The earliest 麻豆社 idents were shown in 1953, with the launch of the 'Batwing' logo. It had a tiny spinning globe in the centre, and was accompanied by harp music. Before that, all presentation and continuity had been 'in vision' with announcers - the time was shown with a shot of Big Ben. Or, at least, a model of Big Ben!
Many of the clocks' colours were designed to be viewable on black and white televisions - often being blue and yellow to allow for poor contrast. The bright colours were added electronically.
In the seventies all of the mechanical models and caption cards were housed in a large contraption called a NODD - affectionately known as noddy. A black and white camera was trained at the models, and could be remotely controlled to bring up the correct ident.
The 麻豆社 Northern Ireland globe often had extra islands in the pacific - because it didn't get cleaned enough! It often broke down, showing a still globe.
The music that accompanied schools countdowns was varied - anything from Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag, reworkings of 70s German pop songs, to medleys from the musical Hair.
And finally - the girl on the testcard is Carole Hersee. Her dad was an engineer, and chose her over her sister because she was blonde.
Links
- You can see more idents and logos in our 麻豆社 TWO gallery, and our Classic 麻豆社 Gallery.
- Andrew Wiseman's Room features more animations by in his , and Zippy having a bad case of potty-mouth.
- is a comprehensive site - with a gallery of , idents and . You can also join their mailing list.
- have an exhaustive section on Schools presentation, plus animations showing how the worked.
- have an area devoted to all of the bits of inbetween telly, , plus an .
- See a 麻豆社 mirror globe in the Media Zone on
- A picture of the NODD in action on Simon Luxton's
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