Scottish Television/STV

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious and rj4712

Editions by
Mr. Logo Lord, Michael Bass, PerryLuv2001, Thisisanswer and Michael Kenchington

This article is about the TV idents. For the production logos, see Scottish Television Enterprises.

1st Logo (August 31, 1957-1960)

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Visuals: Against a black background is the text:

SCOTTISH
TELEVISION
PRESENTS

in a serif, jumbled-up font.

Technique: A still printed image.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on STV programmes from the late 1950s. Additionally, several copies of early STV programmes were destroyed in a studio fire on November 3, 1969.

2nd Logo (1960-1965)

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Visuals: Against a black background, there are four white squares, each of which are split by two white lines arranged in a cross shape. Inside the squares are (clockwise, starting in the top-left): an "S", the lion rampant, a "V", and a "T", all of which are black. The letters are written in a wide serif font. "CHANNEL TEN" is written below in the same font as the letters.

Variant: Sometimes, there would be no text below at all.

Technique: A still printed image.

Audio: An eight-note horn and drum fanfare, followed by an announcer saying, "This is Scotland".

3rd ID (1965-1969)

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Visuals: For a split second, there is a white background, which is wiped away horizontally on both sides, revealing a white box opening up on a black background. The words "SCOTTISH" and "TELEVISION" (also in white) drop in from the top and bottom sides of the screen, respectively. Then, a white Lion Rampant (the symbol found on the flag used by the King of Scots) spins in counterclockwise.

Variants:

• In later years, due to complaints from the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the man in charge of protecting Scotland’s heraldry, the logo was re-filmed with the lion simply zooming in instead. This version also appears to have a slightly smaller box and text.
• A colour version (with a dark blue background) exists, which was used around 1969. Sometimes, the lion would not move from its initial point, therefore being much smaller than usual.
• Another colour version also exists where the entire logo is yellow, and the background is also black.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A rearrangement of the last logo theme played on the flute, followed by additions of a drum roll and a cymbal crash as the lion spins in. Composed by Geraldo, arranged by Ray Terry.

Availability:

• The news programme Scotland Today has a brief portion of the zooming variant as part of a montage back in 2007 commemorating STV's 50th anniversary.
• Andrew Wiseman's TV Room on 625.uk.com has a Flash remake of both the spinning and the zooming variants, so it's worth a look for nostalgia's sake.

4th ID (December 13, 1969-1985)

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Visuals: Against a black background, there are the letters "stv", in a blocky font, zooming in. At the same time, an outline of a second set of the same letters zoom out. As the letters merge, the logo fades to blue.

Variants:

• For areas that hadn't yet switched to colour, the logo is entirely in black-and-white, with the background fading to gray.
• The blue colour became slightly brighter in 1974.
• In 1977, an additional version was added were we see six blue rectangles and four purple rectangles moving in from all sides of the screen. They briefly form a tartan pattern before colliding to form nine light blue squares and rectangles. When then disappear fully, the lines retract to form a light blue STV logo. "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" then slide from within each other and rest when fully separated. This was dropped by 1980.
• There was a still version with the STV logo inside the tartan pattern with the blue rectangles solid and surrounded by four light blue squares.
• In the 1980s, there was a rotating version.

Technique: Appears to be cel animation. The rotating variant was created off a VT Cart.

Audio: A French horn fanfare or none.

Availability: The original and animated version of the additional version were so far only seen before Scotland Today.

• The production variant was seen on a few shows and maybe seen on VHS releases of those shows.
• There is also a Flash remake of both versions on 625.uk.com.

5th ID (August 31, 1985-December 1988)

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Visuals: Against a black background, there are six gray cubes, one long rectangular column, one teal sphere, and a magenta cone shape zoom-out to the left and arrange themselves onto a sheet of metal, forming an abstract thistle shape. "SCOTTISH TELEVISION", in white, fades-in below.

Variants:

• For STV's 30th anniversary in 1987, after the usual thistle animation, the metal sheet is quickly replaced by a black background, and the thistle is surrounded by a small purple/blue grid. "1957" and "1987" (in white) fade in at the top, then "30 YEARS OF SCOTTISH" (in blue) fade in below.
• A special Christmas variant was used in which we see a shot of snow, and a snow-sculpted thistle fades onto it. "CHRISTMAS on Scottish" wipes in above and below the thistle in a dark blue script font.
• During the summer of 1988, there was a special ident identical to the Christmas ident, but with a shot of a desert before manning down to the thistle made of sand.
• During 1988, there were a number of idents where the thistle is on different colour background.

Technique: CGI by Robinson/Lambie-Nairn. The Christmas and Desert variants are mostly live-action.

Audio: A dramatic synth bass line with a mellow nine-note woodwind fanfare with an autoharp-like flourish. Composed by Dave Cooke.

Audio Variants:

• The Christmas variant uses a soft chime tune, and the desert variant uses a tune with bongos, flutes, and guitars.
• Sometimes, the end theme of the programme plays over the logo.

Availability: Saved on shows from the era. The animated version was seen on some prints of Taggart.

6th ID (January 1, 1989-December 31, 1992)

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Visuals: Against a dark cloudy sky with a shady purplish floor, three plastic discs called "tiddlywinks", one red, one green, and one blue, roll forward and the camera follows them. They all fall down, one-by-one, in the appropriate order, and the camera showing that they are forming the "head" of the thistle as seen before. As the tiddlywinks fall, they all turn the thistle into their appropriate colours. The camera slightly turns upward to view the final product.

Variants:

• In early 1990, an additional variant is introduced in which the blue thistle is shown, before the camera panned upward as a series of tiddlywinks come from the top and bottom of the screen to form the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" in a tall serif font. An abridged version of the music was used here.
• From January 4th up until August 30th, 1991, there were numerous variants in which we see an aerial of Scotland including the Forth bridge, which fades to the thistle logo against a black background.
• During 1992, there were a variant that takes place on a marble-like background. The thistle, appearing to be made out of glass, flips out from the right of the screen, and the screen starts to form "frost".

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A synthesized tune with a series of chimes that are timed to the falling tiddlywinks.

Audio Variants:

• A traditional Scottish-like tune plays for the "bridge" variant.
• The "frost" variant uses a cheery harp-like tune.
• The ending variant uses a dreamy, four note jingle.

Availability:

• The production variant appeared on several shows, such as Taggart.
• The animated end variant is used on season one episodes of Fun House.
• The version with the 1989 ITV logo and copyright can be found on season two episodes of the UK version of Wheel of Fortune.

7th ID (September 1-December 1989)

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See ITV for description.

8th ID (January 1, 1993-October 6, 1996)

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Visuals: Against a stylized purple background, the "head" from the thistle, in silver, zooms out and slowly flips around, and as this happens, the other parts of the thistle unfold from right to left, and the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" do the same.

Variants:

• A Nighttime variant shows the thistle animating (slowly) against clips of Glasgow or Edinburgh scenery at night.
• A Christmas variant in 1993 and 1994 shows a thistle covered in multicoloured, flashing Christmas lights. The Christmas 1995 variant shows a gold thistle.
• Sometimes, it was seen without text.
• In the last episode of the 2nd series of What's Up, Doc? the 1993 Scottish endcap was tilted and it is covered in flames of fire, possibly caused by the explosion from the tank that appears in the set.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A four-note horn fanfare.

Audio Variants:

• The Nighttime variant used a jazzy saxophone rendition of the normal music.
• The Christmas variant uses a gentle Christmas-like tune with harps and jingle bells.

Availability: Saved on Taggart episodes and other shows such as Hurricanes, Wolf It, How 2, Fun House, Wheel of Fortune, and Art Attack, among others.

9th ID (October 7, 1996-February 27, 2000)

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Visuals: Against a cloudy purple background, several large glass thistles pan back to reveal the silver thistle from before. A blurry white cloud below sharpens up to reveal the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" in white.

Variants:

• During the nighttime, the background is a darker purple.
• There is a version seen before movies with several names of genres in many different fonts. The background is also darker and there are many words and objects in the background that are translucent and there are also 2 black bars, making it resemble a 16:9 ratio screen.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A calmer-sounding version of the previous logo's music.

Audio Variants:

• The nighttime variant has a soothing rendition of the music.
• The movie variant has a majestic theme.

Availability:

• Saved on original programming, including Taggart episodes, Art Attack, How 2, Fun House, Wheel of Fortune, and several TV-movies, among many others.

10th ID (February 28, 2000-January 5, 2003)

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Visuals: There are some footage related to Scotland, which culminates in the appearance of a modified version of a large square on top with several lights flashing inside it and "scottish tv" (the blue colour around "tv" being slightly lighter) below appearing via a "focusing" effect.

Variant: "An SMG business" byline would be added in later years.

Technique: Live action filmed by Michael Prince, and CGI by ISO Design.

Audio: A futuristic techno tune, composed by Savalas.

Availability: Saved on programming from the era, like Taggart, Wheel of Fortune and Rebus.

11th ID (January 6, 2003-May 30, 2006)

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Visuals: Like the then-current generic ITV1 ident, there is a montage of various ITV1 personalities, which ends with a shot of the STV logo from before, minus the square on top, against a series of blue panels. The logo zooms toward the camera a bit.

Variants:

• There is a different variant in which the Scottish TV logo slides toward the bottom right in pieces before coming together. Once again, this is just like the then-current ITV1 generic ident.
• A regional variant was used featuring various Scottish TV personalities, and a national variant was also used featuring various ITV personalities.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A jazz-like tune, or a guitar tune. This is sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.

12th ID (May 31, 2006-March 22, 2009)

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Visuals: In each variant various people are seen grabbing and looking around a blue "S" on different places. One of them puts the "S" on the center, and it flashes and the word "stv" appears at the left of its bottom area.

Variant: In August 2007, The "S" was gold for the station's 50th birthday.

Technique: Mostly live-action. Designed by Elmwood Design in Edinburgh.

Audio: Unknown.

Availability: Can be found on programs from the era. ^[Examples?]

13th ID (March 23, 2009-June 1, 2014)

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Visuals: There is a random clip shown at the beginning at the logo. Later, it flips to a still picture, followed by a series of them. When the logo zooms out to the left, it reveals that they are inside of a diamond-shaped photo album on a dark blue background. The diamond then shows different colours before closing into a white arrow and bands of the colours appear in the background. "stv" in the same font then fades and flips onto the arrow as the URL appears on the bottom right corner.

Variants:

• Numerous idents for various TV shows were created including I'm a Celebrity, Underbelly, Taggart, The X Factor, the 2010 World Cup, Downtown Abbey, STV Appeal, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Dancing on Ice, and Britain's Got Talent.
• There's also variants for each season of the year.

Technique: CGI designed by BDA Creative.

Audio: Unknown.

14th ID (June 2, 2014- )

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Visuals: Unknown.

Technique: A combination of live-action and CGI. Designed by DixonBaxi.

Audio: Unknown.

Availability: Unknown.

External Links

• STV on TVARK
• STV on Wikipedia