01-01-2024, 09:29 AM
Without wanting to be a misery at the start of a New Year (and Happy New Year to all on this forum), I do increasingly feel like BBC One is quite unloved at the BBC, if the channel’s presentation - or rather, lack of it - is anything to go by. I posted the other day about the recent festive and New Year promotional trailers about programmes airing on BBC One making minimal / no reference to BBC One, and driving viewers to BBC iPlayer - and, of course, they’re all iPlayer branded as well. As for idents, well, the Christmas ones were decent, and I did like the Tabby McTat themed ones, but it all strikes me as rather half-hearted: it’s like a default mentality of “What’s this year’s Julia Donaldson animation? Let’s get their team to create a few seconds for an ident” and job done - don’t get me wrong, I enjoy things like Tabby McTat and The Gruffalo, but it just strikes me as a bit lazy on the BBC One’s part. It’s not like Channel 4’s Mog-themed Christmas idents, which actually worked creatively around the 4 logo. With the BBC One idents, as others have already pointed out, there’s no effort to make the Tabby McTat / Gruffalo animation work around the lens idents.
And on the subject of the lens idents, would it really cost the BBC a lot / take a lot to get out there and film two or three more just to mix things up a bit and give the lens theme a bit of a refresh for the New Year? They are nice idents, don’t get me wrong, but when they returned at 12:40am last night after Rick Astley, it all felt a bit deflating to see “same old, same old” - not great at the start of a New Year.
And on the subject of the lens idents, would it really cost the BBC a lot / take a lot to get out there and film two or three more just to mix things up a bit and give the lens theme a bit of a refresh for the New Year? They are nice idents, don’t get me wrong, but when they returned at 12:40am last night after Rick Astley, it all felt a bit deflating to see “same old, same old” - not great at the start of a New Year.