BBC One Balloon Idents
Encyclopedia
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
Balloon idents
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
were broadcast from 4 October 1997 to 29 March 2002. The balloon theme replaced the computer generated spinning globe which had been used as the main ident on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
since 1991. It launched the same day as a BBC-wide rebrand, and thus the new idents also carried the new BBC logo, changing its name from BBC1 to BBC One.
Launch
As part of a large relaunch of the BBC's corporate logo and the ident packages of BBC's One and Two, these new idents were used to replace the old virtual globeBBC One 'Virtual Globe' ident
The "Virtual Globe" was the method of creating the BBC1 symbol that was used between 16 February 1991 and 3 October 1997.-Launch:The Virtual Globe replaced the Computer Originated World on 16 February 1991 and was designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn, owner of the Lambie-Nairn design agency...
. As a result of the rebrand, which saw the channel name loose all personality, it was proposed by the design agency Lambie-Nairn
Lambie-Nairn
Lambie-Nairn is an international branding agency within the WPP Group, headquartered in London with offices in Munich, Madrid, Abu Dhabi and Prague...
that the personality be added a different way, namely by making the globe interact in the country and the peoples lives.
The idea was designed and conceptualised by the Lambie-Nairn design agency in London, with the balloon itself made in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
by Cameron Balloons Ltd: it's aircraft registration was "G-IBBC".
Components of Look
The look itself featured a predominantly red balloon, with the map of the world picked out in orange with white clouds on top, floating over various scenes of the British landscape. The idents featured a soundtrack of ambient music, with more lively versions being used for more industrial or recreational settings. The new BBC logo, along with the channel name 'ONE' immediately to the right of it, was overlaid at the bottom of the screen. The new logo design was an attempt to unify all of the BBC's services and brands under a single logo design, with personality expressed through the idents themselves. The idents were, from October 1998, shown in Widescreen, and the bbc.co.uk URL was added above the logo soon after.The new look also featured a clock, which used the same software and layout as before, and used the balloon canvas as the background. The clock was also retained following the change to widescreen, however the software was changed so that the minute hand, instead of moving every second as previous, only moved once a minute.
Promotions and static captions both featured text and logos centred for Widescreen use, with the BBC One logo at the bottom of the screen and a colour palette of mainly oranges and reds, however colours varied to theme and programme. The use of static captions was reduced slightly, but still remained a key part of continuity links.
Original Locations
The original sequences were filmed over six weeks in June and July 1997 at eleven locations around the United Kingdom. From these eleven locations, forty-seven different 35-second films were produced featuring the balloon floating serenely over British landscapes. Much of the photography was from a helicopterHelicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
at heights of up to 3,500 ft. One noticeable and intentional aspect about the original balloon
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
films was that none of the sequences featured people or any distinct human activity. The locations were:
- Eilean Donan Castle, Scottish HighlandsScottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
- Scottish Exhibition and Conference CentreScottish Exhibition and Conference CentreThe Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre , located on the north bank of the River Clyde, in Glasgow, is Scotland's largest exhibition centre....
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands... - Forth Rail Bridge, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
- Dunluce CastleDunluce CastleDunluce Castle is a now-ruined medieval castle in Northern Ireland. It is located on the edge of a basalt outcropping in County Antrim , and is accessible via a bridge connecting it to the mainland...
, Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west... - Strangford LoughStrangford LoughStrangford Lough, sometimes Strangford Loch, is a large sea loch or inlet in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the Irish Sea by the Ards Peninsula. The name Strangford is derived ; describing the fast-flowing narrows at its mouth...
, Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west... - Snowdonia National Park, WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
- Cardiff City Hall, South WalesSouth WalesSouth Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
- South DownsSouth DownsThe South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
(Near ArundelArundelArundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...
), West SussexWest SussexWest Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming... - Port of FelixstowePort of FelixstoweThe Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk is the UK's busiest container port, dealing with 35% of the country's container cargo. It was developed following the abandonment of a project for a deep-water harbour at Maplin Sands. In 2005, it was ranked as the 28th busiest container port in the...
, SuffolkSuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east... - Cley next the SeaCley next the SeaCley next the Sea is a village on the River Glaven in Norfolk, England, 4 miles north-west of Holt and east of Blakeney. The main A149 coast road runs through the centre of the village, causing congestion in the summer months due to the tight, narrow streets. It lies within the Norfolk Coast AONB...
, NorfolkNorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county... - SwinsideSwinsideSwinside, which is also known as Sunkenkirk and Swineshead, is a stone circle lying beside Swinside Fell, part of Black Combe in southern Cumbria, North West England...
Stone Circle, CumbriaCumbriaCumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in... - London Docklands
Later Additions
A year after launch in 1998, several more idents were created and added to the collection. The main differences between these new additions and the originals, were that people were now included in the sequences. However, the balloon itself was inserted digitally by computer on to pre-filmed locations and did not actually fly over the following locations:- Angel of the NorthAngel of the NorthThe Angel of the North is a contemporary sculpture, designed by Antony Gormley, which is located in Gateshead,formerly County Durham, England.It is a steel sculpture of an angel, standing tall, with wings measuring across...
- St Michael's MountSt Michael's MountSt Michael's Mount is a tidal island located off the Mount's Bay coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a civil parish and is united with the town of Marazion by a man-made causeway of granite setts, passable between mid-tide and low water....
- Second Severn CrossingSecond Severn CrossingThe Second Severn Crossing is a bridge which carries the M4 motorway over the River Severn between England and Wales, inaugurated on 5 June 1996 by HRH The Prince of Wales to augment the traffic capacity of the original Severn Bridge built in 1966...
- Blackpool TowerBlackpool TowerBlackpool Tower Eye is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire in England which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. . Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it rises to 518 feet & 9 inches . The tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers...
- The NeedlesThe NeedlesThe Needles is a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, England, close to Alum Bay. The Needles lighthouse stands at the end of the formation...
, Isle of WightIsle of WightThe Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
In 2000, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
wanted the balloon idents to become more inclusive, so they introduced the 'lifestyle' idents. These featured skateboarders, a busy market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
scene, a bungee jumper and a carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
, all of which featured the balloon flying past in the background.
Special idents
There were also many special idents made for new programmes, sporting events or, most notably, the Christmas holiday. These included:| Title | Air dates | ||
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A series of eight parody idents promoting Ben Elton Ben Elton Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV.... 's television series in 1998. The series included the balloon being deflated by a 2-shaped blade (from BBC Two's Blade ident), and the balloon being chased by a "police" balloon. |
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The balloon flies in front of the sun, eclipsing it. Used to introduce coverage of the 1999 solar eclipse and associated programming. |
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The balloon flew over a desert wasteland as an Polacanthus Polacanthus Polacanthus, deriving its name from the Ancient Greek poly-/πολυ- "many" and acantha/ακανθα "thorn" or "prickle", was an early armored, spiked, plant-eating ankylosaur from the early Cretaceous period. Early depictions often gave it a very vague head as it was only known from the rear half of the... walked into view. |
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The balloon flies high above the night sky, alongside a holographic Father Christmas ringing a bell. |
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The balloon flies over the Millenium Dome at night, with the balloon lighting up in time to the music. It was used to introduce coverage of the new Millenium celebrations. |
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The balloon flew over a full stadium Stadium A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event... , where a goalkeeper lets a goal pass his net. The first announcement was an apology about the power cut that year. |
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The balloon flew over the Sydney Opera House Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957... , while an athlete shone a flaming torch in its direction. |
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Father Christmas Father Christmas Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France , Spain , Brazil , Portugal , Italy , Armenia , India... pilots the balloon, delivering presents by dropping them from parachutes from the balloon. |
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The balloon was seen from underwater from a shark-infested sea. |
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The balloon flew over a land of ice and Woolly Mammoth Woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia... s. |
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Three toys play float around in a cosy room while the balloon floats by outside. The three toys used were all connected to BBC One's Christmas Day schedule that year, so there was a dog (the terrestrial premiere of Toy Story Toy Story Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen... ), a dinosaur (the dramatic epic The Lost World The Lost World (2001 film) The Lost World is a 2001 adaptation of the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, directed by Stuart Orme and adapted by Adrian Hodges. It was filmed at various locations on the West Coast of New Zealand. The film was produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom and A&E in the United... ) and a Reliant Robin Reliant Robin thumb|right|250px|1975 Greek advertisement for Mebea Robin The Reliant Robin is a small three wheeled car formerly manufactured by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England... van (the comeback of Only Fools and Horses Only Fools and Horses Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003... after it had last aired in 1996). The idents were produced by Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit... . |
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Replacement
In 2001, Lorraine Heggessey becomes controller of BBC One and immediately ordered a review of the channels branding. In her opinion the balloon was "slow and distant" and so, in 2002, after much speculation, the balloon idents were replaced as the icon of BBC One with a set of idents with the theme of Rhythm & Movement, making it the final motif of the globe logo for the channel after 39 years.The balloon itself last took to the skies in the summer of 2002 when it took part in the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is held annually during August in Bristol, England. Teams from the UK and other parts of the world bring their hot air balloons to the site and participate in mass ascents where as many as 100 balloons may launch at a time.The event was first held in 1979...
. It is now wrapped up and held in a museum by a preservation society.
BBC America
The balloon symbol was also shown on BBC AmericaBBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
between 1999 and 2003, and lasted several months after it had been retired by BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. Unlike BBC One, BBC America employed shorter, snappier cuts of various balloon sequences with slight changes to the familiar musical score.