[Neil Jones]

Have they used the same intro each time given it's aired every Saturday for four weeks? Would actually not have been a bad idea to have a new intro to mark the 40th anniversary.

Well the whole point of having David Bowie on the introduction to The Snowman was to make the show more appealing to the US market, as he's more "attractive" to sponsorship and advertisers and generally that's how American TV worked (and probably sill does to an extent). We don't do that over here (or we didn't in the 80s anyway) so Raymond Briggs wandering around a field worked as an intro.

Of course there was a new introduction made, which was done for the 2002 20th anniversary edition, which was basically an excuse for crop the crap out of it, which used the Father Christmas character. This wasn't too bad on its own if the main feature hadn't been "converted" to widescreen in the process, but that died with Mel Smith it would appear and its never been seen since.

It does beg the question though, if they did make a new introduction for The Snowman who would be ideal for it? As above Bowie's no longer available, having died in 2016.

[Andrew Wood]

So nice to see outings for 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' and 'The Abominable Snow Baby' idents this morning.

theident.gallery 

theident.gallery 

[James2001]

I've seen a recording from 1988 which has the Raymond Briggs intro, so it seems they did still use it sometimes after the Bowie version was made.

[JAS84]

Especially since the current one is blatantly old, because Bowie is also dead.

[James2001]

So are Raymond Briggs and Mel Smith if it comes to using the other openings.

[procrastination]

Do we know if this is running in conjunction with their previous Christmas idents? They were one set I was more than happy to see year after year... Except maybe the sprouts.

Late reply, but I saw the sprouts ident you mentioned before an episode of The Simpsons on Christmas Eve morning.

[VMPhil]

Bit odd to see a trail for Taskmaster’s New Year Treat that says it’s on “Sunday 9.00pm” rather than “New Year’s Day 9.00pm”

And yet I’ve just seen an ECP that was promoting The Last Leg as being on “New Year’s Eve” and not “Saturday”.

[Si-Co]

Bit odd to see a trail for Taskmaster’s New Year Treat that says it’s on “Sunday 9.00pm” rather than “New Year’s Day 9.00pm”

And yet I’ve just seen an ECP that was promoting The Last Leg as being on “New Year’s Eve” and not “Saturday”.

I wonder if the Taskmaster trail is a one-off anomaly or error/oversight? It will be interesting to see how other NYD shows are trailed. I stand to be corrected, but I can’t recall any instance when a promo on the five main channels has only used the day of the week when it’s a Christmas or New Year holiday - excluding the day after NYD in Scotland, if anyone was planning on being pedantic! BTW, I’m not sure if 2nd January Bank Holiday has an official name, but as a kid I always used to call it “New Year’s Boxing Day”…)

[JasonB]

Are the 2017 idents going to be phased out anytime soon?

[JMT1985]

Are the 2017 idents going to be phased out anytime soon?

No, I have not heard anything to suggest that is happening. Their ident package is very good as it is, I am sure there are a few more years left in them. 

But with Channel 4 now aiming at bringing everything under the Channel 4 name, who knows what they will do