BBC Two 1991–2001 idents
set of idents used on BBC Two
The BBC Two 1991–2001 idents were broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom from 16 February 1991 until 19 November 2001, and again from 9 July 2014 until 26 September 2018. Consisting of a sans-serif '2' in Gill Sans, accompanied by the colour viridian, the idents were created by branding agency Lambie-Nairn (and later, Red Bee Media) who also created the Channel 4 logo.
The ident package was retained after the corporate rebrand of the BBC in October 1997, when a new logo and additional idents were introduced, as the existing ident package was already a hit with viewers. The idents were taken out of service in November 2001 and later revived on 21 June 2014 for "90s Night" and in July 2014 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of BBC Two. They replaced the "Window on the World" idents and were broadcast until the evening of Wednesday 26 September 2018.
Conception
The newly recruited BBC2 controller, Alan Yentob, noticed that the then-logo for the channel, which featured the word 'TWO' in red, green and blue within a white background and the 'O' being white, was affecting the reputation of BBC2. Surveys commissioned realised that most viewers thought the branding was "dull and old-fashioned". He then decided to commission a worthy successor capable of displaying the personality of the channel, revealing his thoughts in the How Do They Do That? episode - about the idents.
I realised there was a problem almost as soon as I took over the channel [BBC2].
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “BBC Two 1991–2001 idents” as set of idents used on BBC Two. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as set of idents used on BBC Two. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4834992. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991, 2001, 2014 and 2018.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “BBC Two 1991–2001 idents” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.