Westcountry Television

01/01/93 - 05/09/99

[ Main | News | Programmes | Continuity | ITV South West Index ]

306 KB

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.

 

263 KB

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.

263 KB Swans (Abbotsbury Swannery)

263 KB

Grass

263 KB

Pond

263 KB

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 263 KB

263 KB

Motorbikes

263 KB

Rower

263 KB

Ferris Wheel

263 KB

Bandsmen 1

263 KB

Bandsmen 2

263 KB

Sports Crowd

263 KB

Bee/Bush

263 KB

Buttercup

263 KB

Shoppers

263 KB

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.

263 KB

Westcountry New Year (1993)

263 KB

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.

263 KB

Sailing Boats

263 KB

Sleigh

263 KB

Snow branch 1

263 KB

Snow branch 2

263 KB

Ice

263 KB

Fire

263 KB

Westcountry World Cup '94 (1994)

263 KB

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

263 KB

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.

263 KB

Westcountry New Year (1994)

263 KB

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.

263 KB Snowy branch (start-up) 263 KB Pine branch
263 KB Man walking dog 263 KB 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.

263 KB Popcorn 263 KB Big Screen 263 KB Projectionist
263 KB Ticket Machine 263 KB Ticket Punch 263 KB Night-time

 Westcountry (1995)

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

 
263 KB Primroses

263 KB

Bird Feeder

263 KB

Cows (start-up)

263 KB

Daffodils

263 KB

Tortoise

306 KB

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.

306 KB

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 263 KB

263 KB

Calm Sea

263 KB

Cottages

263 KB

Swimmer

 Westcountry (1995)

Come the autumn, a series of timely images featured in Westcountry's idents.

263 KB Leaves 1 263 KB Leaves 2 (start-up - left)
263 KB Flowers in stream 263 KB 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  263 KB

263 KB

Ident B

263 KB

Ident C

263 KB

Ident D

263 KB

Ident E

263 KB

Ident F

263 KB

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!

263 KB

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.

263 KB

Westcountry (1996)

A very wintry scene from this ident, first shown in December 1994.

263 KB

Westcountry Euro '96 (1996)

263 KB

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.

263 KB Rain 263 KB Rower 263 KB Autumn Leaves 263 KB Flowers/stream
263 KB Ropes 263 KB Water Wheel 263 KB Orange Tide

263 KB

Westcountry Christmas A (1997)

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

263 KB

Westcountry Christmas B (1997)

The second of Westcountry's festive intros for 1997.

263 KB

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?!)

263 KB

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.

263 KB Cows 263 KB Man Walking Dogs
263 KB Leaves In Pond 263 KB Seagulls

 Westcountry (1998)

In May 1998 Westcountry revived its idents from Summer 1995 and gave them the animated treatment.

263 KB Green Tide 263 KB Calm Sea 263 KB Cottages

263 KB

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.

263 KB

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!

263 KB

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.

 263 KB Ident A 263 KB Ident A (Extended version)
263 KB Ident B 263 KB Ident B (14: 9 version) 263 KB 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!)

263 KB Ident A 263 KB Ident B 263 KB Ident C
263 KB Ident D 263 KB Ident E

263 KB

Westcountry Main Ident (1999)

And finally...the amended version of Westcountry's sea ident, now also sporting the URL.

Production Captions


[ Main | News | Programmes | Continuity | ITV South West Index ]