[Robert Williams]

The 2013 'wrapping paper' idents were by far my favourite of the previous decade, and something like that would certainly fit the bill for being more simple and understated, but unfortunately I recall these idents being decried as being boring, with people expecting the wrapping paper to be torn open to reveal something more elaborate underneath.

Though I did love the Shaun the Sheep idents, I wasn't so fussed about those in both the preceding and following years, and it would make a change if this year the idents weren't based around the main Christmas Day animation on BBC1, and preferably not based around any specific programme at all.

I don't necessarily think they need to be based around the lens theme, though, which feels a bit of a limiting factor - for example if the rumours were true that the original intention was to use it on the Shaun the Sheep idents then they certainly wouldn't have benefited from it. And there have been a great many years in the past where the BBC1 Christmas ident has borne nothing in common with the regular presentation, it even took two years for a festive version of the balloon to appear.