Westcountry Television 01/01/93 - 05/09/99 [ Main | News | Programmes | Continuity | ITV South West Index ]

Westcountry Opening promotion (1993)  Following Big Ben's chimes, Westcountry unleashed itself onto South West screens with this video, welcoming viewers to their service. A greater regional identity and more local programmes are promised.

Westcountry (1993) Fast forward to 9.25am, and following GMTV Westcountry is back on air. The seagulls ident was one of the best-known Westcountry symbols, it was used continuously until 1999.

Westcountry (1993) Initially, Westcountry had six idents. All featured scenes of nature commonplace in the region, though not at any specific location. Some were never seen again. Swans (Abbotsbury Swannery)

Grass Pond Orange Sea

Westcountry (1993) Westcountry unveiled a second set of idents to compliment the existing ones on Mayday Bank Holiday 1993. The ferris wheel was only seen a few times. Amaryllis

Motorbikes Rower Ferris Wheel

Bandsmen 1 Bandsmen 2 Sports Crowd

Bee/Bush Buttercup Shoppers

Westcountry Christmas (1993) On Christmas Eve all other channels adopted festive idents, but Christmas spirit had obviously eluded Westcountry. Then at 7pm, this finally appeared! Note the frosted glass.

Westcountry New Year (1993) Staying in party mood, Westcountry followed up its Christmas look with two designs to welcome in 1994.

Westcountry (1994) As Westcountry entered its second year, viewer opinion warmed to the channel. January 1994 brought another crop of idents featuring mostly winter scenes. From 1996, "Fire" was used as an alternate night-time ident.

Sailing Boats Sleigh Snow branch 1

Snow branch 2 Ice Fire

Westcountry World Cup '94 (1994) England may not have qualified, but Westcountry still marked the first ever World Cup to be staged in the USA in the summer.

Westcountry (1994) This unusual ident wasn't used for very long and often appeared before young people's programmes. Once it was played out in full when "The Littlest Hobo" failed to start.

Westcountry New Year (1994) Once Christmas was over the party continued, with two idents to welcome in the new year. The designs first appeared in 1993 with frosted glass.

Westcountry (1995) Baby it's cold outside...and Westcountry's new idents for early 1995 presented some chilly images of the countryside. Snowy branch (start-up) Pine branch Man walking dog Logs on fire

Westcountry Movies (1995) In January 1995, Westcountry introduced special idents to proceed movies. They featured activity you'd see in a cinema and were distinctive because the "W" was not used. Popcorn Big Screen Projectionist Ticket Machine Ticket Punch Night-time

Westcountry (1995) New idents introduced 16 March 1995 included a tortoise, daffodils and primroses (left).   Primroses

Bird Feeder Cows (start-up) Daffodils

Tortoise

Westcountry Rugby World Cup (1995) ITV's second Rugby World Cup from South Africa was Westcountry's first. Enter some stock footage of a schoolboy rugby match to celebrate the tournament.

Westcountry VE Day (1995) Westcountry's presentation department was in patriotic mood, celebrating 50 years since the end of WWII. Which is more than could be said for BBC1...

Westcountry (1995) Summer's here and the time is right for some very sunny views of the region. Rape field

Calm Sea Cottages Swimmer

Westcountry (1995) Come the autumn, a series of timely images featured in Westcountry's idents. Leaves 1 Leaves 2 (start-up - left) Flowers in stream Children playing in leaves

Westcountry Christmas (1995) For Christmas, a new series of designs were used between December 23-26. However, the glass panel was not frosted. Ident A

Ident B Ident C Ident D

Ident E Ident F

Westcountry New Year (1995) The previous Hogmanay idents remained, but this one was added to make up the numbers. Apologies for the noise lines caused by my faulty VCR!

Westcountry Night-time (1996) Having initially taken Granada's overnight service, Westcountry showed its own late programmes from 1996. The ident was introduced two years earlier and shows "Colour And Form", an exhibit at that Tate in Cornwall.

Westcountry (1996) A very wintry scene from this ident, first shown in December 1994.

Westcountry Euro '96 (1996) Westcountry celebrates the championships with two idents showing the universal appeal of football.

Westcountry (1997) The only significant change to Westcountry idents was the addition of an opening animation in 1997. A series of diagonal lines drew the "W", which otherwise remained the same. Rain Rower Autumn Leaves Flowers/stream Ropes Water Wheel Orange Tide

Westcountry Christmas A (1997) An animated start to the Christmas idents, but only two of the original designs were used. This is the first.

Westcountry Christmas B (1997) The second of Westcountry's festive intros for 1997.

Westcountry New Year A (1998) The familiar balloons made their final appearance to welcome in 1998 on Westcountry, now with animated start. New Year 1999 was not celebrated (I wonder why?!)

Westcountry New Year B (1998) Instead of champagne Westcountry treated us to disco lights for the alternating New Year sequence.

Westcountry (1998) More of the familiar Ws were modified to include the animated intro in early 1998. Several remained in service for the rest of the year. Cows Man Walking Dogs Leaves In Pond Seagulls

Westcountry (1998) In May 1998 Westcountry revived its idents from Summer 1995 and gave them the animated treatment. Green Tide Calm Sea Cottages

Westcountry World Cup (1998) Haven't we seen this before, I hear you cry? Well not quite. Instead of a souvenir Euro '96 football, the player is practising with a plain blue one.

Westcountry World Cup Break Bumper (1998) An imaginitive variation of the usual sting. Instead of a red card the referee gives us a blue one, with a big "W" on it!

Westcountry Christmas (1998) We didn't know it at the time, but this was Westcountry's final season to be jolly. Just one snowy design, which could easily have been mistaken for a Winter ident.

Westcountry (1999) The final set of Westcountry idents was broadcast from Monday 8th March.   Ident A Ident A (Extended version) Ident B Ident B (14: 9 version) Ident C

Westcountry (1999) Three months later, the start of a trend. Westcountry were among the first broadcasters to add a URL to idents. (Except it wasn't their own but Carlton's!) Ident A Ident B Ident C Ident D Ident E

Westcountry Main Ident (1999) And finally...the amended version of Westcountry's sea ident, now also sporting the URL.

Production Captions

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