1950s-60s 1969-81 1981-91 1981-85 
An updated version of the BBC1 globe was introduced on or around 6 September 1981. It finally adopted the stripy lettering seen on the BBC2 symbol since 1979, and on both BBC1 and BBC2 captions for several years beforehand. At first the existing globe from the mid-1970s was retained, with the deep yellow of the previous ident being changed to this rather sickly green. However once again various meddling was to take place. The image above shows it as it appeared around January 1982; by this time the positioning of the globe and the size of the lettering had already been adjusted a number of times.  
Eventually, around the middle of 1982, the globe was replaced altogether. These images show the BBC1 symbol once it had finally settled down in appearance. Watch a clip  (It still doesn't look right to me, though - my own memory has it being more yellow than green!)  
Left: initially the mechanical clock from the late 60s continued to be used; however by the end of 1981 this new electronically-generated timepiece was introduced. Right: there was no change in the design of programme slides, though - just as well, considering the lettering now matched that of the ident! Even if the colour scheme was still completely irrelevant...  
BBC Midlands's globe from this period, and BBC1 Northern Ireland's clock, still of the mechanical variety - the regional clocks took longer to be converted to an electronic type. Although much-loved by presentation enthusiasts, by the mid-1980s the mirror globe was looking severely dated, while BBC1's programming output had also become stale and uninspired. But things were looking up - in 1984 Michael Grade took control of the channel, and he had a major schedule revamp up his sleeve. And to accompany it, BBC1's identity was at last about to be brought bang up to date...
1985-91   
After sixteen years of mechanical mirror globes, probably the best globe of them all - the COW (Computer Originated World) - was unveiled at 7.00pm on Monday 18th February 1985. It remained in use for just under six years, but it could, and should, have carried on longer than that - in fact, it still looks great today! Watch a clip Like the early 80s BBC2 ident, the COW globe used a digital solid-state device, developed by Engineering Designs and was animated by the BBC Computer Graphics Workshop. A full rotation took 12 seconds.   
Slides from the COW era. The first was seen on Friday 19th June 1987 to promote an edition of Omnibus about the late Douglas Adams; the second on Tuesday 31st May 1988. At this point, slides and menus were still being produced by placing them on caption stands and shooting them with a camera - which would explain why it was rare to see one that wasn't wonky. Later in 1988, however, BBC1 and BBC2 slides began to be computer generated. The example on the right was shown regularly in the autumn of 1989. Sometimes the BBC1 logo would be superimposed on the picture, as seen here; at other times it was contained in a black bar, as with the earlier examples.  
The BBC1 COW globe as seen in Scotland and the Midlands. During this period a South East-branded globe was used for the first time.
Radio Times rarely makes mention of the introduction of new BBC idents, but in 1985 it made an exception: A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE (Radio Times, 16-22 February 1985)  "There's a new golden world to be seen on Monday - a new kind of revolving world between BBC1 programmes. The old BBC1 globe will be seen for the last time on Sunday. In its place on Monday comes a new 'transparent' earth, with the continents picked out in gold.
And with the new BBC1 'logo' come other changes - the weather, to start with. A powerful new graphics computer will revolutionise BBCtv's weather information, so that the weatherman - on Monday it will be Bill Giles - will sit at a computer terminal and conjure up an electronic slide show of satellite pictures, pressure charts, symbols and even 'league tables' for sunshine, rainfall and so on. The BBC1 programme schedules take on a new look, too. There's the long-awaited arrival not only of Terry Wogan, in his three-nights-a-week live show, but also the new twice-weekly serial set in inner-city London, EastEnders. Between them they share the fixed point of a 7.00pm start time every weekday evening. Plus returning comedy favourites such as Are You Being Served?, The Laughter Show and Only Fools and Horses - watch out for a new character to join Del and Rodney in this one - all of which begin this week..." Copyright © BBC Worldwide 1985 In the event, of course, the old mirror globe gained a slight reprieve, and was last seen on Monday at 6.35pm; its replacement introduced the first edition of Wogan at 7.00. This black-and-white picture, of course, could not do justice to the globe in its full blue-and-gold splendour.
VIDEO CLIP: BBC1 idents 1964-2006
From globes to circles - click above to watch a montage of twelve BBC1 idents in just 22 seconds! 
Three BBC1 clocks made it onto a quiz show on 18th August 2004. I kid you not. The contestants' challenge on BBC3's HeadJam was to put the above clocks into chronological order. And guess what - they got it right!
From Bernard Newnham "I was a BBC Presentation producer from 1977 - 91, and saw the various globes of the time, and knew (and still know in some cases) the people in charge of them. You were asking for more info, so I'd thought I'd offer my two penny worth. The colour globes before the COW were all monochrome, so any black and white ones you saw were just the globe in its native form - a mistake maybe? The globes and lettering were produced in black, white and grey and the colours were produced by a three level synthesiser - I think the adjustment knobs were on the S Tel E's end of the desk, and changing the colours was very easy, though sometimes the politics weren't. It was possible to change them by accident. There wasn't the concentration on branding in those days that there is now - there didn't need to be - and we changed things sometimes just because we fancied. There's a tendency on sites like yours to write stuff like "the BBC decided...." but actually often it was just us deciding what we wanted to do today for a change. It all tends to sound like grand decisions on websites when it actually wasn't. The bigger longer term things like the main globe did get more concentrated effort, but not the way things are done today. The Christmas symbols were always good fun, invented by Pat Hubbard, graphics designer Oliver Elmes and Bill (?) from the mechanical workshop. Pat (Head of the Promotions department and my immediate boss) and Oliver had a fiery relationship - mostly on Pat's side - and there were always loud rows about what should be done. It's strange to find the Christmas symbols a bit of a cult these days. Part of the Christmas Day promotions producer's jobs was to go in to studio Pres B before the junctions and make sure the symbol was working properly. The whole studio was taken up for this for four or so days, before things were costed in a way that would make this ridiculously expensive. Pat had some of the bits of the mechanical models at his house before he died, I don't know where they went. You can see Pres B in programmes like Sounds of the Sixties. It's the small one with the bare walls and a monitor up in the left corner above Bob Marley's (or whoever's ) head. The COW was a great departure, originated and designed by Oliver Elmes, with the electronics done by the CGW. The idea was to get away from mechanical models to new electronics. The then Head of Pres said that it would give more flexibility, but I must admit that I didn't think it would be any different in that respect. I do agree now - and thought then - that it was the best ever. Every so often I put on a tape with it at the front of a programme and go - wow. At the time I spoke out strongly in favour of a videotape symbol that could have variations. For a while the COW was in the Wellcome Wing of the Science Museum in London, but sadly It's gone now (in storage?). Each tv frame was held on a card the size of a full length PCI card, and the system sequenced around them. You could see all the cards in the display. The COW went away because we had a new head of department who wanted to show she was in charge. The new symbol was the worst ever, designed at great expense outside the BBC by the same man who designed the short-lived News titles that had SS-style lettering. In the new Birtist regime we weren't allowed to say the sort of things we would have done a year or two earlier, and it cost so much that it stayed far too long. Whilst it was being developed I was sent to film at the studio where it was being made for a behind the scenes programme. Somehow it never happened - can't think why...... BBC 1 is about to get a new look, and I believe it might get a more traditional look than it has recently - or maybe that's just wishful thinking. cheers
Bernard Newnham" 1950s-60s 1969-81 1981-91 | 
