Prologue
In October 2008, insiders on TV Forum revealed that BBC Two were planning to modify their presentation. As part of a round of tweaks, the Cappuccino, Chase, Tent and Mirror A idents were to be axed.
The new look Sunroof was broadcast at 6am on Wednesday October 1st 2008. The teal box logo had vanished, replaced by a BBC logo positioned in the bottom right corner of the screen. However, during the next junction at 11am the box mysteriously reappeared and remained in use for the rest of the day. To further confuse matters, during the final junction of the day the new look Seascape was broadcast.
Sunroof
Video of the modified Sunroof ident.
The original presentation then remained in use until...
The June 2009 Refresh
Once again, a BBC insider revealed that modified BBC Two presentation would be launching at 6pm on Wednesday 17th June 2009. The BBC Two box survived the refresh this time but it now found itself relocated to the opposite corner of the screen. During the idents, the box logo appears from the start and fades out when the 2 is revealed rather than fading in, the one exception being Mirror where the box continues to fade in mid-way through the ident as it did prior to the alterations. The Chase and Cappuccino idents were withdrawn from use.
A new trailer design accompanies the new look, alongside a series of 5 second stings (or 'blips'). The tweaks proved to be controversial amongst TV pres fans with some claiming that they are the worst pieces of presentation in the channel's history.
Idents
Seascape
At 6pm, Seascape was the first modified ident broadcast, with the box fading out as the waves crash through the 2.
Tent Festival
Tent Festival was next out of the blocks. The video also contains an example of the new trail style.
Zoetrope
The futuristic adventure continues but the Zoetrope is now unbranded.
Sunroof
The new look Sunroof first appeared at 8pm prior to Springwatch Holidays. This ident was also used at closedown on the night of the refresh.
Mirror
A shortened version of the re-edited Mirror was broadcast at 9pm, with the initial three notes of the soundtrack omitted. The long version debuted before Newsnight at 10.30pm.
Tent Polar
The revised Tent Polar was first broadcast on the following day, during the junction that preceded Newsnight. Our clip, however, is from Saturday 20th June, where the ident was seen introducing the late night showing of Risky Business.
Tent Beach
Thanks to the preferential treatment BBC Two directors give to certain idents we had to wait a while before Tent's variations were aired. Tent Beach finally reappeared late on Friday night, prior to highlights of the Twenty20 Cricket World Cup.
Tagging Football
Armed with a 2 template and a can of pink spray paint, a man runs on to a football pitch and graffitis on the football. This ident's use is restricted to prior to Match of the Day 2 only. The fact that Tagging Football survived the refresh when other idents with much higher production values were cast aside says a lot about the current state of BBC Two presentation.
Special Presentation
Electric Proms 2009
Breaking with two years of tradition, BBC Two did not launch a new Electric Proms ident for the 2009 festival, choosing to reuse last year's effort instead.
Stings/Blips
These silent 5 second animations appear between trails.
Trail Style
Arguably the most controversial aspect of the refresh is the new trail endboard design. Note the seemingly random use of upper and lower case and the loud colour scheme. In particular, the bright choice of colour for the Newsnight endboard brought much criticism. Others have commented that the new, wacky trail style bears no relation to the more sombre and conservative channel idents.
Programme Menus
Designs used to advertise an evening of programmes, including a variant specially for comedy thriller series, Psychoville.
Next Pointers
Prior to the refresh, BBC Two had a seemingly endless range of menu designs, each using video clips which did not include scenes from the channel's idents. Unfortunately, the designers of the refresh were apparently unaware of the existence of said clips and instead used footage from the idents beneath an array of wacky colours. So all of those lovely pointer clips were chucked out of the, erm, window.
BBC Two Weather
Get your sunglasses on, it's time for the extremely bright BBC Two weather.
And finally...
If you've been affected by the nauseating nature of BBC Two's rainbow refresh, you may wish to call the BBC Action Line on...
