BBC Two
BBC Two (or
BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second
UK television station to be aired by the
BBC and Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour (from
1967), envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming.
Prior to its launch, BBC2 was promoted on the BBCtv channel which was about to be renamed BBC1; the animated adverts featured the campaign mascots "Hullabaloo" (a mother kangaroo) and "Custard" (her baby). The channel was scheduled to begin at 7:20 p.m. on
April 20 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show
The Alberts, a performance from
Soviet comedian
Arkady Raikin, and a production of
Cole Porter's
Kiss Me, Kate, culminating with a fireworks display. However, at around 6:45 p.m. a huge power failure, originating from
Battersea Power Station, caused the Television Centre to lose all power. BBC One was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at
Alexandra Palace, but all attempts to show the scheduled programmes on the new channel failed.
Associated Rediffusion, the London
ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBC's behalf, but their gesture was rejected, presumably for pride's sake. However, at 10 p.m. BBC2 had no choice but to concede defeat and postpone programming until the following morning. As the BBC's news centre at Alexandra Palace was unaffected, they did in fact broadcast brief bulletins on BBC Two that evening, beginning with an announcement by the newsreader
Gerald Priestland at around 7:25. [
1]. There was believed to be no recording ever made of this bulletin, but one was discovered in Early
2003.
At 11 a.m. on
April 21, power had been restored to the studios and programming began, thus making
Play School the first official programme to be shown on the channel. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was then successfully shown that evening albeit with minor changes. In reference to the power cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter
Denis Tuohy.
To establish the new channel's identity and draw viewers to it, the BBC decided that a widely promoted, lavish series would be essential in its earliest days. The production chosen was
The Forsyte Saga, a no-expense-spared adaptation of the novels by
John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors
Kenneth More and
Eric Porter. Critically for the future of the fledgling channel, the BBC's gamble was hugely successful, with an average of six million viewers tuning in per episode of a total of only 9 million able to receive the channel at the time, and BBC 2 was safely established with the public.
Unlike the other channels available at that time (
BBC One and
ITV), BBC Two was broadcast only on the 625 line
UHF system, so was not available to viewers with 405 line
VHF sets. This created a market for
dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. BBC One and ITV later joined BBC Two on 625-line UHF but continued to simulcast on
405-line VHF until
1985. BBC Two became the first channel in Europe to broadcast in colour in July
1967, using the
PAL system. BBC One and ITV simultaneously introduced PAL colour on UHF in late
1969. BBC Two is to be the first BBC channel to leave the domain of
analogue television. The analogue service will be switched off from
2008, region by region, about a month before the other remaining analogue channels. This will be the first major step in forcing those relying on analogue signal over to one of the BBC's digital platforms -
Freeview or
Freesat.
Nowadays new BBC programmes often appear on BBC Two, especially if those behind them have not proven themselves elsewhere. A successful BBC Two programme may be moved to BBC One, in the manner of
Have I Got News For You. Over its first thirty or so years the channel developed a reputation for screening highly praised and prestigious drama series, amongst these productions such as
Boys from the Blackstuff (
1982) or
1996's epic, critically-acclaimed
Our Friends in the North, and its "highbrow" profile compared to rivals is also in part attributable to a long history of demanding, flagship
documentaries, most famously
Civilisation and the
The Ascent of Man. During the
1980s and early
1990s, like the early
Channel 4, BBC Two also started to establish for itself a reputation as a champion of independent and international
cinema.
The channel has often been judged in more recent years to have moved away from this original role and become increasingly oriented towards the mainstream. The perception of its greater minority interest nevertheless persists in today's multi-channel world so that a programme that is moved from BBC Two to BBC One will often attract a much larger audience, even though no other change has been made. Since
2004 there have been some signs of an attempt to return closer to parts of BBC Two's earlier output with the new arts strand
The Culture Show and intermittent night-time repeats of programming from
BBC Four.
During the evenings
BBC Northern Ireland broadcast local programmes on
BBC Two NI, while BBC Wales broadcasts a special channel
BBC 2W. These are both only available on Digital Television such as
Freeview; presently, during this period BBC Two's regular programming is only available via analogue transmission. Additionally, BBC Two Scotland broadcasts Gaelic-language programmes, often under the banner "BBC Two Alba". BBC Wales also broadcast BBC Two Wales which is simular to network BBC Two but with local continuity and occasional opt-outs on their analogue transmitters.
Some well-known programmes
*
The Great War (1964) - Documentary
*
Late Night Line-Up (1964-72) - Discussion and Arts
*
Match of the Day (1964-66) -
Football magazine, shown on
BBC One since 1966
*
The Forsyte Saga (1966-67) - Drama
*
Theatre 625 (1966-69) - Drama
*
Civilisation (1969) - Documentary
*
Pot Black (1969-86) -
Snooker tournament
*
Play for Today (1970-84) - Drama
*
The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971-87) - Alternative Music
*
The Ascent of Man (1973) - Documentary
*
Arena (1975- ) - Documentary
*
Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979) - Comedy
*
I, Claudius (1976) - Drama
*
Ripping Yarns (1976-79) - Comedy
* Top Gear (1978- ) - Motoring
* Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-82) - Comedy
* Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979) -Drama
* Newsnight (1980- ) - Current affairs
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981-82) - Comedy drama
* The Young Ones (1982-84) - Comedy
* Alan Bennett's Talking Heads (1987, 1998) - Drama
* Red Dwarf (1988-98) - Science fiction comedy
* Moviedrome (1988-94) - Alternative Cinema
* The Late Show (1989-95) - Arts
* I'm Alan Partridge (1993, 1997, 2002) - Comedy
* The Day Today (1994) - Comedy
* Screen Two / Screenplay (early 1990s) - Drama
* Video Diaries (1990s) - Community
* The Fast Show (1994-2000) - Comedy
* Room 101 (1994- ) - Comedy
* Shooting Stars (1995-2002) - surreal comedy panel game
* This Life (1996-97), Drama
* Never Mind The Buzzcocks (1996- ) - surreal comedy panel game show with a pop and rock music theme.
* Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends (1998- ) - Documentary
* Goodness Gracious Me (1998-2001) - Comedy
* The League of Gentlemen (1999-2002) - Comedy
* Coupling (2000-04) - Comedy
* Adam Hart-Davis's Local Heroes and What the Victorians Did for Us (2001)
* The Office (2001-03) - Comedy
* The Kumars at No. 42 (2001- ) - Comedy
* Dead Ringers (2002- ) - Comedy
* Extras (2005- ) - Comedy
* The Weakest Link (2000- ) Quiz show
* The Adventure Game (1980-1986) Game show
* Catchword'' (1988-1994) Game show
An important part of BBC Two's early mission was not only to provide minority interest entertainment but also to fulfil the public service functions of
educational and
community broadcasting.
Following a long and important association with the
Open University, which has always co-produced programming with the channel, BBC Two has also carried BBC's
Schools programmes from 1983 onward from BBC One. In recent years the
Open University programming has been broadcast under the wider category of
BBC Learning Zone, in its longstanding slot late at night and during the early hours. However, in 2004 the
Open University announced it is to stop its late night programmes on
BBC Learning Zone in
2006.
As a result of the channel's commitment to
community broadcasting and amongst other related programming the channel produced the symbolic "Open Space" series, a strand developed in the early 1970s in which members of the public would be allotted half an hour of television time, and given a level of editorial and technical training in order to produce for themselves a film on an issue most important to them. BBC Two's Community Programmes Unit kept this aspect of the channel's tradition alive into the 1990s in the form of
Video Diaries and later
Video Nation, an intended role which, despite intermittent reappearances in the form of "Video Shorts" has since gradually been given up during the channel's move toward the mainstream.
As well as programmes, BBC Two has also proved memorable for its numerous
idents—various short films shown in between programme junctions, promoting the channel identity. Since it began in 1964, the figure '2' has almost always been used, using revolving, mechanical models and computer-aided technology, including the world's first computer-generated ident in
1979. On Easter
1986 the '2' was replaced by the word 'TWO' in red, green and blue on a white background. However, a survey carried out by the BBC in
1990 found that this gave the channel a 'dull' and 'old-fashioned' image, and the ident was changed back to a figure '2' in
1991. From then the '2' appeared the same shape but in various guises, adopting ideas like a remote-controlled car, a rubber duck, a
dalek and a fluffy dog. These are generally regarded as the best idents ever produced for a television channel and stayed in use for 10 years, ending in November
2001, (but the new
BBC Logo was incorporated within the idents from
1997 to
2001). From November 19th
2001, the figure '2' remained, but it was now always shown white on a yellow background, with various computer technology to aid it. Occasionally, the ident changes also to advertise a show on BBC Two. For example, as a trailer for the second series of
The Catherine Tate Show, one of the characters is shown arguing with a '2', in the guise of a dog.
In some rare cases, withdrawn idents have been brought back for special events. The 'Garden' ident (where a 2 grows out of flowers) was re-used for the
2001 Chelsea Flower Show, after having been retired in
1997, and remained in occasional use until the November 2001 refresh. For the
2006 Winter Olympics, the
2000 Christmas ident was used again. For the
2006 Chelsea Flower Show, the 'Predator' ident (The one where the 2 butterfly gets eaten by the Venus 2-trap) was used again. In each case, the branding has been updated to match the current style.
On
July 2,
2006, it was confirmed that new idents will be produced for the channel, recent reports have gone around that the channel flagship identity since 1991 the '2' is to be dropped after 15 years.
Over recent years BBC Two has often been accused of "dumbing down", and since the launch of the digital-only
BBC Four, the BBC has been accused in particular of letting its more highbrow output go to the new channel, which a sizable minority (34.1%[
2]) of viewers still cannot receive, rather than BBC Two, the perceived strategy being to allow BBC Two to show more popular programmes and to secure higher ratings. Many commentators have judged there to be a strong resemblance between the new Four and the earlier, more ambitious, BBC Two. However a great deal of the output from BBC Four (documentaries rather than foreign films) is repeated on BBC Two in a late night broadcast slot after
Newsnight in a 'BBC Four on Two' branded area.
The current controller of BBC Two is
Roly Keating, who took up the post in
June 2004 having formerly been controller of
BBC Four. His predecessor
Jane Root, who was appointed in
1999 and was the first woman to be appointed controller of a BBC television channel, departed in May
2004 to become the executive vice president and general manager of
US-based
Discovery Channel.
*1964–1965:
Michael Peacock*1965–1969:
David Attenborough*1969–1974:
Robin Scott*1974–1978:
Aubrey Singer*1978–1982:
Brian Wenham*1982–1987:
Graeme MacDonald*1987–1992:
Alan Yentob*1992–1996:
Michael Jackson*1996–1999:
Mark Thompson*1999–2004:
Jane Root*2004–present:
Roly Keating*
bbc.co.uk - BBC Two*
A selection of BBC Two idents*
BBC2 Idents at TV-ARK, the Television museum*
idents.tv - Video of BBC Two idents
*
Tuned Out - The BBC's portrayal of lesbian and gay people Stonewall research project
