BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament started on 23rd September 1998, having taken over from the cable-only Parliamentary Channel.

There are no continuity announcers on the channel; these idents and menus ran between each programme with some rather haunting music. Hear the BBC Parliament theme (audio only)

Trailers (left) followed the standard BBC design. Parliament, for four years, was the only BBC channel not to transmit in widescreen; and it didn't even transmit any pictures at all on digital terrestrial - this sound-only service therefore made it very difficult to follow! A text screen stopped the screen from being completely blank, though (right).

15th October 2002 saw a new look to BBC Parliament's presentation graphics, and the channel was now transmitted in widescreen.

The next day, digital terrestrial viewers were able to actually 'see' the channel for the first time ever - albeit only in a quarter-sized screen (right).

BBC Parliament's trailers still retained the 1997 BBC corporate style for years after the other channels went boxed (left)...until 2006, when BBC Parliament finally found itself shoved in a red box, just the same as BBC News 24 (right).

After eight years, the channel finally made it to full screen on Freeview on 13th November 2006.

Left: BBC trailers for sports coverage used to use a 'BBC SPORT' logotype throughout the trail, especially if coverage was carried on more than one channel. This design remained in use for some time after both BBC1 and BBC2 had changed over to the boxed format.

Right: this messy example of a sports trailer from January 2002 demonstrates how the BBC's generic look has broken down in recent months. Note particularly how the new-style purple box of BBC2 appeared little more than a smudge, in contrast to the boldness and clarity of the old-style BBC1 logotype.

Another multi-channel trailer, from July 2002, showing a mixture of old-style and new-style.

In November 2002 multi-channel 'on now' menus began being used on BBC1 and BBC2

An updated style of multi-channel menu, now showing all four of the main BBC channels, these examples shown at a common junction, 9.00pm on 9th August 2004. The colour schemes match those of the individual channels - only BBC4 spoilt the party and did not show its variant...

The next multi-channel menu design, commonly used throughout the evening schedule until June 2007. The menus are not always used just to promote BBCs 1-4 - they sometimes feature BBC News 24, CBBC, BBC radio stations or even BBCi.

Much controversy was caused from June 2007 by the introduction of these standardised ECPs (end credit promotions) which see programmes' credits squashed down to a barely readable corner of the screen while programmes that are on later or on other channels are promoted.

A much older type of 'multi-channel' caption from 1975.

Left: in line with most of the BBC channels, BBCi used to have its own box. It was green, and was displayed on the left hand side on trailers. Right: a BBCi caption, seen on the two BBC interactive channels on digital terrestrial when not in use.

A selection of captions promoting BBC Radio programmes, based on the logos used from 1997-2000. Note that the static slides (left, middle) were almost identical in design layout to those used for television programmes. On the right, the end caption from a trailer for John Peel's Radio 4 show.

Left: an older style Radio 3 slide. Right: a generic trailer for BBC Local Radio stations from 1999, all of which follow the same basic logo (except for BBC London).

New logos for the national BBC Radio networks were introduced around 2000-2001, and animated captions like these replaced the static slides. The Radio 4 caption here is particularly nice - it would have made a good ident for BBC4!

Click here for more BBC Radio logos, past and present

To finish, we have what purports to be a BBC ident from 1967. This was shown on BBC1 on 12th March 1999 as part of Comic Relief night. It actually appears to be the late 70s/early 80s model of the globe brought out of retirement, with an early 60s BBC logo placed off-centre. But why couldn't they just have used a genuine period ident? Watch a clip