BBC1 Saturday menu04.10.1997 The dawn of the balloon era and a new set of menu tails for BBC1. Long before dancers were to gain notoriety on the channel...
BBC1 Stings - from 1997
Out went the 1 and its various expressions from October; the new link stings were mini-films of the balloon symbol, featuring footage not used in the main idents.
BBC1 Breakdown1998 Same idea as above, but from the balloon era. Here BBC1's lost its Cricket coverage and it's left to Malcolm Garrett-Eynon to fill in.
BBC1 Holding Slides 1997-2002
Programme slides remained a key element of BBC presentation, despite increasing competition with the launch of digital TV. However, both channels adopted a rather unimaginitive style of slide in 1997, with just the channel's name and none of their individual characteristics.
BBC1 Christmas Stings1997
Celebrating the song "Twelve Days Of Christmas", some quirky interpretations of what my True Love sent to me!
BBC1 Christmas Stings1998
The balloon gives way to a giant red bauble this year, which steals the show in these comedic stings. Is this a full set?
BBC1 Christmas Stings1999
The final Christmas of the century but just two stings this year. Using a "northern lights" theme, holographic Christmas images were projected onto a starry night sky. There was no reference to the Millennium, which some might have expected, and the stings were not seen at all after Boxing Day.
BBC1 Christmas Holding Slides1999
They're back, by popular demand! But this was the last year to get a good look; from 2000 onwards Marketing were more aggressive and there was less opportunity for the captions to appear.
BBC1 Power Failure - News Breakdown19.06.2000 A slightly different wording for this slide, which appeared during the infamous BBC power failure of June 2000. Here the Six O'Clock News has fallen off air and announcer Dan Austin tells us we can't rejoin the newsroom.
BBC1 Christmas Stings 2000
Lucky old Rudolph - he gets the year off as instead Santa hires the BBC1 balloon for his rounds! And no personal calls either as Santa delivers the goods via parachute. Three memorable bumpers from December 2000 - do you know who "Santa" is?
BBC1 Christmas Stings 2001
A radically different approach from the Santa theme of last year, in 2001 BBC1 called upon Aardman Animations (creators of Wallace and Gromit) for its Christmas promotions. The result - a wonderful CGI sequence featuring a dinosaur. Del Boy's three-wheeler and a dalmatian (each designed to represent specific highlights of the Christmas schedules.
Against a deceptively cosy fireside backdrop, the characters cause mayhem with the dog chasing the van, and the dinosaur blowing himself up when he attempts to inflate a balloon! And there was a slogan too - Home For Christmas.
BBC1 Thursday Menu28.03.2002 History is about to be made on BBC1 - the globe is going after 39 years as the channel's symbol. And we're now at the start of the balloon's final evening, with Peter Offer running through the highlights. 14:9.
BBC128.03.2002
For the very last time, a menu from the balloon era the night before the rebrand. It appearance was due to a late schedule change....followed by the very last appearance of the balloon background immediately after "Scar Stories", to give out the BBC Action Line number. Incomplete I'm afraid, but you get the idea.
BBC1 Easter Promo (Pre-rebrand)2002
It was an unforgettable Easter but even before the tragic news which was to dominate the weekend, BBC1 went out to make sure they were the place to be over the holidays. And they did it with this suitably-themed promo, the first time in years the BBC had used seasonal sequences. Following the rebrand on Good Friday the film was adapted with the new graphics.