Concept and creative process
The Circles campaign was launched in 2006 as a replacement for the ‘Rhythm and Movement’ series of channel idents that had been in use since 2004. The change was driven by the new schedule introduced by BBC One Channel Controller Peter Fincham and marked in a small way a return to the channel’s heritage of the circular globe. The creative brief was to devise and film sequences of people, plants, machines and animals which ended in a circular image incorporating the new BBC One logo. It was one that gave free rein to the imagination and resulted in a memorable series of channel idents which were used successfully throughout the decade. The ident ‘Ring o’ Roses’ was also known as ‘Petals’ and proved so popular that it also ran for a decade. The scenario involved a group of children playing with some natural flowers in a meadow before joining hands to form a 'ring-o’-roses' dance. The ‘magic moment’ that each ident had to have at the point when people or things came together to form a circle, had the red poppy petals falling down from the sky like confetti rather than rising up from the ground. The sequence was filmed in a natural flower meadow in Northamptonshire.
Creative Idea - Charlie Mawer, Jacquie Beaumont and Darren Young.
Producer - Ella Littlewood.
Director - Stuart Douglas.