Harlech Television/HTV/Television Idents

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious

Captures by
mr3urious

Editions by
Mr. Logo Lord

Video captures courtesy of
matipionki, emh16, TvTimes1966, BelfastGav, jkmac1973, matipionki, dragonarchive, wrmorrell, paulhatfield69

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

Background

Harlech Television was the ITV contractor for Wales and western England that began broadcasting after they won the ITV franchise for Wales and the West of England in the 1967 franchise round. Then they began broadcasting early, on May 20, 1968, after Television Wales and the West (TWW) had quit in bitter circumstances in March and a temporary service, Independent Television Service for Wales and the West, had been run in the meantime. The name change to HTV came with the introduction of colour in 1970, when "Harlech" was deemed to be too Welsh for viewers in the England part of the region. Despite promising a fresh approach when it first came on air, the channel proved to be little different to TWW, even after all Welsh-language programming transferred to the newly-created S4C network in 1982. After suffering financial problems in the early 1990s, the company was acquired by United News and Media in June 1997 and sold on to Granada in July 2000 along with Anglia and Meridian (though for competition reasons its broadcast facilities and license passed to Carlton in October 2000). Subsequently, HTV lost its on-air identity on October 28, 2002 when all the ITV franchises in England and Wales adopted a single "ITV1" brand, and in 2006, the HTV name disappeared altogether, when the company was renamed ITV Wales & West.

1st Logo (May 20, 1968-1970)

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  Daytime
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  Nighttime
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  Wednesday startup

Logo: We see two sets of lines, one black and one white, turning at opposite directions. The pattern zooms out, and two copies of the word "HARLECH", at perpendicular angles, become faintly visible within the lines. The lines continue to rotate until both sets are parallel and the "HARLECH" copies have merged together. The finished product is the word "HARLECH" in a Helvetica Inserat font, filled with horizontal lines, against a similarly-lined background.

Trivia: The logo was designed for the 405-line television broadcast system that predated the 625-line PAL system (lines being the resolution of television broadcasts). When viewing this on a 405-line television set, the moiré effect did not appear, while it appears on a 625-line television set.

Variants: There are two known variants:

• There is an extended version which was simply a slower version of the logo.
• There is a nighttime variant, where the logo is green.

Technique: Cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A warbly Moog synthesizer tune that culminates in a two-note synth-horn fanfare, being in some cases slightly high pitched. This is nicknamed the "Waterfall" jingle by some people.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• In the extended version, the music plays as normal. Then two long horn notes play into the music, then the synth plays again and at the end is a cut version of the two-note synth-horn fanfare ending.
• Sometimes, after the synth jingle, there is an announcer reading out official ITA information.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: Some people may find the music can be ominous, but it's mainly the animation that will be a big problem here. But others will find this ident extremely fascinating, especially when the animation of this logo is so amazingly ahead of its time.

2nd Logo (1970-1987)

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  Rare "HTV Limited" variant from The Canterville Ghost

Logo: Against a navy blue background, we see two slanted white lines coming in from the top and bottom of the screen; the left one going up, and the right one going down. They stop moving with their ends sticking in the middle, and a third horizontal line "unfolds" vertically in the centre. The lines retract and grow into a conjoined, italic "HTV", resembling a TV aerial/antenna. The logo also noticeably becomes thinner after it forms. For Wales, the words "CYMRU WALES" appear below the T (or just "CYMRU" for Welsh-language programs), and for the West of England, "WEST" appears above.

Trivia: The HTV logo was designed by Frank Pegler of FJP Graphics.

Variants:

• A generic variant is sometimes used, lacking either of the sub-text.
• There does exist a long version, where the 3 lines remain on-screen for longer before condensing into the logo.
• Following the transfer of all Welsh-language programs to the S4C network in 1982, HTV Wales removed the word "CYMRU" from its logo and placed "WALES" at the top (though the Cymru Wales tag was briefly revived for use in the 4th logo). At the same time, the background on both this logo and HTV West's was changed to royal blue.
• On The Canterville Ghost, the HTV logo is moved to the left and the text "LIMITED" appears next to it. The word "and" also appears below.

Technique: Scanimate.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 1st logo, except the pitch is lower.

Music/Sounds Variant: The long version has the long version of the previous logo.

Availability: Extinct.

3rd Logo (September 1987-September 1989)

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Logo: On a black background, a reflective surface containing a cloudy sky pans to the left, the image shifting as three large reflective blocks emerge from it (reflecting the cloudy sky image as well), followed shortly by three small blocks. As the screen folds out of view, the blocks revolve around to the right and zoom out and pastes themselves onto a blue spotlight, forming the HTV logo as seen before. The logo shines several times as the word "WALES" or "WEST" zooms-out and stops in its usual place.

Variants:

• A generic version, which was used for both regions, simply reads "HTV".
• A version with "CYMRU" does exist on co-productions with S4C. It's unknown if an animated version of this actually exists.
• On a HTV West 1987 Christmas tape, a parody of the logo is used. On a blue background, the HTV logo, now arranged to say "HVT" appears piece-by-piece while zooming in and swooping down and then stopping. After a bit, a light grey drop shadow appears and "XMAS" appears within the gap between "VT". A copyright date of 1987 in Roman numerals also fades in below. The music is a distorted version of the main ident's music.

Technique: 3D computer animation. None for the production variant.

Music/Sounds: A synthesised horn/string fanfare, ending with three synthesised notes, and is sometimes followed by a continuity announcer. The production variant is silent.

Availability: Extinct for the main ident. The production variant can be found on shows from the era.

4th Logo (1989-December 31, 1992)

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See ITV for description.

5th Logo (January 1, 1993-February 1995)

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Logo: Against a shimmering background of colours (mostly blue), the letters "HTV", now made out of glass, and written in a font similar to that of the 1989 ITV logo with the "V" composed of a smaller triangle protruding from a slightly larger triangle, slowly zoom-out and flip around from the bottom-left corner of the screen. They stop at the centre of the screen and continue to project colours out from the edges..

Variant: A special endboard had the logo in a milky transparent white colour, while several sheens of colour could be seen in it. The background is a mix of blue/green/red hues, and "PRESENTATION" is seen below in a white Bank Gothic MD BT font.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds: A calm synth fanfare with a wind chime sound, ending in 3 orchestral notes.

Music/Sound Variant: Before commercial breaks, a much more soothing re-arrangement was used, sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.

Availability: Extinct. It was used as an ident.

6th Logo (February 1995-March 7, 1999)

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Logo: Against a watery green/blue background, several tiny gold triangles can be seen. As they rise up and stretch diagonally to the right, the camera begins to shift back and turn to the right. The lines eventually grow into a stacked pattern of equilateral triangles before the camera pans out to reveal the rest of the ITV logo in gold, along with the triangle pattern turning into the "V" from before. The logo also rises from the background a bit and when the logo stops turning, the background shines with passing beams of light and rotating circles.

Variants:

• For commercial breaks, the logo would quickly fade in via a rippling effect.
• During Summer 1997, a special version was used: on a orange and blue rippling background, holographic umbrella patterns of yellow appear and zoom in, before twisting onto themselves like a kalideoscope. Then, they fade out as the HTV logo appears up close in a similar fashion before forming in a smaller version of itself. It also appears to be much darker.
• Around 1998, a different variant was used, having the logo start on the rippling background before panning to the HTV logo lying on the water, turned at an angle.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds: A calm woodwind jingle which ends in a proud orchestral finish, or none for the endcards. Sometimes, a continuity announcer is heard.

Music/Sounds Variant: The Kaliedoscope ident used an upbeat, beachy theme.

Availability: Extinct.

7th Logo (March 8-November 7, 1999)

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Logo: We pan across a blue HTV logo against a shimmering yellow background from one angle. Then we fade to a gold HTV logo from another angle against a purplish-red background, Then the same HTV logo zooms-out against the yellow background and turns blue.

Variants:

• After a few months, the logo was revised with slightly different shots and the logo remains blue through out.

Technique: 3D computer animation.

Music/Sounds: A calm majestic fanfare, or the previous logo's fanfare.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: This rebrand was a rather wasted effort, as it only lasted 6 months before the infamous "Hearts" branding made its debut.

8th Logo (November 8, 1999-July 1, 2001)

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See ITV for description.

Trivia: UNM was sold to Granada in July 2000, however HTV was later sold to Carlton in October of that same year for competition reasons. Once the sale was completed, Carlton revamped their identity, which resulted in the 9th logo.

9th Logo (July 2, 2001-October 27, 2002)

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Logo: Same as the 5th Carlton logo, but instead of flashing to the Carlton logo, the heart-shaped white flash morphs into the "V" of the 1993 HTV logo as the typical Hearts background appears and the rest of the logo appears along with the borders of the box. After settling down, the rest of the logo blurs in and the ITV/ITV1 logo fades in as well. The end result resembles the previous logo.

Variant: A version with the red background and no ITV1 logo also exists which was shown before Ultimate Questions on October 27, 2002.

Technique: Same as the 5th Carlton logo except for the transition.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 5th Carlton logo.

Availability: Extinct.

External Links

• HTV on Wikipedia
• HTV on TVARK