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London Weekend Television prided itself on making a big impression. With just two-and-a-half days each week to play with, hammering home its identity was seen as crucial both locally in London and nationally on the ITV network. As a result, LWT's idents were generally both powerful and memorable. Click on each image to see video. |
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The 1960s |
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Three
early 'London Weekend' idents used from 1968. The station started with a
rather minimalist approach to identification but this changed with the introduction
of the revolving oval station ident. Click on each image to see video. |
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The 1970s |
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| The 1970s kicked off with a colour version of the oval ident. Some believe the monochrome version of this ident is exactly the same but if you listen carefully the jingles are slightly different. Mark One of the famous river ident appeared by 1972. Each stripe was said to represent each day of the weekend and the shape is based on the course of the River Thames through London. Click on each image to see video. |  |
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Here's a copy of the original score for the famous LWT river ident, composed by Harry Rabinowitz. Click the image on the left a larger version. Many thanks to regular contributor Trish Bertram for digging this out for us. Gavin Sutherland has the original and we thank him for giving us permission to use a copy on this site. |
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The 1980s |
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| 1979 saw a revision of the river ident and the introduction of 'LWT'. The 3D logo was introduced in 1983 for local use only and a 'neon' version of the LWT ident was introduced for use in late night junctions. Click on each image to see video. |  |
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A new local and network
ID in 1986 introduced red, white and blue on a white background. The
company came of age in 1989 and commissioned a special set of anniversary
idents. It then adopted the corporate ITV look which remained until 1991.Click on each image to see video. |
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The 1990s |
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London
Weekend Television was never averse to dual-branding with 'ITV' but the
station appeared to get itchy feet with the corporate look and soon returned
its own brand name to star billing with these two powerful computer generated
idents which ran for five years. Click on each image to see video. |
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In
1996, LWT tweaked its logo, dropping the three stripes and designating each
letter with a solid colour. Here we present the main ident plus variants
for soccer and formula one motor racing.Click on each image to see video. |
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This
lavish and versatile station logo was adapted in several ways, including
an angled variant used as a holding (or cycling) ident for pre-commercial
break announcements. There was also a package of 30th anniversary versions
of the ident used throughout the birthday weekend in August 1998. Also here is the Christmas variant. Click on each image to see video. |
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| ITV's next attempt at corporate branding across the network was introduced in January 1999. The 'hearts' look was criticised by many and it certainly seemed bland compared to LWT's usual impressive efforts. It just wasn't upbeat enough for the weekend contractor and was changed for the more exciting 'videowall idents' after just one year. Click on each image to see video. |  |
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Before the introduction of the corporate 'hearts' look in 1999, several experimental test versions of the ident were produced although not aired. This LWT example is interesting but, in reality, couldn't be less appropriate for a station like LWT. A grey, windswept, rural scene couldn't be less London Weekend if it tried! On the right is the Christmas ident variant used in 1999/2000. Click on each image to see video. |
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2000-2002 |
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| The 'videowalls' ran from 2000 to 2002. Here we present the main ident; the F1 variant; and an 'obituary' version, all from 2000. Click on each image to see video. |  |
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LWT Breakflashes - 1970s to 1998 |
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Also
known as opticals or break-bumpers these short animations were used before
or between advertisement breaks on London Weekend Television from the
early 1970s until 1999 (when the ITV hearts breakbumper was introduced).
They are all very short so we've collected them together and slowed them
down a bit in this video file. |
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| LWT disappeared as an on-air brand on October 28 2002 when ITV bosses decided to introduce a unified on-air look across the country. It seems a shame that such a distinctive and valuable television brand should be consigned to the scrapheap although it looks highly unlikely that it will ever return to our screens. |
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