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BBC Two

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BBC Two
Ownership
OwnerBBC

BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC and the first British television channel to broadcast regularly in colour (from 1967), envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming.

History

The channel was scheduled to begin at 7:20 pm 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 pm 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, and at 10 pm they conceded defeat postponing 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.

At 11 am 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.

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 British channel 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.


Present and Past Role

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, such as occurred with Have I Got News For You. Over its first thirty or so years the channel developed a reputation for screening challenging and prestigious drama 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 down to a 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 2 also later established for itself a reputation as a champion of independent and international cinema. The channel has been accused in more recent years of increasingly watering down its original role and becoming ever more orientated towards the mainstream. The original 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 BBC2's earlier output with the new arts strand The Culture Show and intermittent night-time repeats of programming from BBC4.

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.

Some well-known programmes

Public Service, Educational and Community Programming

An important part of BBC2's early mission was not only to provide minority interest entertainment but also to fulfil the public service functions of educational and community broadcasting.

As a result of this 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 2'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.

Following a long and important association with the Open University, which has always co-produced programming with the channel, BBC2 has also carried the BBC's Schools programming from 1983 onward. In recent years the Open University programming has been broadcast under the wider category of The Learning Zone, in its longstanding slot late at night and during the early hours.

On screen identity

File:Oldbbc2.jpg
BBC2 ident "Copper cutout" used from 1991 to 1999. The '888' in the top right indicated the availability of subtitles on Ceefax.

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 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. In 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.

BBC Two and BBC Four

Over recent years BBC Two has often been accused of "dumbing down", and since the launch of the new 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%[1]) 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. Certainly there does appear to be a strong resemblance between the new BBC Four and the earlier, more ambitious, BBC Two.

Controllers of BBC Two

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.

See also

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