2002-05 2005-date 2002-05 The BBC's new channel promising a 'feast of culture' launched on Saturday 2nd March 2002. It is available free-to-air on all digital platforms and is on air from 7.00pm each evening, taking the place of BBC Knowledge. Watch the launch  (Clip has been edited) BBC4 may well have been able to claim a world first with its idents. Rather than existing as filmed sequences, the animations were created live on air by a specially designed computer system. These images reacted to a randomly chosen instrumental theme, and even to the announcer's voice - so you never saw the same sequence twice! So here is just a sample of idents seen on BBC4 in the weeks and months following the launch, starting with the very first ident shown on the channel:                                       
 
Left: trailers showed a move away from the layout and Gill Sans font used by the BBC since 1997. Right: a menu seen during the course of programmes on opening night.  
Left: A rare BBC4 static programme slide. Right: the style of 'next' caption used from June 2002. It is animated, but unlike the idents was not generated live.  
During BBC4's Summer in the Sixties season in June 2004 (left) a new-style 'next' screen was introduced (right), and subsequently remained in regular usage. It showed a montage of clips reflecting the diversity of the channel's output, using Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatross' as its backing music. Note the appearance of Dougal - he appeared on BBC4 in the 'The Magic Roundabout Story' which was broadcast as part of the channel's 'Time Shift' strand. 
This caption card was, ironically, shown in error on this occasion.
Two Hours, Three DOGs, BBC Four   
BBC4 is one of those channels that is unfortunate enough to be afflicted by television's most common disease - the DOG. And it may have set a world record on its opening night - it got through no fewer than three different DOGs before it had been on air two hours. DOG 1 (left) lasted just fifteen seconds or so when the channel first appeared around 6.50pm, looking decidedly stretched. The channel remained clutter-free until the official opening at 7.00, when DOG 2 (middle) appeared. There is no such thing as a nice DOG, but this was a particularly nasty example, with the letters F O U R being slightly too large compared to the letters in the BBC logo, and having large spaces between them. This was presumably a stop-gap while the real DOG was being squashed into the correct shape; DOG 3 (right) appeared sometime after 8.30. BBC4's DOG is particularly unusual in that it is often taken for walks, and for some years was absent for films, music, drama, performance and comedy (though since 2007 only films appear to qualify). An open admission by the BBC, then, that DOGs actually do spoil the screen! So why on earth can it not disappear permanently? It appeared particularly incongruous on a highbrow channel such as this. Of course, viewers to BBC2 were able to enjoy the entire opening night DOG-free in a simulcast with BBC4! 2002-05 2005-date | 
