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Idents, Clocks
& Test Cards
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ITV contractors have always known the importance of a distinct on-screen identity - here we examine the TWW/HTV look. |
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Idents
| We start with the original TWW ident; a circle motif which was often seen on the sides of equipment, it's accompanied by a couple of variations; a tree bark(?) textured background and an on-screen presentation, taken from the opening title sequence of "Sports Preview".
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Next, some examples of TWW's rectangles ident - the animated version (left) was accompanied by a twelve note fanfare (10Kb). Signaling "Channel 10", the ident was used to differentiate between the TWW "General Service" on St Hilary channel 10 and its "Teledu Cymru" service which radiated Welsh Language programmes from the same transmitter, but on Channel 7. Still being used at the end of TWW's life, this final example is taken from TWW's closing night programme, "All Good Things ..."
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| All our Teledu Cymru examples are based around their dragon. The first is a genuine WWN example from 1962. Centre, we have a pre-form of the final ident, right, modified by TWW following their take over of the defunct company. The animated version would see the dragon zooming towards the screen, followed by the lettering, wiped on by horizontal lines. It was accompanied by the TWW twelve note jingle.
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| A small collection of non-standard idents now. The first looks rather old - and doesn't seem to subscribe to any established TWW style. The next example - a variation on the rectangles theme - appeared on equipment and was often used in print. The third is taken from "Mr and Mrs". Curiously, it was also used on "Tinker and Taylor".
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Our fourth TWW oddity is from the end of a children's programme - the chunky hand-drawn style is quite effective. Lastly - a TWW colour production. TWW never broadcast colour on ITV, but had made some programmes on colour film before loosing their franchise. The programmes were subsequently sold and broadcast - on BBC2 in 1968!
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Some examples of the simple idents used during the ITSW period which filled the gap between TWW and Harlech. The ident would start with four horizontal lines looming in from the distance, each one disappearing to reveal one line of text to finish as above. The final line can be seen in the first picture. The idents were accompanied by some electronic bleeping as the lines fell away to reveal each row of words.
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| Our first Harlech ident is an off-screen shot from the station's early days. Next, the eye-straining, strobing, "lines" ident that was Harlech's most famous effort. It's worth baring in mind that it was designed for use on the lower-resolution 405 line service and consequently didn't exhibit the moiré and cross-colour effects evident on viewing it on 625 lines, colour. "Harlech" was shortened to "HTV" in 1970, largely to make the station less Wales-centric and allow easier pronunciation for English announcers. This coincided with the start of colour from Wenvoe in April 1970 and with it the arrival of the familiar white on blue ident. Our first example, is this unusual end-slide, complete with oversized "Colour Production" in the boxy HTV font-style.
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The logo is apparently a stylised TV aerial which has been neatly designed to include space for the addition of "West", "Wales" or "Cymru/Wales". The "aerial" and the Harlech ident shared a jingle (27Kb) known by some at HTV as "The Waterfall". Mystery surrounds the source of this distinctive composition. Does anyone have any details on its origins or composer? It's been suggested that maybe Geraldo - TWW's former head of music or perhaps Joseph Cooper could be responsible. Harlech used a longer version at the end of their start-up routine and this can be found in the Station Opening section. Conductor and MHP chatter Gavin Sutherland tells us that the jingle features a Hammond Organ, close miked, "with the addition of a handful of brass players as well (possibly a clarinet and a flute in there too)". Finally, right, we have a curio from 1981. Does anyone remember this? (Apologies for the quality)
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Another nice end-slide from 1987 and an electronically generated example from around the same time. The animated version remained traditionally produced, (albeit, latterly with a video freeze at the end) until we moved into the computer age (right) in 1988. Allegedly designed by Virgin, this ident came complete with a new jingle (33Kb). The "aerial" is now 3-D, with some drop shadow and while pleasant enough, the "blocks" animation lacked the satisfyingly natural progress of the original seventies' version.
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Into the nineties now and the ITV generic age. Interesting that the HTV motif in the "V" of the centre ident has a two-tone blue background. Here's (50Kb) the music that accompanied this ident. A glimpse right of an HTV end-ident for a networked show - this came from "Keynotes", a Reg Grundy quiz presented by HTV.
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The renewal of HTV's franchise saw the biggest ident departure in over twenty years - the axing of the "aerial" which was replaced in 1993 by this glass/ice-thing (left). An unremarkable computer animation was accompanied by this jingle (21Kb) to announce it - a sort of ethereal ice-cream van. This was never very popular with viewers or HTV. A few years later a warmer variation (centre) was introduced, which became the main ident and lasted until March 1999. The third ident was used on the day Diana, Princess of Wales died.
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A couple of variations have emerged over the past few years, the accompanying jingle is also slightly different.
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On March 8th 1999 this ident was introduced. Basically the same as the previous version, though using colours sympathetic to HTV's NPU branding, it features a simpler animation - the ident simply looms into this final position from various starting points. The jingle is a modified version of the previous style.
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A trio of unusual variations now. The first ident, from West is redolent of the "blinds" motif used by the news departments during the late eighties - maybe this variation led into bulletins. Next, a pale blue version of the late eighties' "aerial", here used to introduce a community service announcement. Finally an end-slide version of the "glass" ident from 1993. The slide seems sharper and altogether more defined than its contemporary animated version, maybe because the concept has been toned down - the refractive background has gone altogether. Also note a rare glimpse of the new HTV font.
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In 1998 HTV celebrated its 30 years with a series of imaginative idents and break flashes. The key logo left, was accompanied by many variations, including these chocolate heart and pop-art renditions
A compilation of seven TWW/HTV idents is downloadable here (544Kb) as Real Video.
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Our collection kicks off with the WWN clock from 1965 - a nice, simple minimalist approach. Next, the Harlech clock from 1968. A clear lineage can be seen between this example with its tapering five-minute markers and HTV's colour version from 1970 ...
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... a mechanical device, it was used throughout the seventies and most of the eighties and had a strangely satisfying second-hand shudder. Its short-lived replacement, right, was electronically generated, the second markers appearing as the hand sweeps round. In line with a number of ITV companies, HTV don't use an on-screen clock anymore.
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Some of the pictures on this page have been supplied by the Transdiffusion Archive Project
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Next: station openings.
  
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