BBC Two launch ident

However, 35 minutes before the new channel went on air, a power failure spread through most of London, affecting BBC Television Centre, where BBC2's programme control was based.

This animation is accompanied by a trumpeted fanfare, composed by Freddie Phillips, and which was based on the morse code translation of 'B-B-C-2'.

[3] In addition to all of this, BBC2 used in-vision continuity for at least the first few months of its existence, broadcasting the announcer in studio Pres B, Television Centre.

The studio featured a desk with BBC2 branding with the day appearing on the wall behind, as well as highlights of the upcoming programmes.

The main one used from BBC2's launch, but dropped with the advent of colour (but continued in regions that still had monochrome until 1976), was Test Card E. The ident was reused during Afternoon Classics in 2013, on BBC Two, and made its last appearance in December 2016.

More recently, on 20 April 2024, it was reused in the link preceding 60 Years of Songs, a special programme on the night of the channel's sixtieth anniversary.