Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
BBC1’s new ‘idents’ aren’t a patch on the swimming hippos, says Weekend’s TV critic
The hippos serenely swimming in a circle were the best. Everyone loved them. Then there were the dogs chasing one another’s tails, the enchanted forest, the penguins, the cyclists, the helicopter. If you’re a licencefee payer, you’ll know I’m talking about the circle-themed ‘idents’ (short for identifications), or logos, that pop up between the programmes to remind you that you’re watching BBC1.
After ten years of trusty service, these familiar ‘circles’ made way at New Year for the launch of around 20 new idents, created by photographer Martin Parr, who was apparently commissioned to ‘capture an evolving portrait of modern Britain in all its diversity’ for 2017.
The idea behind them is that different groups of people come together, united by shared passions, to reflect the ‘changing mood of the nation through significant events’ in the coming year.
Only a handful have aired so far, but they are all vying for the title of most annoying. A dingy, echoing village hall full of gasping Zumba enthusiasts, a bunch of swimmers shivering on a chilly Somerset beach... Unlike the circle motif (itself a nod to the BBC1 globe, which ran for more than 30 years from 1963), there’s nothing obvious linking them, apart from the letters ‘ness’ suddenly being tagged onto the word ‘one’.
In my view, so far the only thing uniting them is their awfulness – reminiscent of the enormously unpopular ‘Rhythm & Movement’ idents of 2002- 06, which featured acrobats tumbling from giant ribbons (so memorably spoofed by French and Saunders in their 2002 Christmas special), Bollywood dancers and skateboarders flying through a shipyard.
Director of BBC content Charlotte Moore said the new idents ‘reflect the rich diversity of communities living in the UK today’. But aren’t we reminded of the ‘rich diversity’ of Britain every time we turn on the TV or leave home? At least the quirkily charming, clever BBC2 idents – featuring number 2-shaped swans, rubber ducks and even a burning kebab, and which perfectly reflect the channel’s offering – have been left alone (so far).
If BBC1 needed refreshing, couldn’t the globe have been given a 21st-century twist, perhaps with views from the International Space Station? Yes, they’re only ‘the bits between the programmes’, and with everything else that’s going on in the world, they really don’t matter that much.
But I know I’m not alone in already looking back at the ‘circles’ with wistful nostalgia and the realisation of just how much a part of the wallpaper of daily life they’d become. At least that’s one thing I suspect we can all be united about.