ITV at 65: The Ultimate Regional Ident Collection!

The Year: 1955
The Date: September 22
The Time: 7.15 PM
At this exact moment 65 years ago, commercial television launched in the United Kingdom with the birth of London-based station Associated-Rediffusion; followed over the next 7 years by various other stations assigned to different regions of the country. Many of these stations-and the regulatory bodies which have overseen their operations -have come and gone over the ensuing decades and today all but 2 of the 16 existing franchises are licensed to the single company ITV plc under the supervision of Ofcom. The two exceptional franchises are similarly held by a single company, the Glasgow-based STV Group.
As Britain's first commercial television enterprise celebrates its senior anniversary, I have taken it upon myself to take up as great a collection as possible of the various idents used by the 26 former regional companies which had collectively operated the network until that fateful day of 28 October 2002 when ITV relaunched as a nationally-branded network, complimented a year later by the merger of Carlton Communications and Granada Television which created the unified operation and schedule we know today.
With that said, it is time now to cross over to the video studios of KZbin's own MutliAnimationDude so that we may at last enjoy the fullest collection to date of ITV's Regional Idents over it's first 47 years. A few final notes before we begin the presentation:
1. All idents are to be shown clean and without the presence of continuity announcers. This will mean, unfortunately, that certain idents have had their natural audio track substituted in the event where a natural clean ident could not be recovered. I hope this does not spoil your enjoyment of the programme.
2. Thanks to TV-Ark for reopening their website to the public following a three-year hiatus, which has allowed for the recovery of a considerable number of the idents featured.
3. Thanks also to any and all KZbin contributors who have first posted the collected idents; including but not limited to:
TR3X Productions
647Logo
AntVee Productions
BelarushianYoshiEditor2020
STCFetishMuffin
JontyMaster
JCA Graphic Library
TFN
HorizionPoint (Planetb365)
SonicWarrior2006
Plasma Storm
Blake Ashton
Davidjr
George’s Retro Channel
Sashabox Entertainment
Hanksterman
SF08Alt
RichYong
Cambridge Historian Archive
The TV Museum
RetroVideoFan2
Grampian Studios Copyright Grampian TV/STV
Helical Memories
So now I invite you all to sit back, and enjoy the celebration of this most cherished anniversary of a great institution of British media!

[@bigdvinyl2012]

They tried various tunes for the Thames ident and finally got it right

[@cvni81]

==TABLE OF CONTENTS== 1) London Weekdays 0:00 Associated Rediffusion 0:31 Thames - 0:40 Test idents 12:05 Carlton 2) London Weekend 7:32 London Weekend Television 7:38 London Weekend 8:30 LWT 3) Midlands Weekdays 38:29 ATV (Also transmitted to London during the weekends before LWT) 40:14 Central 1:00:26 Central (Carlton Era) 4) Midlands Weekend 1:03:03 ABC 5) Northwest England 1:03:40 Granada 6) Yorkshire 1:12:08 Yorkshire Television 7) Central Scotland 1:26:38 Scottish Television 8) Wales 1:33:05 TWW 1:33:23 Harlech 1:34:25 HTV 9) South England 1:42:08 Southern 1:44:12 TVS 1:45:57 Meridian 10) Northeast England 1:50:04 Tyne Tees 11) East England 1:56:01 Anglia 12) Northern Ireland 2:00:09 Ulster Television 2:02:14 UTV 13) Southwest England 2:10:35 Westward 2:12:02 TSW 2:13:14 Westcountry 14) England/Scotland border 2:23:23 Border Television 15) North Scotland 2:28:25 Grampian Television 16) Channel Islands 2:32:09 Channel Television 17) Morning Television 2:34:22 TV-AM 2:34:41 GMTV

[@jadsi]

Thanks

[@AnAltWindows7User]

No problem

[@jane1975]

@cvni1981: HTV also broadcast on the UK side [ from Bristol ]as HTV [ Harlech Television ] West, it was a dual regional franchise. It served Bristol, Somerset, parts of Gloucestershire and Dorset. The company also made Wycliffe, the detective series based in Cornwall, the 1996 adaptation of Poldark and Robin of Sherwood.

[@nabe1968]

People who makes timestamps deserves to go to heaven

[@ignoblesurfer6281]

You're doing God's work, sir.

[@thepeternetwork]

Ever since I've been exposed to television from the UK in the form of Benny Hill, Monty Python, Are You Being Served, and whatever public television has acquired the rights to from across the pond, I've always been curious as how UK broadcast television worked.

[@paulapprich776]

Central took the Channel Four blocks to the next level

[@11carbuff19572011]

I never forget the spelling of the name of CENTRAL done using the NATO phonetic alphabet, Allan Sherwin & Paul Veysey linking into Heartbeat, The Bill & other emergency services-related programmes.

[@districtline]

Thanks so much for putting this impressive collection together.

[@OttoOG3]

Came here from Applemask. Can wait until the 22nd.

[@revinhatol]

4:32 Here they are now, Morecambe and Wise.

[@brucedanton3669]

Thank you for this of course. Without doubt the best one here I feel is the ATV Zoom 2 IN COLOUR ident of old, used until of course ITV in the Midlands later became Central, so then too. Well done!

[@sleepytyphlosion5660]

Oddly enough, the earliest Carlton idents remind me of the later “Rhythm and Movement” and “Oneness” idents used by BBC1.

[@KevsterWilson]

Wow such a brilliant video! Really loved all the Yorkshire Television idents, Some of which ive never even seen before as well as hearing the full idents used from the 90s. & the Tyne Tees 1s.

[@omnibus4157]

Thames went through a lot of theme melodies, there, for a while! And that Kenny Everett. Hahaha! His show was syndicated to the US for a few years in the 80s (heavily censored, to be sure). I watched as a teen.

[@PhilReynoldsLondonGeek]

The Thames logos with unfamiliar tunes were 1968 trials. Not used in actual broadcasting, where they used two basic arrangements of the "sweet lavender" tune, and occasional vocal versions (Morecambe and Wise springs to mind).

[@BenKirb]

What channel did Kenny Everett's show air on here in the US?

[@omnibus4157]

@@BenKirb When I was a kid in the 70s/80s, it was an independent station, Channel 18, in Milwaukee. I think that station had an Anglophile for a programmer back then, because they broadcast a lot of shows that were ~6 months to a year behind their UK airings, as well as ITV's international news (I remember Trevor McDonald, for instance). I imagine a lot of British shows were packaged for syndication to independent stations worldwide in those days. Between Channel 18 and Milwaukee's PBS station Channel 10, which also showed a lot of British stuff, I saw *a lot* of British stuff!

[@BenKirb]

@@omnibus4157 Oh, wow! I also know PBS as America's sort-of BBC, so that's cool!

[@Redeupiify3982]

Audio Of VCR OSD 2.1 3:45 Audio Of Biko 1.0 9:27 Audio Of Circle Steppes TT 2.0 9:35 Audio Of George 1.5 10:57 Audio Of Geo Sans Light 1.0 34:27 Audio Of Elliot Sans 1.0 36:58 Audio Of Futuristic 2.0 40:13 Audio Of Techna Sans 1.0 42:18 Audio Of Radio Space 2.2 (SCTVEBify's Logo) 46:17 Audio Of Jorby 1.5 1:09:30 Audio Of Circle Steppes TT 2.25 1:14:50 Audio Of Circle Steppelavision TT 2-1.0 1:21:49 Audio Of Glass Houses 1.0 1:27:58 Audio Of Super Hello Headline/Octagon Jorby 1.0 1:28:37 Audio Of TWW Styled/Teledu Cymru Styled 1:33:06 Audio Of Bauhaus 93 2.5 /Cube Baar Metanoia 1.0 1:33:54 Diamond Darwin Pro 1.0/Bauhaus 93 2.5 (Original) 1:34:58 Cube Monoround 1.0 1:35:55 Audio Of Telavision 1.9 1:46:32 Audio Of Cube Hello Neuropoline 1.0 1:46:40 Audio Of Gilroy 1.0/Cube Digital-7 10.0 1:51:55

[@oinker1695]

The crazy thing is is that my ma has lived to see almost all of the utv idents. And stv + grampian. Holy shit...I'm gonna show this to her

[@SuperWindows78]

how many of them?

[@richardcb6076]

I was under the impression that a lot of those older Thames idents were actually just test and never used?

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Correct. They were all possible tunes that Thames could have used, but decided against. They even considered using the ABC chimes!

[@jane1975]

Border Television also broadcast to Dumfries and Galloway and at one point the Isle of Man. I always thought that Harlech Television was named after the Castle in Wales but it was named after Lord Harlech. TVS rejected the generic 89 look, so did others too.

[@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq]

This is brilliant I especially love the Yorkshire Television regional idents

[@koa1464]

i remember everything here

[@stepheng8779]

Excellent work 👍 Hope you find the Yorkshire Xmas ones they did. The itv generics are woeful and a strong logo is a much better brand identity than a location shot. Gonna look up what happened to the Anglia knight 😂 we had to put up with him for years, news from an area we hadn't a clue about until we finally got YTV in East Yorkshire.

[@NijiMarii]

I think the Anglia knight is still in the reception area of ITV Anglia. Still on a turntable too: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIvJdWhof9B-oqs

[@rorywhelan2866]

I can’t imagine that anyone wants 30 minutes of Carlton intros

[@80sandretrogubbins25]

One is bad enough.

[@swire6984]

You can see how Meridian’s idents progressively get worse and worse until the 1999 generic ident came into use.

[@wetfrenchfryAUTTP]

*1989

[@swire6984]

@@wetfrenchfryAUTTP Meridian only began broadcasting in 1993 iirc

[@grahamnancledra7036]

Westcountry was derided by Cornwall who know that the West Country ends at the river Tamar. There Idents features so much water and Rain that ir was know as WetCountry.

[@MultiAnimationdude]

Updated Edition premieres on Friday! Link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3KXZYF_atF4mqM Endcaps video premieres tomorrow! Link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKacnWtpibZsqc0

[@wetfrenchfryAUTTP]

i am unfortunately very long of a plane ride away from here, but i wish i lived there :( it’s because i love the regional idents! thames is def one of my favorites because of the beautiful skyline. i have seen that logo on nickelodeon before, and the lwt spoof was funny-i wonder where that came from :o sadly no more regional channels though, but we’ve got harlech’s beautiful waterfall fanfare, (and the one that was more upbeat) i’m smilling now that you have archived these to us. sending love from the us

[@eesti_lv]

i’m glad most of the regions were preserved well. (unlike tww, teledu cymru, rediffusion and ABC which were mostly wiped after their franchise loss) it could’ve ended a lot worse for them

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I like the short versions of Harlech's Young Kingdom theme

[@gordonbartlettgb]

For a station that wasn't around for very long, Carlton had a lot of idents, and none of them are any good!

[@ccateni28]

Carlton: you never met my brother's haven't you? Kids, World, CFN and Cinema: Rude...

[@LovelyYT]

I love them, but IRYO

[@GryphLane]

Arguably not Lambie Nairn's finest hour...

[@ccateni28]

@@GryphLane the 2000s lambie nairn was worse...

[@TheLightingPerson]

@@ccateni28 expect BBC2, which is good actually, but. BBC1: D A N C E. Cartlon: their own hearts then star.

[@diffuseTEKTV]

not thames struggling trying to find a perfect jingle for so long until deciding to stick to the one they had to begin with lol

[@roryneilstannage1531]

I always feel like i need a shower seeing the Crapton idents soo souless like david cameron

[@robmortimer4150]

Was so appropriate that he worked there. It’s like the design company has tried really hard to give soul to something with none

[@ccateni28]

Some are good, the problem is the brand. They made a name for being shit (world and kids not getting a chance, ITV digital, brand changing to carlton for no reason, etc) that it ruined the name and the branding.

[@danwoodhouse9290]

The first ones from 1993 were a good idea to use people of the region but i know what you mean - Carlton were the trouble makers in ITV and id sooner have Thames back any day

[@danwoodhouse9290]

Funny cos Dave Cameron was on the board of Carlton at the start.............

[@steverongevr-boother4825]

@@danwoodhouse9290 I think part of the problem was that no one in London wanted Carlton. So they were a bit rebellious from the start. And yes they single handledly ruined ITV.

[@biggaybear7360]

Shoutout for the Westcountry ident @2:19:23 ❤️ tbh it’s all good, but at what point in the Thames compilation did you doubt your sanity and wondered if this was the right thing to do 👍😂

[@ELOisawsome]

Carlton sure does Have a LOT of idents

[@d2dar459]

Centrals idents (pre-Carlton) had some funky beats to it.

[@the_pigs_have_rebelled]

Yes, Thames Television: The station with *knockers.*

[@Jac-Man]

“We know you’ve been boozing away all night, and are therefore suzzled out of your beans.”

[@Stephie2007]

24:32 🤣🤣🤣 The Carlton logo had a weight dropped on it. 😂 Was this because reruns of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" aired on Carlton (with BBC's permission) at the time?

[@tadc345fan]

Cariton

[@ben-tendo]

From the Yorkshire region as I grew up. I felt when regional idents left everything became really flat and dull. A shame it was all scrapped really.

[@ashfaq1999]

Classics.

[@d2dar459]

49:37 - 49:45 Childrens ITV in the 80s

[@nigelkthomas9501]

These idents are great, but we seem to see them now do we.

[@christopherbusby1726]

Tyne Tees 1.51 and 26 my favourite.

[@octaviusfooks7194]

19:23 - NOTE: That's the puppet of John Major from Spitting Image

[@paulapprich776]

Pardon the pun, bot Central takes the Cake!

[@decimatorentertainmentstud8523]

Itv has so many logos

[@OrangeShellGaming]

There exists a somewhat less twitchy version of the first TSW ident that was shown at the start of TSW's The Opening Show.

[@bytearchives]

17:08 egg

[@tadc345fan]

Do you always love eggs?

[@iangeorgewhatton7541]

ITV has had more Idents than Microsoft Windows.

[@alexandreferreira4385]

Omg Tyne tees 😮

[@evonneokafor]

You missed the 21st anniversary Thames indent. Also missed the F1 LWT theme that was on the 1st year that ITV had the F1 coverage. Other than that great stuff.

[@MultiAnimationdude]

I intentionally left out anniversary ident as the video is quite lone enough already with just the standard ones, thank you very much.

[@evonneokafor]

@@MultiAnimationdude No problem :)

[@madmurdock100]

@@MultiAnimationdude why miss off the 21st anniversary ident when you were so comprehensive with the test idents and night time idents?

[@mixtapesfrommylatepartner]

@@madmurdock100 Totally agree. The inclusion of unused and test idents to me suggests the 21st anniversary Thames ident should also be on the video.

[@HamsterLoverBoi]

4:10 AAAAH THIS SCARED ME

[@Iminasummervacationcatnap]

Stop it its thameszilla

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

That first Harlech ident at 1:33:23 has to be a fake, no? The sound quality is fantastic, and I've never heard mention of it before.

[@yorkshireball_animations]

I’m pretty sure it’s a mock which has been created to look like some sort of prototype logo? The following logo uses the same footage just sped up but Harlech did that too for their short ident so I don’t know..

[@wetfrenchfryAUTTP]

sure it was a test

[@MarkGenner-xz4zu]

40:25 Central

[@pyeltd.5457]

BBC ONE oneness is Carlton of today

[@dominewimbury2039]

I am from London so had Thames and LWT. Then of course we lost Thames to the rubbish Carlton. The only thing I liked about THAT station was the very early idents with all the people on them. Can't remember any programmes they produced which says it all. Whereas I can name a lot of Thames produced programmes

[@richardcb6076]

I t does beggar belief Thames were replaced by Carltcon

[@jane1975]

@@ianhalsall-fox There was a major reason she would be angry, they Broadcast something that was highly sensitive and practically treasonous as it involved MI5 and the SAS a TOP SECRET stuff, they broke a lot of political and military protocols and of course there is official secrets act as well, they broadcasted the story without permission so to speak. Thus they blotted their copy book so to speak.

[@jane1975]

@@ianhalsall-fox TVS went as well, have you seen the documentary videos “ ITV in the face “ on here? Apparently TSW’s outline for programming didn’t seem good enough for the ITC ( formerly IBA ) and they lost to Westcountry Television.

[@kirilvelinov7774]

London Weeknd evolution Rediffusion(1957-1970) Thames(1970-1993) London Weeknd(1970-) GMTV(1989-2000) Carlton(2000-2004) Borders: North(Central) West(HTV Wales) East(Anglia) Southwest(Westcountry) Southeast(Meridian) Station number #10

[@ELOisawsome]

8:38 my favourite

[@Iminasummervacationcatnap]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅🧐😅😅😅😅😅😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😊

[@wetfrenchfryAUTTP]

That was a spoof of tbhs

[@holydiver73]

Those ‘this is carlton’ idents, we’re boring as piss weren’t they?

[@Jeremiah-canary]

38:29 skip if you are bored of Carlton idents

[@masoodadan5310]

Which Carlton idents featured Lunchtime Younger viewers programes?

[@Anthony05]

2:53 Dallas

[@tadc345fan]

Inspired

[@owl_mascot]

I'm from Birmingham

[@AstroCherryTehGirlSpartan]

Then u have ITV Central

[@pikminfan6778]

4:52 WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!?

[@tadc345fan]

ThameZilla

[@RealFadedLegend]

9:55 scary dancing LWT

[@CJODell12]

Nearly 3 hours long. It must have taken *ages* to edit this.

[@80sandretrogubbins25]

Definitely.

[@reddolphin0727]

1:03:03

[@Srbio1]

forgot the end of southern

[@Speedcubeinfozilelai]

39:49 how you find it?😮

[@reddolphin0727]

38:30

[@TheLightingPerson]

Carl-don? What.

[@AnAltWindows7User]

No t?

[@koa1464]

where is the LWT falling down from?

[@BlancaReyes-hb7he]

LWT bloopers

[@964rb8]

Rip thames

[@Asquid1987]

The word Thames has lost all meaning. I'm not even 4 minutes in yet

[@winterball2010]

1:34

[@markgenner1747]

Naff Production

[@tadc345fan]

Naff 😂 lol

[@ClaydonGroom]

The worst thing that happened to Central was that it was taken over by Carlton I hate Carlton it's the worst set of indents out of all of the regions

[@AnimationSwift-u3p]

I don’t see IBA.

[@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq]

01:20:59

[@juliocesararcosgalvan3622]

CEBTRAL Good Morning

[@AnAltWindows7User]

Television wales west 1958 - 1968 Harlech 1968 - 1970 Harlech television 1970 - 2002 Associated television 1956 - 1982 Central 1982 - 1999 Carlton 1993 - 2002 Associated reddufision 1955 - 1964 Reddufusion London 1964 - 1968 Granada 1956 - 2002 London weekend television 1968 - 2002 West ward 1962 - 1982 Television south west 1982 - 199? West country 199? - 200? Ulster television 1959 - 1993 Utv 1993 - present Southern 1958 - 1982 Tvs 1982 - 1993 Meridian 1993 - 200? Thames 1967 - 1993 Grampian Television 1961 - 2006 Abc 1956 - 1969 Channel television 1962 - 2013 Yorkshire 1968 - 2006

[@yorkshireball_animations]

1:33:45

[@reddolphin0727]

2:34:41

[@yorkshireball_animations]

1:50:12

[@albertcelmeta5017]

Poor lwt 8:41

[@davepoole9520]

I can think of one Yorkshire ident you missed. There was eight notes before the Yorkshire theme and it was used just before the one where the logo rose out of a lake of molten gold. I wish you'd just lumped all the boring generic ITV idents at the end so we could stop watching then. ITV was never the same after they stopped crediting the regions. Another point - ITN counted as a franchise too.

[@MultiAnimationdude]

Can you show me a copy of this ident?

[@davepoole9520]

I think it's on IDENTity crisis, the list of ITV idents on KZbin towards the end (luckily they're in alphabetical and then chronological order).

[@davepoole9520]

@@MultiAnimationdude This is the clip it's on. It's at 9:12 and it's the last ident on this clip... kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXzafGeIlM1lla8

[@steveh31]

Here are the 75 idents he missed from 2000 ;) kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYizgqaOjrqVndk

[@ELOisawsome]

1:00:26 Even central is playing along

[@uttpisbetterthaneurovision]

8:38-8:51 nobody: that bad animation:

[@ccateni28]

You forgot some idents... I don't think its as ultimate as you might think...

[@briansergeant]

I know one that’s missing since I’m from Scottish land and I still haven’t found it anywhere but I know it existed. The 9:25 startup variant of Scottish’s 1996-2000 ident which was a few seconds longer and had an authoritative sounding jingle with some brass and timpani thrown in! There’s also one for autumn ‘92 which had a fancy arty version of the thistle symbol but I can’t find it anywhere but the Christmas variant is on here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3-VXqiYqsuSq68

[@MultiAnimationdude]

If you were referring to the absence of anniversary and holiday idents, those were excluded deliberately because I felt the video was more than long enough without them. That said, I have found more regular idents which were only found and posted after this video was released and am considering re-doing to video to include them.

[@stepheng8779]

Link to your ultimate video?

[@ccateni28]

@@MultiAnimationdude what about idents like scottish itv 1 branding and all branding after that? Why is there 2 holiday idents for carlton still in the video then? wheres the prototype itv idents from 1998? Why is the HTV ident audio the same for all the HTV yellow era idents when they each had different audio? There was more than one version of the 1999/2000 LWT minor rebrand and it wasn't just the racing one. Where the other 1996 LWT idents since they had several. Why is the ident at 1:50:51 fake with the clearly added digital grain on the hd part of the picture? Why are you missing the main 1989 angla ident with the normal theme? The variants are there, why not the main one since it's already clean? Might want to fix these.

[@Agnethatheredhairkid]

I lost interest and downvoted due to too many Carlton idents.

[@pyeltd.5457]

like BBC ONE oneness idents today

[@ashitomarisu]

CENTRAL gay moon ident...

[@phongbui627]

1:41:23

[@reddolphin0727]

1:21:49