UK TV idents

February 1, 2007 10:15 AM

Remember this? British people of a certain age will know about sitting in a school hall or classroom watching this clock waiting for 'Middle English' or 'How We Used To Live' to begin. This website recreates old tv clocks and idents in flash and it's like watching decades of anticipation pass you by -- and very cleverly, they tell the correct time. Many are available as screensavers.
posted by feelinglistless (31 comments total)

Oops sorry, via.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:16 AM on February 1, 2007

I do remember that!
posted by Mocata at 10:17 AM on February 1, 2007

Some of these are like the Doc's Delorean, they are so good at zapping you instantly back in time - particularly the ones with sound. This and this both transported me back within a second.
posted by greycap at 10:24 AM on February 1, 2007

Oh wow, that brings back some distant memories. I remember How We Used To Live being really cool - I saw a load of WW2-based ones and loved them.
posted by TheDonF at 10:25 AM on February 1, 2007

This is one thing that blew my mind about european TV... even today (in Belgium at least) their is often nothing on certain channels. Literally. There is no programming. Just a clock or something.
posted by phrontist at 10:34 AM on February 1, 2007

Hey, it beats infomercials.
posted by arto at 10:35 AM on February 1, 2007

Ohhhh yes.
posted by chrismear at 10:36 AM on February 1, 2007

Whoah. That was like being plugged into a fucking time machine. Holy shit.

The TV equivalent of a certain madeleine.
posted by unSane at 10:40 AM on February 1, 2007

I'm not British, but I enjoyed this (though my people were British at one point).
posted by drezdn at 10:45 AM on February 1, 2007

Thank you. Superb.

Even though I've never seen any of these before, I dig the
futuristic clean design, and I've got a cool new screen saver.

The YTV time is...
posted by Keith Talent at 10:57 AM on February 1, 2007

See also: Look Around You.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 11:01 AM on February 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I sure hope that clock screensaver plays nicely with XP Pro and dual monitors -- I've been looking for a simple, attractive clock.
posted by pax digita at 11:17 AM on February 1, 2007

Yay! Channel Four Clock installed. Thanks.
posted by Sk4n at 11:19 AM on February 1, 2007

I recognize the Thames ID - from The Benny Hill Show and the BBC globe ID from Monty Python episodes.
posted by wfc123 at 11:20 AM on February 1, 2007

Ahhh, memories...
posted by ob at 11:31 AM on February 1, 2007

Three cheers for people like this guy. If you like this site, you could lose an entire afternoon wallowing in TV Cream if you haven't already.
posted by teleskiving at 11:34 AM on February 1, 2007

Eponysterical.
posted by chrismear at 11:52 AM on February 1, 2007

Oh my, that was wonderful. The music reminds me of staring longingly at my English teacher.
posted by vbfg at 12:01 PM on February 1, 2007

Some of these are like the Doc's Delorean, they are so good at zapping you instantly back in time - particularly the ones with sound. This and this both transported me back within a second.

Alas, this year is the first the BBC has stopped broadcasting Open University programmes for students in the middle of the night. Purple nylon sweaters and beards are henceforth lost to an entire generation of shift workers.
posted by vbfg at 12:12 PM on February 1, 2007

I just stumbled across these sites the other day myself looking for the BBC globe ID that was featured so often in Monty Python. Great link.
posted by briank at 12:31 PM on February 1, 2007

Fantastic. For a moment there it felt like being dragged back into my school library in 1985. I was actually disappointed that Middle English didn't start at the end of the countdown.

Nice to see the Thames TV idents are on there too.
posted by tomsk at 12:38 PM on February 1, 2007

The music reminds me of staring longingly at my English teacher.

...and breath holding competitions.
posted by vbfg at 1:15 PM on February 1, 2007

Thanks for this - but now I've had to spend twelve minutes (by the BBC clock) looking up How We Used to Live. I still remember - a quarter of a century on - the scene where the child next door died of an illness (scarlet fever?). The original versions don't seem to be available, although there are CD ROMss apparently based on it, and a book. /derail
posted by paduasoy at 1:19 PM on February 1, 2007

So cool. I remember thinking as a kid how cool and science-y that schools clock was... and how disappointed I was when I learned what a rostrum camera was and how it worked.
posted by Hogshead at 3:12 PM on February 1, 2007

Wonderful. Thanks for the memory.
posted by tellurian at 4:01 PM on February 1, 2007

Yes, thanks indeed. Funny how nostalgia works. I've just come in from the pub where I've spent the whole evening talking politics (which is my profession) and this post has made me flash back to how PISSED OFF I was aged 8 when children's programming on the BBC was interrupted by the Budget or party conferences (both of which I now watch for my job).

Ah, lost innocence of youth.
posted by athenian at 4:18 PM on February 1, 2007

Alas, this year is the first the BBC has stopped broadcasting Open University programmes for students in the middle of the night. Purple nylon sweaters and beards are henceforth lost to an entire generation of shift workers.

I know - RIP. (I am on OU student myself).

On the subject of Proustian televisual madeleines, I discovered this page full of Look and Read downloads the other day. "Geordieeeeee Racer!".
posted by greycap at 12:02 AM on February 2, 2007

Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god"! Look and Read! "The Boy From Space" is the only one of the dramas I remember, in fact this thread made me think of it before I saw it on there, but there are all kinds of memories on there for me.

Derek Griffiths was second only to Brian Cant in the God of kids TV stakes back in the day, and Cant only wins because of the potential for hirality inherent in the name. That said, here's a picture of Griffiths taking up the rear. For all the good he did though, I distinctly remember a programme he did for schools TV on Ch4 on basic numeracy. He was getting kids to say one-ty, two-ty, three-ty, forty, fivety, sixty, seventy, eighty, etc ... kids who may have been struggling with counting past ten / one-ty.

Thanks for the thread link btw, I missed that one entirely. I'm an OU student of a couple of years standing now. Arguing practise atm.
posted by vbfg at 1:17 AM on February 2, 2007

Hirality? Hilarity!
posted by vbfg at 1:18 AM on February 2, 2007

the BBC has stopped broadcasting Open University programmes for students in the middle of the night.

I did my PhD at the OU, it adds another dimension to late night viewing if someone you've been down the pub with that night is explaining astrophysics on national telly when you get home.
posted by biffa at 8:56 AM on February 2, 2007 [1 favorite]

Good God, yes. I can't believe how much Open University stuff I watched drunk. Apparently stuff you learn drunk comes back to you when drunk, so it may be that when I drink enough I suddenly become a fucking expert on "Aspects of Social Work".
posted by unSane at 9:05 AM on February 2, 2007