England Scotland, Wales & N Ireland Other presentation The balloon phenomenon  
 
These are the 'lifestyle' balloons, with skateboarders, a carnival, Kingston market and, bizarrely, a bungee jumper! Introduced on 29 March 2000, they were mainly used during daytime hours, and incredibly were the last regular idents to be added to the playlist before the balloon's demise in March 2002.   
 
A handful of 'special' balloon idents were produced between 1999 and 2001, some looking more realistic than others! Hover the pointer over each image for more information.       
A selection of short 'animations' usually seen between trailers. Their usage declined considerably over the balloon's life.       
After the 1997 revamp there was no distinction between BBC1 and BBC2 slides. I really like this design - bold, clear, fuss-free. The 4:3 examples here date from 1997; the widescreen images from 2001 and 2002.   
The trailer style introduced in 1997 also followed a new generic look, designed to work across all of the BBC channels. In the middle, a trailer seen on 19th March 1999 for the last ever Noel's House Party! Either side are examples from 1997 and 2000.  
Static menus are normally only shown when there are last minute programme changes (on the left on August Bank Holiday 2001, and on the right from 2002). Note that, as with slides, captions, trailers and idents, the channel logotype remains fixed at the bottom centre of the screen at all times. This look, along with bringing a uniform look to all BBC services, also aided the move from 4:3 to 16:9 widescreen broadcasting. 
An animated balloon background was used for a very short time around October 2000 for the menu at the end of a weekend line-up trailer. There appears to have been a considerable number of different balloon-style backgrounds made available - pity they weren't used a lot more often.
Above: the clock that accompanied the balloons. Watch a clip  The BBC1 balloon was a missed opportunity, under-appreciated by BBC bosses, and there was still so much more that could have been done with it. But after less than five years, the balloon's time was deemed to be up. And most viewers expecting a fitting send-off were to be further disappointed. The balloon's final showing on network BBC1, at 2.15am on Friday 29th March 2002, consisted of nothing more than a standard, and rather brief, announcement into News 24 - no mention of the ending of an era. However late night viewers in Northern Ireland were given a special treat - a final appearance by the clock followed by a whole montage of balloons! Then at 9.00am, the unthinkable happened. BBC1 relaunched - without the globe... England Scotland, Wales & N Ireland Other presentation The balloon phenomenon | 
