Anglia Television/Television Idents

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This article is about the TV idents. For the production logos, see ITV Anglia Productions.

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious and CosgroveHallFanatic

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Video captures courtesy of
tjathome2002, matipionki, davidseare and Pakokelso93

Contents 1st ID (October 27, 1959-October 1, 1970) 2nd ID (October 1, 1970-March 21, 1988) 3rd ID (March 21, 1988-November 7, 1999) 4th ID (November 8, 1999-October 27, 2002)

Unused Logo

Contents   Logo (1989)

1st ID (October 27, 1959-October 1, 1970)

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Visuals: A shadow of a model knight on horseback holding a triangular flag is in the background. "FROM EAST ANGLIA" is displayed on the screen. It then fades out, and a spotlight lights up above the knight. "Anglia" is displayed on the flag in a fancy font. The camera then fades into a close-up shot of the flag, with "PRESENTS" below. The company's original station clock, which survived into their colour era, also featured the knight on the right side of its face.

Trivia: The knight statue was originally commissioned by King William III of the Netherlands for the Falcon Club. It is intended to represent the Black Prince. It was bought by the station's chairman, Lord Townshend after he spotted it in a jeweller's store.

Variants:

• Another opening variant exists. There is a shot of the knight from before, with no text overlay. Then, the camera fades to a grey screen, which has the text "Anglia" in the same font as the knight's flag and "IN THE EAST OF ENGLAND PRESENTS" below it (this time, the camera does not fade in to a close-up of the flag, as a result of that).
• There was also a version of this logo without the texts, which featured the knight rotating on a turntable before the camera zoomed in on his flag and he stopped rotating. This version was only used as a station identity, and could be seen as a precursor to the company's 4th logo (introduced circa 1981).

Technique: Mostly live-action, with fading effects for the transitions.

Audio: An abridged version of "Alla Hornpipe" from George Frideric Handel's Water Music. This would serve as the company jingle until the introduction of their third logo.

Audio Variant: A recomposed version of the music exists.

2nd ID (October 1, 1970-March 21, 1988)

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Visuals:

• Station ID: The knight from before is shown rotating clockwise on a turntable on a light blue background. The camera then zooms up to the flag he is holding and he stops rotating.
• Accompanying clock ident: On a dark blue background, the knight is seen on the right with a heavy white wash over it, along with an analogue clock on the left with fancy-looking hands. On the bottom is a line with a break containing "Anglia" in a rather distorted recreation. Early on, it had "COLOUR" below the text as well.

Variants:

• An early opening ident exists. There is the silver knight from before standing on what appears to be a mountain against a greyish sky, facing to the left. The text "Anglia" in the same font as the flag and "PRESENTS" then appears to the left of the knight.
• Central Television once recreated the logo with a tinfoil model in 1985 for a Sale of the Century spoof at the start of a Spitting Image episode.
• A much longer version of this ident which showed various parts of the knight was shown during start-ups, with the full version of the music included.
• A closing logo variant exists for the last shot, appearing on Encore for the Mighty Organ.

Technique: Mostly live-action, with fading effects for the transitions.

Audio: Same as before.

3rd ID (March 21, 1988-November 7, 1999)

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Visuals:

• Station ID: On a slate background, twelve triangles (five dark blue on the outside and one in the centre, three yellow on the right side, and three white on the inside; the blue one on the left is also larger than the others, and the finished product is supposed to resemble the letter "A") appear on a light blue flag piece-by-piece until the whole logo has appeared and zooms out slightly. "ANGLIA" then fades in below as the flag keeps waving and having parts of it disappear/appear.
• Accompanying clock ident: A different slate background is shown having a new clock design, which consists of a dark blue ring and a teal outer ring, white clock hands, and yellow triangles to mark the hours. The "cardinal hours" have the Triforce-like design instead.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Robinson/Lambie-Nairn, who had previously designed the original "blocks" logos for Channel 4 in 1982 and Scottish Television's 3D "thistle" ident in 1985.

Variants:

• In the case of a breakdown, the text "We are sorry for the loss of your programme and hope to correct the fault very shortly" would be displayed below the flag.
• In 1999, there was also a special version 40th anniversary variant, where the logo was shortened and had a large "40 YEARS" symbol attached to the front of it. The Anglia knight is superimposed onto the left side of the screen, zooming out and rotating counterclockwise before stopping at a comfortable position, and the 1996 break bumper appearing in the top right of the screen, albeit heavily faded.
• There might be some text to the side saying "888 (Captions)" (later changed to "Subtitles" starting in May 1999), or "Stereo" that appears during the idents.
• Starting in May 1999, the 1998 ITV logo appears at the top left and "Subtitles" appears at the bottom right of the ident.

Technique: Live-action and computer effects.

Audio: A heraldic-style thirteen-note fanfare, culminating in a reverse cymbal crash once all twelve triangles and the company name appear. Composed by Nic Rowley.

Audio Variants:

• Occasionally, a re-arranged version of the normal fanfare was also used, but it still culminated in a reverse cymbal crash at the end.
• Sometimes, an announcer will accompany it.

4th ID (November 8, 1999-October 27, 2002)

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Visuals: A short film plays, which culminates in the appearance of a heart. The heart flashes, which transitions to a blue background with spinning heart panels segmented in three. The 1988 "triforce" symbol appears, with a blue border surrounding the yellow word "ANGLIA", set in Bembo. At the bottom of the border in a blue square are the letters "itv".

Technique: A combination of live-action and computer animation, designed by English & Pockett.

Audio: A tense orchestrated fanfare during the initial short film/logo animation culminating in a 5-note piano fanfare and a dramatic synth fanfare, the ladder plays when the logo is fully formed. The continuity announcements sometimes accompanied the synth fanfare.

Legacy: This was an unpopular logo among many, due to the consolidation of the unique visual identities of ITV into one.

Unused Logo

Logo (1989)

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Visuals: On a black background, a grey "river" is seen. On top of the river, is the 1988 "triforce" symbol and below it is "ANGLIA" in the Palatino font. The logo then wavers and disperses into the river, and in its place, various images of ITV shows fly by from the right to the left, such as the Elizabeth Tower, a white bird, a basketball player, etc. As these images fly by, the letters "I" and "T", followed by half of the letter "V", fade in one by one. Finally, a vertical triangle appears in place of the other half of the "V", containing three blue and two yellow triangles from the "flag" (with the yellow triangles touching the edge, resulting in them pointing upwards instead of downwards), along with part of the light blue background. The river fades out.

Technique: A mix of live-action and computer animation effects, designed by English Markell Pockett.

Audio: A rather airy synthesized flute theme that culminates in a 5-note trumpet fanfare. Composed by David Dundas as an ITV jingle. The jingle was adopted from the full theme.

Availability: This ident, much like several of those designed for the other current ITV regions at this time, was never used on air. This could be either due to the Anglia flag being introduced a year prior to the generic branding and probably either because too little of the flag was used, or that the colours that were displayed in this ID are the opposite from its' actual logo.

External Links

• Anglia Television on TVARK