Concept and creative process
Designer Paul D’Auria, working in collaboration with Mike McGee at Framestore, produced a series of eight different openers for 'The Ben Elton Show', all of which were spoofs based on the current BBC balloon idents. In addition, he pirated the BBC One onscreen logo and seamlessly replaced it in vision by means of a neat animation to read 'The Ben Elton Show'. In the eighth and final ident of the series, the balloon is joined in a grand finale over a mountain and lake landscape by the whole cast of the earlier idents in the series; the BBC2 Blade, the road narrowing sign, the host of other balloons queuing to change lane, the Jumbo Jet and the police balloon.