ATV Productions

Background

This is the production arm of Associated Television.

Contents

1st Logo (October 1955-1970)	2nd Logo (February 17, 1956-1959)	3rd Logo (November 1969-December 31, 1981)

1st Logo (October 1955-1970)

Visuals: The 1955 ATV logo is seen with the text "An" and "Production" above and underneath it respectively.

Variants:

An in-credit version exists, showing the logo in custom colours.
- On Supercar, "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" and the full company name is shown above and below the logo.
A variant has "PRODUCTION", replaced with "TELERECORDING".
An early variant used from 1958-1960 had the logo arranged alongside a "Z" made from several dots, with "PRESENTS" or "Production" at the other end. "An" can be seen with "Production" as well.
From 1960-1962, it had the logo without any letters, but with "An" in the top space, "ATV" in the middle, and either "Production" or "Outside Broadcast". This was either on a black background or in-credit.
On Johnnie Ray Sings, and a June 18, 2023 airing of The Larkins episode "Home Win" on Talking Pictures TV, all of the letters are inside the middle eye. Likewise, the closing to said programme has "An" and "Production" in the top and bottom spaces, respectively.
- An open-matte variant of the above also exists, which was seen at the end of a July 30, 2023 of The Larkins episode "Unlucky Strike" on Talking Pictures TV.
On both a 1963 Beatles performance and the Rewind TV airings of Hancock, the following credit is added underneath:

by arrangement with
BERNARD DELFONT

On Noddy and the Moon, the words "MADE FOR" in a Dom Casual font appears above the logo. A copyright stamp reading "©COPYRIGHT MCMLV ASSOCIATED TELEVISION LTD." is shown underneath.
On George and the Dragon, the logo is inverted.
On A Tale of Two Streets, "PATHFIDER" is added above "PRODUCTION".
On Twelfth Night, the background is brown and the logo is gold.
On The London Palladium Show, "A" is omitted and the logo is gold.
On a 2007 print of This is Tom Jones, the copyright notice reading "© 2007 Tidy TV, LLC All Rights Reserved" appears below.

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: The ending theme of the programme or none.

Availability: Seen on programmes by ATV from the time-period until 1970.

Examples include The Golden Shot (a late 90's print also kept this logo, followed by the 1999 Carlton International logo), The London Palladium Show, The Larkins, A Tale of Two Streets, and Hancock, among many other ATV original programmes.
Some of them can be found through archival sites or BFI Player.
The 1960 variant can be seen on The Last Night of the Crazy Gang albeit the Outside Broadcast variant.
It is also seen on UK airings of The Larkins on Talking Pictures TV.
The 1959 opening and closing variants are also preserved on the Rewind TV airings of Hancock.

2nd Logo (February 17, 1956-1959)

Visuals: A still version of the 1956 schedule ident where "PRODUCTION" replaces "PRESENTS" and "An" is placed above "A".

Variant: A telerecording variant exists; not only is "PRODUCTION" replaced with "TELERECORDING", but "AN" was moved over to the left-most bar and the ATV logo was shifted downward.

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: The ending theme of the programme.

Availability: Seen on programmes by ATV from the time-period until 1959.

Examples include The Johnnie Ray Show, The Larkins, and Should Every Picture Tell a Story?, respectively.
The telerecording variant was seen on the former.
The "PRODUCTION" variant was also resurfaced at the end of an April 30, 2023 UK airing of The Larkins episode "Ale and Farewell" on Talking Pictures TV.

3rd Logo (November 1969-December 31, 1981)

Visuals:

Opening: Same as the station ID of the era.
Closing: The 1969 ATV logo is within a white rectangle. Underneath it is the stacked text "COLOUR PRODUCTION".

Variants:

On Outside Broadcast programmes, "COLOUR PRODUCTION" is replaced with with "OUTSIDE BROADCAST".
Sometimes, the logo is on a black background.
Starting from 1975, the logo has a copyright date added below and it, alongside the copyright stamp, became gold.
On Tiswas, the endcap replaces "COLOUR" with "TISWAS" in a different colour. The colour palette is also somewhat randomised from time to time, even having a variant shifting from blue to pink barring the green text.
- Another variant where the logo is white on a red background also exists.
On Crossroads episodes from 1984 and 1986, the endcap is in black and white, this is due to the fact that both episodes were originally broadcast in colour, but the videotapes that they were stored on were wiped by ATV shortly after broadcast, and those shows only survived via 16mm telerecordings.

Technique:

Opening: Traditional cel animation.
Closing: A printed card. One of the Tiswas variants has computer effects as well.

Audio:

Opening: Same as the station ID of the era.
Closing: The ending theme of the programme or none.

Audio Variants:

For the B&W version of the opening variant, in the beginning growing circle, there are just three drums to accompany it.
For the early opening variant, the music was lower in pitch and sounded more low-budget.

Availability: Seen on programmes by ATV from the time-period until the end of 1981.

Examples include Crossroads, the UK version of Celebrity Squares, Edward the Seventh, Thriller, Sapphire and Steel, Tiswas, The Mighty Micro, and the 1974 documentary Dave Allen in Search of the English Eccentric, among many others.
A good source on which to find this logo on home video is the 1981 Magnetic Video of the Rudolf Nureyev version of Giselle.
It can also be found on the DVD releases of Crossroads released by Network DVD.
It is also preserved at the end of a mid-2000s print of S01E05 of Edward the Seventh, which is then followed by both the 1987 ITC Entertainment "Gold Diamonds" and 2004 Granada International logos.
The opening and closing variants of this logo can also be found on Challenge airings of the 1981 series of Bullseye, with the 1999 Carlton International logo at the end.
The in-credit variant can be also found on the Kaye Ballard episode of The Muppet Show on Disney+ and disc one and the Peter Ustinov episode on German DVD releases of The Muppet Show, despite all of the ATV and ITC logos from both UK and U.S. versions being wiped and cut by Disney. The former was likely the result of the episode featuring a unique ending which did not facilitate the typical edit of replacing the final shot of Zoot playing his saxophone.

ATV Productions

Central Productions

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