Carlton Cinema

Credits

Descriptions by
Dison

Video captures courtesy of
studio2television and Steve _G

Background

Carlton Cinema was a British digital film television channel, launched on 15 November 1998 by Carlton Television on the ITV Digital platform. It was also launched on cable as an evening-only replacement for Carlton Select in March 2000. After ITV Digital collapsed in May 2002, and negotiations with BSkyB to make the channel part of the Sky line-up failed, Carlton Cinema closed down on 31 March 2003 (the last Carlton-branded television network to do so, five months after Carlton went off the air in the London region).

(15 November 1998-31 March 2003)

Logo: Two main versions of the logo are known to exist:

• Classics: On a black background, a bronze abstract "C" shape with a normal bold "C" attached to it and a thinner "C" cut out of it, pans out. As it turns and settles in front of a midnight city background, light shines through it and "CARLTON CINEMA" ("CARLTON" being the company's logo) appears below. The light continues to shine on the "C".
• Thriller: The "C" is silver with a greenish glow, and shines more as it simply zooms out on a black background. The channel name then appears below.

Variants:

• An almost still shot of the logo was often used when introducing a film-related program.
• The closedown variant had a red theatre curtain closing in, with only the channel name appearing and the website URL on the bottom right.
• An Easter variant had the "Thriller" variant of the "C" in sea blue in front of a golden curtain background with Easter eggs made out of sparks on it.
• At the end of the channel's final broadcast day (31 March 2003), an almost still shot of the "Thriller" variant with a bluish glow was first shown for 30 seconds. Then, after a farewell montage showing various films that aired on the channel, a blue theatre curtain appeared closing in and revealing a golden version of the logo with the date of launch on the top and the date of closure on the bottom.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: An orchestral-type beat with an announcer afterwards.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• The still variant only had the announcer.
• On the final broadcast day, "You'll Never Know" by Alice Faye was heard under the montage and logo sequence.

Availability: Extinct.