Television South West

Credits

Video captures courtesy of
Finders, Skyler Mcfadden, GreenstarEmily (formerly known as ToadetteFan1998), SF08Alt and Television Mocks and Archives

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

Background

Television South West replaced Westward Television as the holder of the ITV South West England franchise on January 1, 1982, though it had actually taken over Westward five months previously. It developed a reputation for homely presentation and for being more ambitious than Westward but lost in the auction-style 1991 franchise round when it was deemed to have bid too much money for its franchise. Consequently, it ceased broadcasting at the end of 1992, when its replacement Westcountry Television took over.

Contents 1st Logo (January 1, 1982-May 1985) 2nd Logo (May 1985-December 31, 1992) 3rd Logo (September 1, 1989-December 31, 1992)

Unused Logo

Contents   ID (1989)

1st Logo (January 1, 1982-May 1985)

• 

Visuals:

• Station ID: On a black background, there is an overhead view of a television screen with a red border around it and static playing on it. A blue square comes out behind the screen. The square curves and starts to cover the screen as the screen turns pink, ruptures upwards, and a volcano-like appendage rises out of the screen. Once the screen is covered and it rotates towards the screen, it is now a blue sphere. The sphere bends and shows 2 more behind it, which split into six in a "mitosis"-like effect. The spheres then fades to a more plastic look and rotate downwards to reveal that they are green hemispheres with a blue interior. The hemispheres then form pairs at various angles (looking a bit like the Sydney Opera House) and move toward the center of the screen, melding together through some rough cuts. A blue zigzag line zooms in below them and "TSW" rotates in below the line.
• Accompanying clock ident: The TSW logo is situated into the lower right corner of the screen, with the zigzag extending and forming a light blue clock face, with white hands and green squares for the "numbers". This would be used until the station's demise.

Trivia: It has been said that the TSW logo is meant to be an abstract sailboat shape, similar to the Golden Hind in the Westward logos. However, in the 2001 documentary 40 Years of ITV, the logo's designer Paul Honeywill stated it wasn't meant to represent anything specific, and was just an abstract but memorable design.

Variants:

• There is also an abridged version that cuts out the "volcano" part.
• Filmed variants of the normal and abridged-length versions exist.
• On their first startup, the "TSW" text, which was now flat, rotated towards the screen, when the logo faded to its print version. This was allegedly due to the logo designers not finishing the logo in time for the network's inaugural broadcast.
• A rare "generic" variant of this logo is known to exist. Starting off with the "ITV" logo of the time, outlined in dark blue and shown in "3D", it then starts to spin counterclockwise while it zooms out and creates a trail as well. It then changes to green before eventually causing the TSW logo to appear via a "clock" wipe effect. A smaller ITV logo, now colored green with a white outline, flashes in, and "for the South West" wipes in via a light in a white Cooper Black font.

Technique: A combination of Scanimation and models.

Audio: A funky synth tune with horns. This is abridged on the "short" variant. There was also a full version of the music, sometimes played at closedown. The music was written and composed by Wil Malone, and is called “That's Soul, Write”.

Availability: Can be viewed on British television archival sites like TV Ark and on YouTube.

2nd Logo (May 1985-December 31, 1992)

• 

Visuals: On a fading sky background, three pairs of green semicircles (designed the same way as the first logo, only without shading) flip from the bottom of the screen into 2D at the middle of the screen. The blue zigzag line follows them and flips back into its normal place as the 3D letters "T", "S", and "W" appear from the top of the screen and spin a little as they go to their normal place. The final product is exactly the same as the print logo, albeit with shinier text.

Variant: A filmed variant exists.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A 12-note calm horn fanfare, with the last note held. The still variant is silent or uses the ending theme of the show.

Audio Variant: Around Christmas time, a totally different tune was used using a music box.

3rd Logo (September 1, 1989-December 31, 1992)

• 
  Spring
• 
  Summer
• 
  Autumn
• 
  Winter
• 
  Christmas
• 
  New Year

Visuals: Each ident consists of a slideshow of various images, video clips and shapes, with the final product being TSW fading in and casting a shadow, followed by the name of a season or holiday on top.

Variants: There are six different idents for each holiday and season:

• Spring: The sequence starts off with a flowing lake which fades into a video of a flying bird with several expanding triangles. This is followed with four curved shapes fading in, each containing a video of an animal.
• Summer: It starts with three geometric shapes, each showing a sunset sky at the ocean on the left in a red filter, a closeup shot of plants in the centre in a blue filter and a shot of flowing water on the right in a green filter. As the company name fades in, it briefly cuts to a shot of a puppet at the beach before showing different shots of a crowded beach. A blue jagged rectangle is seen at the top over a magenta background, and the bottom half is diagonally split between a yellow and green filter.
• Autumn: Against a cloudy beige field is a closeup shot of a spider web. A blue fabric can be seen waving in the top left corner before it and the web fade out.
• Winter: There is a blue "shrinking" foreground, which is diagonally split on the left with four lines. The background shows the silhouette of two quadrupedal mammals walking on a snowy field and on the bottom is a wavy shape, where a fire is seen burning. The sequence then fades to a different snowy setting with a fence at the bottom, a spinning globe in the top right corner and a violet rectangle on the top half with two blue triangles and a waving flag. Finally, the sequence fades to an ice midground with a fire in the background.
• Christmas: It shows a closeup shot of a Christmas tree with several blue, green, yellow, red and white shapes slowly moving and various ribbons of the same colour drawing themselves in. The background briefly fades to a window of a house before showing a textured white background.
• New Year: Same as Christmas, but it is slightlhy shorter and "NEW YEAR" is used instead.

Technique: Computer effects overlaid onto live-action.

Audio: Depends on the ident:

• Spring: A light flute tune with chirping birds
• Summer: A short, light electric guitar tune with faint clicking sounds.
• Autumn: A light flute piece accompanied with faint bird sounds.
• Winter: A calm piano tune.
• Christmas: A five-note festive-sounding piece.
• New Year: A dramatic, uplifting orchestral fanfare.

Unused Logo

ID (1989)

• 

See ITV.

External Links

• Television South West on TVARK