Since
the launch of the channel in 1964, BBC ONE has seen nine different
incarnations of the on-screen identity.
1964
- The first ident was a continuation of the BBC-tv ident of
1963. It featured the globe on a white background. The original
ident had a BBC-tv logo. This was changed to just BBC when the
channel was launched.
1966
- While the BBC 1 ident symbol remained, a "watch-strap"
globe was introduced in 1964, showing the globe in the middle
of a striped band. In 1968, the channel converted to colour
- the globe and BBC 1 logo remained.
1969
- The first colour ident was introduced. A blue and black mechanical
globe rotated while a curved mirror placed behind made up the
famous image.
1972
- The globe and colour scheme remained the same, but a rounder,
italic font was used for the ident introduced in 1972.
1978
- A new blue and yellow globe was introduced. The colour was
added using electronics and a new big bold font was introduced.
1981
- A colour change was made to the globe - yellow became green.
The caption also changed to a double line version (similar to
the BBC 2 logo of the time).
1985
- The new rotating gold and blue BBC 1 globe was introduced.
Called COW, for Computer Originated World, it was the first
time that BBC 1 had abandoned mechanical models and still slides
and used a completely computer generated image.
1991
- The COW globe was replaced with a new on-screen image designed
by Lambie-Nairn (who worked on the Nine O’Clock News ident).
The design was a swirling world of shadows and reflections.
1997
- The new style BBC ONE ident and logo was dominated by the
red and yellow globe balloon. The balloon was filmed flying
over 10 different British locations.
