1985
BBC1 - New Look Monday18.02.1985
Just before BBC1's new COW globe was revealed to an unsuspecting public, Ray Moore takes us through the brand new schedule for Monday nights.
On BBC2 now...18.02.1985
Some things never change. The cross-promotional "ribbon" slide signposts Tele-Journal over on BBC2, on the night of BBC1's relaunch.
BBC1 Saturday Menu22.02.1985
From what seems to be the first weekend since the change of globe, a very pastel Saturday evening menu.
BBC1 Bank Holiday Monday05.05.1985
This Bank Holiday menu reflects more accurately the typical weather conditions during a long weekend! And judging from BBC1's evening fare, you might think it's TOO long a weekend...
Saturday Night Promo11.05.1985
A very mid-eighties soundtrack promotes Saturday night’s programmes.
Autumn comedy on BBC11985
With the arrival of the COW came moves to establish the globe as a corporate symbol for BBC1 through trails and other promotions. This example from 1985 shows, ironically, a globe looking more like the old one showcasing the new comedy coming this season.
BBC1 Christmas Eve Promo1985
Santa should be more careful - someone will end up disappointed on Christmas morning! But not this little robin who's in the right place at the right time when Santa sheds his load.
Christmas Promo - Golden Oldie Christmas Show23.12.1985
Previewing the Christmas Golden Oldie Picture Show ahead of cartoon fun with Tom and Jerry.
BBC1 Christmas Promo - Silas Marner26.12.1985
Followed by some festive programme slides. This year they were electronically generated for the first time; they also shared a common design (based on BBC2's Christmas lantern).1986
Into '86 Promo28.12.1985
BBC TV looked to the future with a very arty trail featuring music by Stravinsky and graphics by Liz Kitchen. The Into 86 campaign appeared on BBC1 and BBC2.
BBC1 Easter Monday menu31.03.1986
A wonderfully striking promo for Easter on BBC1 featuring three colourful eggs. The animation first appeared in 1985 - why was it never made into an ident?
BBC1 Ceefax link27.08.1986
A common sight on weekdays in the mid-1980s - BBC1 hands over to Ceefax after Play School and Gharbar. The music is "Rio Dancanaro" from Maximus Music.
BBC1 All In The Day promo1986
A promo which brings a tear to many a hardened Pages from Ceefax fan! When BBC1's schools programmes decamped to BBC2 in 1983, the plan was to gradually fill the daytime hours with programmes. This went well at first but then a cash crisis left BBC1 in the nightmare position of having to close down for much of the day.
BBC1 Daytime started on 27 October 1986.
BBC One Promo1986 This promo is from August 1986, Turn on to a new season of inspired promos from BBC1! A witty stop-frame featuring cogs and sprockets spelling out "BBC ONE".
BBC1 Christmas Day Promos1986 The viewers of CBBC designed BBC1's Christmas animations in 1986 and three characters - a dancing Christmas tree, its star and a band of marching holly - were brought together in the sequence. You can see it here on its own and as part of these Christmas Day Promos
BBC1 Christmas Promos1986
It's the steel band version of BBC1's Christmas theme for 1986, and there's some great movies to make a song and dance about this year too. The promo is incomplete but enjoy the calypso!
Right clip - Christmas Eve menu
1987
BBC Daytime1987
BBC1's first full daytime service launched on 27 October 1986, after many false starts and years in the planning. Within a year BBC Daytime, as it became known, adopted its own unique look with special graphics and its own animated sting. Both dated very quickly, however, and by 1990 daytime broadcasts used the usual corporate BBC1 branding.
BBC Daytime Trail - Bazaar11.10.1987
One of the new daytime schedule's flagship programmes was Bazaar and here presenter Judi Spiers promotes the first programme of the new series.
Programme TX: 12 October 1987
Daytime UK11.10.1987 This is more of a programme clip, although it does show live links from Pebble Mill.
Daytime UK ran from 15th October 1990 to 24 May 1991
Match Of The Day Promo31.10.1987
A year before the launch of the first BBC Sport ident, BBC Sport is in floodlights to promote the forthcoming Liverpool v Everton Match of the Day Live from the days in the mid 1980s when BBC1 broadcast live top flight league football. BBC TV lost the rights to broadcast live league football to ITV in 1988.
BBC1 Saturday Promo25.4.1987
BBC1 begins Saturday evening with a promo with clips from the programmes for the evening ahead.
BBC1 Tuesday Promo09.06.1987
Several striking promo graphics emerged in the mid-late 1980s with more imaginitive ways of expressing the BBC1 brand. This example dates from summer 1987.
BBC1 Tuesday16.06.1987
Another variation of a sequence first seen in 1986, showing a large "1" as the pointer in a sundial.
BBC1 Sunday menu23.11.1986
The late 1980s saw the first serious attempt at using corporate branding in programme trail. As this example shows, the COW era BBC1 logo is prevalent.
BBC1 On BBC2 now...15.08.1987
Out with the ribbons from 1986 and in their place corporate cross-promo slides with a different look to the usual ones. At the time, regular slides remained exactly that.
BBC1 Link20.12.1987
The bits between the programems were much simpler in 1987, as this example proves.
BBC1 Wednesday menu23.12.1987
For the first time, the globe symbol is incorporated in trails. Just who is under those bandages in Dallas?
BBC1 Christmas Promo/Startup22.12.1987
Santa time once again and this year's theme is a stylised "Christmas" logo which doubled as the main festive ident. Starting in an attic full of toys, animation takes over to form the end board. Bernard Newnham designed the sequence. There was no real ceremony to BBC1's startup on Christmas Day. No music, just Andy Cartledge to run through the menu and before CBBC, some wintry film.
1988
BBC1 See For Yourself trail02.01.1988
Time once again for the BBC to show us how our license fee was spent in the last year. The vox pops are quite telling - take away the pictures and you could easily assume they were recorded today.
Into '88 with BBC1 Promo15.01.1988
Christmas has just left the building so time to focus on the new year. And BBC1 leaps heraldically into 1988 with two stunning CGI animations to launch it's new year programming.
BBC1 Friday menu15.01.1988
It's what makes television possible, so what better way of promoting Friday night than a cathode ray tube identifying the station?
BBC1 Michael Barrymore trail16.07.1988
Once upon a time things were "awight" for Michael Barrymore, who enjoyed successful careers on both the BBC and ITV. In what seems a precursor to his ITV series, Michael got his own Saturday night variety show on BBC1. However "Saturday Night Out" does not seem to have stuck in the public's mind as Michael's other series have.
BBC1 Thursday menu21.07.1988
Thursday night on 1 begins with Charles Nove and his enthusiastic look at tonight's offerings, including the return of Lou Beale to EastEnders.
Christmas Day menu1988
A look ahead to Christmas Day on BBC1, including Christmas Morning with Noel, the obligatory EastEnders and the British TV premiere of Back To The Future. Followed by continuity from Richard Straker.
1989
BBC1 Friday Promo1989
left clip from 13th January 1989, right clip from 4th January 1989.
Friday evening and a windy theme for all the usual evening fare. The end board at least had been used for some time at this point.
BBC1 Saturday Promo25.2.1989
A peaktime promo for BBC1's Saturday's programmes, shown at 8.10 the previous evening ahead of this week's edition of Dynasty,
BBC1 - The Star Attraction1989
Today it's "The One", in 1989 BBC1 was The Star Attraction. Everything about this promo is 80s - right down to the television set!
BBC1 Interval menu1989
September 1989 and with it being Sunday, there's a five-minute break between the end of Open University programmes and Playbus. Time for David Allan to run through the morning's line-up, and for everyone else to get those line dancing boots on and shake it to the rhythm of "Cajun Highways"!
BBC1 Wednesday Promo19.7.1989
An instrumental of a Pet Shop Boys hit is the soundtrack for promoting Wednesday night on BBC1.
BBC1 Christmas Promos29.12.1989 The final Christmas of the decade and BBC1 really goes to town. Toytown, to be exact! A wondeful stop-frame sequence features Santa having a well-earned rest and a frog hopping aboard the BBC1 express, which also linked trails to the main ident.
Right clip is from Christmas Eve 1989
1990
BBC1 Sunday Menu18.08.1990
An award-winning menu animation first seen on BBC1 in the spring and summer of 1990. This summery piece expands on the globe theme and uses several artistic devices to represent BBC1's globe symbol, incuding a fruit stall shaped like Africa and a dancer with a globe-patterned skirt. The globe even appears in the endboard as a setting sun.
BBC1 Christmas Promos25.12.1990 A pop-up book was the centrepiece of BBC1's Christmas identity in 1990. It looks ordinary - then springs open unveiling a fantasy world brought to life by Maj the magician. In reality the sequence was made possible using the "Harry" editing system.
left clip - promo for Christmas Day, right clip - Christmas films to come
1991
Winter Animations1991
left clip - 5th February 1991, right clip - 7th January 1991
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, greater emphasis was placed on trails as a way of programme promotion. By now the animations were having a good deal of money spent on them, as this example shows. At the time, graphics were changed quarterly and this design survived the 1991 rebrand. See how conveniently placed the door is.
BBC1 Holding Slides 1985
Although a brave new computer-generated world image was the new sign and symbol of BBC1, programme slides remained optically-generated for another three and a half years. However the new design was radically different from what went before, with the BBC1 logo now upright on the left of the screen.
BBC1 Holding Slides 1986
Finally, Quantel Paintbox becomes the standard for slides on BBC1, starting off with a simple box design, this was then modified to the original design and allowed more creative flexibility, Optima was the typeface chosen (also used by The Open University)
A change in style again
BBC Daytime holding slides used from 1987
