Perfect circle

I reckon the new BBC1 idents are absolutely smashing.

Bright, colourful, exciting and imaginative, they’re quite possibly the best ones since – well, since a long time. The current bunch of “dancers”, depsite being based a neat concept, quickly lost their appeal by virtue of being so bland. Once you’d seen them a few times they became boring and predictable. There were too many faces, doing too many carefully chereographed stunts and shenanigans, and they ultimately ended up losing impact and resonance by dint of being too forced and stylised.

The floating globes were better, albeit somewhat curmudgeonly, because they commanded a sense of authority and dignity. They called attention to themselves without going over-the-top, and could establish an atmosphere befitting whatever programme they were preceding. They also gave you some space to think.

This new set, however, could be even better thanks to the way they combine that essence of authority with a quirky, almost cheeky imagination that doesn’t especially rely on faces or places to set a tone.

They get a resounding thumbs-up as far as this writer is concerned, and even better, the idents are debuting the day BBC1 launches its killer double bill of Saturday night entertainment, Robin Hood and Strictly Come Dancing.