Noddy (camera)

[2][3] The most famous idents captured by the Noddy system were the BBC One mirrored globes used between 1969 and 1985, albeit with minor colour changes.

[2] The original globe ident introduced on 15 November 1969 featured blue continents and logo against a black background.

[6] The globe ident was modified in January 1972 to include a new BBC logo with rounded corners and an italic serif font for the 'Colour' legend.

[2][3][5] On 5 September 1981, the display was altered to green continents over a dark blue background with a double-striped BBC1 legend in white.

This led to a number of odd variations: the tip of South Africa, the Cape Fold Mountains, was pointed in some 1981 models, and the Pacific islands were more pronounced in others.

BBC Wales, who produced the show, was able to use its original globe model to recreate the ident more faithfully, also including period appropriate dual language branding and continuity announcers from that era.

The clock was mechanical, and featured numerals indicated by double lines that increased in thickness the further round the clockface.

The globe was retired because of the fact it was the only live mechanical model used on television and the maintenance required was making it difficult to use; even the 1981 rebrand caused a number of difficulties such as bad positioning, odd colours, and other errors.

[3][11] The Noddy system was abandoned with the globe, as all idents and clocks were now electronically generated, and as a result the equipment was not needed.

The acronym NODD was first recorded in a web forum related to TV presentation, where an author not connected with the BBC claimed it stood for Nexus Orthicon Display Device.

With the advent of colour, this was replaced with a Rank Cintel slide scanner, electronically similar to a flying spot telecine machine.