmas 1982: Three green perspex Christmas trees with a hand-drawn, angular "BBC2" caption.

**The logo was remastered in widescreen and HD for BBC Two's 80's season in 2010. For BBC Two Wales, the ident had the word "WALES" under the "2".

'''Music/Sounds Variant:''' "Feuillages" by Joël Fajerman and Yan Yrssen was used when this ident was brought back for BBC2's 80's season, but the Wales variant retained the original jingle. The original jingle itself was also used for 70s season in 2012 and for Afternoon Classics in 2013-2016 and last heard during the junction into White Gold in 2017.

*Accompanying clock ident: The clock has the logo below, and the hours are bars emerging from the background. The hands are in the red/green/blue colors as well.

**Christmas 1989: Three figures seemingly made of wrapping paper move the sections of the "TWO" into position, which themselves seem to be made out of wrapping paper in the logo colours. The end board is accompanied by a synthesized nursery tune and rotating sheep in the background.

**A "TWO" ident recolored blue and red, with occasional powdered colours of blue and red, was used to mark a series of programs on the French Revolution.

**This ident was remastered in HD for BBC Two's 80's season in 2010 alongside the 4th logo. It was also used for Afternoon Classics from 2013-2016.

* From 2015 until September 26, 2018, the 2007 BBC Two box logo from the 8th logo in teal appears on the bottom-right side of the screen (on BBC Two Northern Ireland, the local BBC Two channel for Northern Ireland, instead of using the boxed logo the channel instead opted to take the logo out of its box and place it at the bottom center of the screen, similar to that of the 1991-2001 idents.)

*Water: An aqua-colored '2' is on a teal coloured background, half submerged in a pool of water at a 45 degree angle. Using a similar method toPaint, the '2' and camera are both at 45 degrees, giving the impression of the water flowing diagonally when the shot of the '2' is upright. One of the four original idents to be shown throughout the run of the whole series.

*Blade: A sharp, metal '2' falls onto a viridian-colored block and impales it on its edge, before it begins to wobble from the impact.

*Copper Cut Out: A teal-colored copper cut-out of a '2' on a similarly designed background emits sparks and glows from its edges.

*Glass: A glass-cut '2', which reflected light - with some noticeable viridian color - in various directions.

*Paper Cut Out: On a completely grey, paper-like foreground, a '2' is primarily a 2-shaped cut-out in the middle. The background behind it features a colorful blue sky, with white clouds that move, albeit slowly and subtly.

*B/W Copper Cut Out: Essentially the same asCopper Cut Out, but it was recolored black-and-white with viridian sparks.

*Shadow: The shadow of a '2' on a viridian colored wall slowly rotates as it grows and shrinks in size.

*Optics: We see several optic fibers highlighted in viridian, pink and red, swaying side-to-side, quickly at first, but slowing down to form a "2".

*Aerial: We see a dark green "2" with aerials attached to it in a red studio, appearing in random places between flashes of static, before finally appearing in the center of the screen.

*Excalibur: It features a beveled, metallic, cerulean blue "2" rising from the pool of water sideways, in style of Paint. As the "2" emerges, stray droplets of water, fall back into the way, causing vertical ripples.

*Predator: It begins centered on a '2'-shaped butterfly sitting within a jungle environment. The camera then zooms out, and the '2' is gobbled up by a larger green '2' in the form of a Venus Flytrap.

**One World: The globe is a flat disk which starts the sequence side-on, rotating 90 degrees along its vertical axis, until it faces camera. As this happens, colored powder "blows" on to the disk, finally forming the image on the left. The sequence is obviously the reverse of how it was shot - the powder was blown off the disk as it rotated away from the camera.

**Edinburgh Nights: Two red curtains open up, then an aqua-colored "2" welcomes to the stage and steps in to the spotlight. This ident was used for program during the 1992 Edinburgh Festival.

**New Moon: The "2" is in form of a satellite tower in a shadow. This takes place in the moon. This ident was broadcast in honor of the 25th anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.

**Centenary: A film canister "2" is dropped down from a great height onto a bed of unraveled film reels. This ident was used to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema and film.

**Christmas 1991: A reference to Georges Méliès' ''A Trip to the Moon'', over a night-time cloudy sky, we see a cloud in the center with a star inside. It sprinkles star dust on the BBC logo until the star and the cloud suddenly transforms into a wrapped-up "2" in a quick explosion. A rocket then flies over the "2". A short version of the ident has the star absent and only features sound effects.

'''Logo:''' This revolves around an inanimate "2" as a robot on a yellow background, with the BBC Two box logo now colored purple.

* Formation: Also known as "Acrobats." A 2 gets on what looks like a home-made see-saw. Another 2 lands on the other end of the see-saw, sending the 2 flying! It lands on top of several other 2s on a ball.

'''Logo:''' This logo revolves around a "2", a largely modified version of the one used from 1991-2007, zooming out in form of various places and objects, often as a window looking out onto contrasting scenery. The BBC Two box is also colored teal this time.

*Cappuccino: A paper with a 2 cut out is held over a cup, while chocolate pieces are sprinkled on top. The paper is then removed, so we can see, albeit through the stencil, that there is now a chocolate 2 atop a cappuccino. There were two variants to this ident. The formup is the same, but in one the 2 is disturbed by the drinker dropping in two sugar cubes, and the other by the drinker scooping the froth off of the top. The colour of the chocolate pieces is also different between both versions. Withdrawn in 2009.

*Seascape: A shot of the sea than pans back, through a large 2 shaped hole in the sea defenses, with the sea breaking all around the hole.

'''Logo:''' We see an interactive environment, centering around a simple curve that represents the curve (looks like a curved wave) seen in the middle of a "2". Below appear the boxless version of 2007 BBC Two logo. The logo is now placed at the bottom of the screen instead of the bottom-right corner of the screen, similar to that of the 1991-2001 idents.

*Sharp: Several coloured threads ripping apart, with the 2 curve being seemingly cut into each one as they appear. First aired eariler as promos on the 21 October 2018.

*Thought-Provoking 2: Wooden blocks, furnitures, metallics, walls, glass and stones moving around to form the 2 curve, possibly inspired by the 1994 ''Modern Art Gallery'' sting from the 1991 set. The ding sound is the same as ''Thought-Provoking''. This ident serves as the second installment of Thought-Provoking. First aired 23 November 2019.