Grampian Television

Credits

Descriptions by
Reactor37654

Captures by
Mr. Logo Lord

Editions by
Nathan B. and Daltem

Video captures courtesy of
emh16, matipionki, iberia77, stvnorth, ITVIdents, Pakokelso93 and CentreRadio

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

Background

Grampian Television was the ITV franchise for the North of Scotland. They would begin to broadcast for the region on 30 September 1961, as one of the last regions to go on the air. For roughly 35 years they remained independent, although in June of 1997, they were purchased by Scottish Television, which under the ownership of them would begin to downsize Grampian. Finally, in March of 2006, SMG plc would announce that the name would be dropped in favor of the name STV (which also applied to Scottish Television). This would later take affect on 31 May 2006. Today, the region is known on air as STV, with the region name legally being known as STV North.

1st ID (September 30, 1961-1964)

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Visuals: On a white background, 4 peaks are seen arranged along the bottom of the screen, mostly colored black except for the 2nd lowest peak being light grey. After a second, the peaks all rearrange themselves to fill the screen, with the grey peak being at the bottom, and form the white background into a white saltire. The peaks then zoom out, revealing an Scotland flag shaped like a TV tube screen, and then settle at the upper centre of the screen, and "GRAMPIAN" zooms in below.

Trivia: The peaks at the beginning are meant to represent the Grampian Mountains, of which the station is named after.

Technique: 2D stop-motion cel animation.

Audio: An uplifting rendition of the first 8 notes of "Scotland the Brave", played with a bell and string instruments.

2nd ID (1964-1969)

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Visuals: The Grampian logo from before, but with a white outline and the bottom section filled with horizontal stripes, zooms in slowly as "GRAMPIAN" in a serif font, appears letter-by-letter, in sync with the music. The logo stops zooming once the music stops.

Variants:

• A still version exists.
• A opening version exists where the logo has a thicker, more angular outline and the text is taller. Above it, "FROM" can be seen in the same serif font.
  • An animated version appears on Movie Dates, where the text jumps closer to the screen in sync with the opening theme's horns before rapidly spinning around. The flag is not seen either, with the text squashed together as a result.

Technique: 2D motion-controlled/cel animation.

Audio: A somber-sounding rendition of the first 8 notes of "Scotland the Brave", played with a piano, or none.

Availability: It was found on the STV footage sales X account on August 24, 2020. The logo can be seen on varies programmes made by Grampian around this time like Will ye No Come Back Again? and So Many Partings. The "From Grampian" still version can be seen on Living and Growing: Where New Life Begins and the animated version can be seen on Movie Dates.

3rd ID (1969-1981)

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Visuals:

• 1969-1977: On a black background, 4 curved triangles come in from all sides of the screen, each coloured differently (in clockwise order starting with the left: red, yellow, teal, and white) and converging towards the centre of the screen. All 4 of the triangles, briefly forming a saltire, then overlap each other to form a white diamond in the centre of the screen and the surrounding area wipes away with a iris-in effect, with the background briefly fading to dark blue. The diamond then expands out from its sides to form a saltire and eventually a TV tube-shaped border, forming the Grampian logo as the background fades to teal, and the logo zooms out to the upper centre. "GRAMPIAN" flips up in the same font as before, as well as "COLOUR" below in Futura.
• 1977-1981: On a dark blue background, the Grampian logo is shown in the centre of the screen at a smaller size. Later on, "COLOUR" was removed and the logo is lowered.
• Accompanying clock ident: A blue background with a white analogue clock with simple dashes, though there are 2 dashes from 9 to 12. To the left of it is an outlined "GTV" and a Grampian logo resting on top of it.

Variant: A still version of the 1969-1977 version exists.

Technique: Cel animation with possible chroma-keyed live-action for the text flipping for the 1969 version, a printed card for the 1977 version.

Audio:

• 1969-1977: A harp flourish, followed by a vibraphone rendition of the first 8 notes of "Scotland the Brave" and ending with another harp flourish.
• 1977-1981: Just the vibraphone "Scotland the Brave" section, played in a lower pitch and a slightly slower tempo.

4th ID (1982-1989)

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Visuals:

• 1982-1985: The Grampian logo is seen at the top part of the screen, returning to its rounded look and gaining sky blue fillings on the inside of the flag. Below, the text "GRAMPIAN TELEVISION" is seen in a stacked format and in a different serif font.
• 1985-1989: 8 light blue spheres revolve around the screen, along with 16 diamond plates (2 on each end of the "edges" between the spheres) in-between them, and they zoom out as the plates start to change colors. After all of the components come together into place, half of each diamond plate folds inwards to create a cube-like shape with cross-shaped faces, and they fade to a solid red, green, and blue color scheme as they do. The cube then revolves around to reveal the "GRAMPIAN TELEVISION" text inside of the cube, and the cube zooms in towards the screen. The spheres fly off-screen, the faces begin to fold inwards, and the whole construct zooms in as the plates are revealed to have 4 parts of the Grampian logo on them as a brief saltire forms out of red and green lines, before fully closing up. The end result is exactly the same as the 1982 version.
• Accompanying clock ident: The clock features a blue/white tartan look to it, surrounding the clock and forming the hour points. The second hand is also blue.

Variants:

• From 1985-1989, a short version exists where it starts with the triangles flying down and then resting in place, with the rest happening normally.
• Before Out and About, the text and logo move into the position of the address text and stamp respectively before fading to the intro.

Technique:

• 1982-1985: A still printed card.
• 1985-1989: CGI designed by SSK Productions in Glasgow, and animated by Digital Pictures in London.

Audio:

• 1982-1985: A synthesised rendition of the first 8 notes of "Scotland the Brave".
• 1985-1989: Descending chimes are heard as the cube forms, along with a strange whirling sound, before transitioning into a triumphant synth fanfare and ending with an rearrangement of the first 8 notes of "Scotland the Brave".

5th ID (September 1, 1989-October 4, 1998)

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Visuals: On a black background, a dark blue "river" is seen. On top of the river is the Grampian logo with a shaded look, and below it, "GRAMPIAN TELEVISION" 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 part of the Scottish flag with a light blue stripe running across the bottom of the triangle. The river fades out.

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

Audio: A rather airy synthesised flute theme that culminates in a 5-note trumpet fanfare, sometimes with the flute echoing at the end. Composed by David Dundas as an ITV jingle. The jingle was adopted from the full theme.

Legacy: This logo is a favourite of many UK logo enthusiasts, and the longest-serving of the "ITV Generic" IDs.

6th ID (October 5, 1998-February 27, 2000)

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Visuals: The logo cuts into 4 triangular-shaped stones, colored a bright sapphire blue, rotating around and arranging themselves into the shape of the Scottish flag. They then shatter one-by-one, revealing darker area underneath as the remaining sapphire areas fade to a silver border and slowly rises up, forming a 3D version of the Grampian logo. All while this is happening, the logo is shown zooming out and slowly tilts towards facing the upper right side of the screen, while revealing a shimmering blue cloth background.

Variants:

• "888" and "STEREO" text will usually appear in the upper right corner after the logo is formed.
• Most of the time, the logo is already formed with just the background moving. Only an announcer can be heard.
• A break bumper has only the silver border on a black background with a bright white light behind it. The logo faces the screen for a second before rotating to its usual angle.
• A "Grampian Interactive" version exists, with the logo on a black background and "GRAMPIAN INTERACTIVE" below in blue. In the upper right corner is the OKTV logo.

Technique: CGI by Geoff Drake.

Audio: An abridged version of the previous logo's music with an community announcer.

7th ID (February 28, 2000-January 5, 2003)

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Visuals: There are some footage related to Scotland, which culminates in the appearance of a modified version of a large square on top with several lights flashing inside it and "grampian tv" (the blue colour around "tv" being slightly lighter) below appearing via a "focusing" effect.

Technique: Live action filmed by Michael Prince, and CGI by ISO Design.

Audio: A futuristic techno tune, composed by Savalas.

8th ID (January 6, 2003-May 30, 2006)

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Visuals: Like the then-current generic ITV1 ident, there is a montage of various ITV1 personalities, which ends with a shot of the Grampian TV logo from before, minus the square on top, against a series of blue panels. The logo zooms toward the camera a bit.

Variants:

• There is a different variant in which the Grampian TV logo slides toward the bottom right in pieces before coming together. Once again, this is just like the then-current ITV1 generic ident.
• A regional variant was used featuring various Grampian TV personalities, and a national variant was also used featuring various ITV personalities.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A jazz-like tune, or a guitar tune. This is sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.

Final Note

Grampian folded into Scottish Television on May 31, 2006.

External Links

• Grampian Television on TVARK