ARCHIVE TV ADVENT CALENDAR DAY SIXTEEN: 16 December 1989

Arena Animal Night (BBC2).

TITLE CARD: 'Animal Night' appears in glowing pink text against a stormy night sky backdrop

An early example of a BBC2 theme night (pre-dating A Night From TV Hell by three whole years), the long-running documentary strand teaming up with Spitting Image Productions to introduce an evening of films of various animals, closing off with a debate programme on animal rights. The framing device: Noah’s Ark, except the beardy sailboat proprietor isn’t as nice to the animals as legend would have it.

SCREENCAP: A stormy night sea, atop which is an ark. Probably a very famous ark.

The full evening isn’t online, but the first couple of minutes are on the Ravensbourne BBC Motion Graphics Archive, and if that’s anything to go by, it’s a hell of a lot of effort they’ve gone into for some linking material.

SCREENCAP: A group of terrified (puppet) animals huddle together

It being on Ravensbourne’s BBC Motion Graphics Archive – a project used to highlight processes used in the formulation of TV title sequences through the decades – there’s also some background information on how it was put together by designer Pete Wane. And if you’ve not been through that site before, go take a look. It’s absolutely marvellous resource.

SCREENCAP: A (Spitting Image puppet) hand throws the famous Arena bottle out of a porthole
NEWSPAPER TV LISTING:
7.20 ARENA ANIMAL NIGHT. 
Spitting Image beasties introduce an entertaining night of films on our furred or feathered chums followed by a serious debate on animal rights. 
7.30 Smashing Pigs. 
8.0 Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. 
8.10 Sacred Elephant. 
8.55 Great Wildlife Presenters . 
9.25 John Daniel the First. 
10.0 Day in the Life of Sam the Dog. 10.25 Trials of Animals. 
11.0 Debate.

Arena Animal Night: Opening Title Sequence

Comments

2 responses to “ARCHIVE TV ADVENT CALENDAR DAY SIXTEEN: 16 December 1989”

  1. Adam Mulvey Avatar
    Adam Mulvey

    that link looks fascinating thanks!

    Like

  2. fishyfisharcade Avatar

    Yeah, that Ravensbourne link it amazing. Thanks so much for bringing my attention to it.

    Like

Leave a Reply